Reconstruction For Former Slaves

During Reconstruction some former slaves were afraid to leave the plantations they had spent their lives working on. They were afraid because working on those plantations was all they knew how to do. Some were excited to leave their plantations because they wanted to get away from their former slave lives. But all the former slaves shared one feeling and it was nervousness. They were nervous about the world and how they would have to change to live in it. Once the former slaves got more comfortable with their freedoms they started to travel to cities and towns to find jobs and start their new lives. Many former slaves searched for separated family members and loved ones to try and reunite their families. Former slaves also exercised their right to marry their loves legally. All former slaves, young and old, sought education because nearly 80% of former slaves 20 and over could not read or write. Former slaves also began church and volunteer groups to finally start developing their leadership skills after being a follower for all these years.

Former slaves supposedly had more rights after being freed but had no means of making money and nowhere to live. Because of the lack of housing and ability to support themselves, freed slaves often died from disease and starvation. Former slaves usually ended up turning back to plantation work because it was the only job that was widely offered to them. Former slaves, however, did begin educating themselves to aid in creating a better life.

Former slaves gathering after the Civil War as free men.

Slavery was outlawed but Black Codes were enacted in many southern states. Black codes required liberated slaves to provide proof of a job or they could be forced back into plantation work. Lives of former slaves, therefore, hardly improved during the “presidential reconstruction”. They were ridiculed and often beaten in public and were excluded from many of the whites’ opportunities. 

Following the Civil War, most former slaves continued to work on plantations for white land owners. This work, however, was now rewarded with a small wage. Former slaves also now controlled their own personal lives and many women chose to leave filed labor and take care of their families. Families were no longer torn apart by auctions and children were able to attend school and didn’t have to work field labor.

Radical reconstruction in the South caused much debate throughout the nation. Radical reconstruction gave former slave males the right to vote and, if happens, the right to take offices. This new freedom angered many white southerners, causing even greater enmity across the south. Many former slaves were physically abused, often causing serious injury or death, or had their property destroyed by southern whites who disagreed with radical reconstruction. As a result of the abuse, five military districts were placed throughout the south help protect former slaves and their families. This protection, however, was not large enough to protect the many former slaves living in the south.

Article in an 1866 newspaper following the
passage of the Civil Rights Bill

Although former slaves gained freedom following the Civil War, they lacked money, proper education, and opportunity for work. Many former slaves took to the road in search of jobs in Southern towns and cities, while other left in search of loved ones who had been sold and separated from them. With the help of public and private organizations, African-Americans established institutions which aimed to educate the illiterate majority of former slaves and provide job opportunities.


Reconstruction had offered prospects for equality to former slaves, but the eventual collapse of Reconstruction resulted in segregation and discrimination, both socially and politically, for African Americans. Despite these setbacks, reconstruction also resulted in a number of victories for former slaves. Passages of laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fifteenth Amendment prohibited states from passing Black Codes and granted African-American men the right to vote. Although granted freedom, former slaves still faced discrimination and poverty following Reconstruction.