An African American folk saying declares, “Our God can make a way out of no way. . . . He can do anything but fail.”  Many slaves felt that freedom was to be their way out. For many, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery. Without money, skills or education many former slaves were forced to remain on the plantations, working as sharecroppers.

White southerners reacted to the new status of their former slaves in ways reflecting various attitudes: bitterness towards the North, resentment towards the former bondsmen, or desire to be rid of blacks in the South altogether. One popular myth among southern whites was that blacks were happier as slaves, and that the abolitionists did slaves no favor in freeing them.

Here is a collection of photographs of those former slaves.

Black History