Arsenio Jordan
Before the civil war began slavery and white supremacy violence hindered any chance of African-American development. However after the civil war ended we find that slavery has now demolished and African-American labor takes its place. Black people were no longer considered slaves but rather as pension earners. They now had the option to leave a lifestyle of captivity and violence and start a new life or continue to work on the fields and receive minimum wage. Although most of the black people shunned the idea of leaving behind an enslaved lifestyle that offered free food and shelter. The trend of these former slaves now working for money was part of the blueprints for building African-American development. Unfortunately white supremacy violence still lingered long after the civil war and groups such as the Klu Klux Klan still terrorized black people. However white supremacy violence could no longer be used in a sense of ownership towards a black person but rather a form of terrorism. This served as a controlling mechanism to slow and eventually end any form of development in the negro society. This sparked the fall of the reconstruction era. To elaborate more on this I will first use text from “When I Was A Slave Edited by Norman Yetman” and then I will go into “Southern Horrors Edited by Jacqueline Jones Royster”.
In the book “When I Was A Slave Edited by Norman Yetman” the reader will encounter actual recorded memoirs of former slaves being interviewed about their previous life in captivity. Many of them shared their heartache of horrendous torture. However they also explained a self-sustainable beneficial lifestyle that would impact the decisions they made later. Former slave Mary Anderson was one of the many that were interviewed about life as a slave. At the age of 86 when interviewed she mentions the benefits of having good food and homemade clothing. This is definitely a factor of living in a self-sustainable work culture. The slaves made their own clothes so they never needed money to buy any. They also knew how to grow crops and cook their own food.
This was all part of the work they had to do for their slave masters. Then she describes everyday life on the plantation as not being so bad when she quotes “Slaves received good treatment from Marster and all of his family”(Yetman pg.2). Finally she goes in to explain how things changed suddenly after the civil war broke out and the Yankees freeing the slaves. The aftermath of that would be when she quotes ”Some were so glad to get back they cried, 'cause fare had been mighty bad part of the time they were rambling around and they were hungry” (Yetman pg.4). Mary basically states that after the civil war ended the slaves were free to go. Although money and food was hard to come by as well as shelter. This eventually made them come back to the plantation. This clearly represents the transition from slavery to labor work. It was the failure of trying to live in the outside world without the resources given that led slaves back to the field where they could get them back. Not to mention get paid for their work also.
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