First of all,
we must recognize that not all of the African Americans who had been slaves reacted in the same
way after the Civil War made them free. Different individuals reacted in different ways, and
there were even some former slaves who stayed with their former owners. However, for the most
part, the ex-slaves exerted their freedom by doing the things that they had not been able to do
under slavery.
One thing that many ex-slaves did was to exercise their right
to work for themselves. The freedmen tended to try to do whatever they could to have economic
autonomy. They tried to get land to farm for themselves. Those who had trades tried to set up
in business. They tried to avoid being dominated by other people economically.
A second thing that the freed slaves did was to claim their religious freedom. In
slavery, black religious rights had been severely curtailed because whites were afraid that
black church services would be used as ways for slaves to meet and plan escapes or rebellions.
The whites also wanted churches to convey the right message about slavery. When the African
Americans became free, they created their own churches that would be free from white
control.
Perhaps the most important thing that the ex-slaves did was to
create their own official families. Under slavery, black families had no standing and no
rights. Slave marriages were not officially recognized under the law. Slaveowners could and
did break up families by selling wives, husbands, and children when it was economically
advantageous for them to do so. After emancipation, African Americans wanted to have families
that could be stable and secure. Many of them tried to find loved ones from whom they had been
separated. They rebuilt their families and tried to make sure that they would be able to live
together as families should.
In all of these ways, the freed slaves tried to
exert their new-found freedom after the Civil War.
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