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Freed Slaves and Land Ownership
What did freed slaves received after the Civil War and Emancipation? What were the realities for freed slaves when it came to wanting their own land to cultivate? These and other questions will be addressed in this paper.
The Literature on Freed Blacks and Land Ownership after the Civil War
After the war, freed slaves had to struggle to adjust to their new lives away from the shackles of slavery. They wanted to break into "…emerging industrial occupations" but that was difficult because laws were passed in the South to "restrict the mobility of newly freed slaves" (Work in America, p. 9). What actions did freed slaves take after the Civil War? The book, Work in America, explains that they "did not suffer meekly" but instead they attempted to organize themselves into a kind of union (9). An example of a union formed by freed slaves was the Workingman's Association in Pensacola, Florida. Another union, called the Colored National labor Union, petitioned the national...
These petitions were "ignored" by the federal government the book asserts. Instead, the evil system of sharecropping was instituted in the South, in which planters basically "…rented out the land to freed slaves" and the planters and landowners "…took the rent from future earnings from the land" (Work in America, 9).
Eugene LaCorbiniere writes that after the slaves were freed they were promised forty acres and a mule. This would in effect be "reparations in the form of land ownership" due to the terrible treatment Africans received upon being brought to American in chains and force to perform work so the settlers could profit (LaCorbiniere, 2007). The Special Field Order No. 15 passed on January 16, 1865, authorized freed blacks to receive lands -- and land was to be given to the head of each black household, LaCorbiniere explains. Some 40,000 freed slaves were given about 500,000 acres of "discarded Confederate land" -- this was called the Freedman's Bureau -- but according to LaCorbiniere, the decision to give 40 acres to freed slaves was reversed by Congress in 1866. In fact President Andrew Johnson ordered "…all land under federal control…
Economics: An Introduction to Traditional and Progressive Views. Armonk, NY: M.E.
Sharpe.
Work in America: A-M, Volume 1 (2003). Santa Barbara, CA. Page 9.
Free were the Ancient Greeks to Live their Lives as they Chose? The period covered by the term 'Ancient Greece' is a long one, encompassing the Mycenaean period and the subsequent so-called 'Dark Age' (c.1600-900 B.C.), the Archaic Period (c.900-480 B.C.), the Classical period (c.480-323 B.C.) and the Hellenistic period (c. 323-146 B.C.). This essay will discuss the Mycenaean, Archaic and Classical periods, using the literature of some of the
William Penn, a Quaker whose father had been an Admiral in the King's Royal Navy, was given a large piece of land as payment for a debt owed by the Crown to his father. Penn had suggested naming the new territory Sylvania, meaning wood, but the King added his surname, Penn, as a tribute to William's father (Uden). Penn considered his venture a "Holy Experiment" and sought to establish
Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Jane Austen's Mansfield Park actually share a number of themes relating to the centrality of land in the formation of eighteenth and nineteenth century conceptions of rural virtue, politics, and property. Crusoe's South American island could not be farther from the staid environs of Mansfield Park, but the same tension between rural virtue and worldly interests permeates both stories, particularly in regards to Crusoe's
Shaping of the Colonies in 1763 There have been few eras in human history possessed with more of the expectant optimism, and the grim pragmatism, than the century following first contact with the new world of North America. With an expansive landmass, the size of which more than doubled that known to citizens of any European country at the time, brimming with natural resources and lying open for exploration and settlement,
Also, a son could marry, for Roman law had never recognized monogamous sexual relationships between slaves. Sons could also inherit property, and this possibility of inheritance was another instrument of power used by fathers against their sons. A son who had been emancipated could marry without the consent of his father. The relationship between father and son was known as "patria potestas" or the rights given to a father
Slavery pattern in North America took a funny trend since initially the blacks had some social positions and had a voice in the running of the community. This however later changed and the North also started to own slaves at a higher rate. There are several factors that led to this change in events in the north that made it to fancy slavery just as much as the South was