Question.3497 - Question: After 250 years of slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation freed millions of slaves. While freedom had come and was greatly accepted among majority of slaves, for some slaves and masters alike it was difficult to accept. In thinking about the text please answer the following questions: 1. Why was the concept of freedom more difficult to accept for some rather than others? 2. How did the freedom of slaves impact the community among African Americans in terms of education, class, and status? 3. How effective was the Freedom Bureau? How successful was it in assisting ex-slaves to live in freedom?
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Question: After 250 years of slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation freed millions of slaves. While freedom had come and was greatly accepted among majority of slaves, for some slaves and masters alike it was difficult to accept. In thinking about the text please answer the following questions: 1. Why was the concept of freedom more difficult to accept for some rather than others? 2. How did the freedom of slaves impact the community among African Americans in terms of education, class, and status? 3. How effective was the Freedom Bureau? How successful was it in assisting ex-slaves to live in freedom? After the Emancipation Proclamation, the transition to freedom was really complex and challenging together for the former slaves and their masters. Some faced difficulty in accepting the new reality because of deeply ingrained social structures and economic dependencies (p. 10-11). For the slaves who had only idea of bondage, the concept of freedom to them was abstract and daunting. When many masters viewed slaves as an essential part to their livelihood and social status, they resisted themselves from relinquishing their power and property. On African American communities, freedoms impact was multifaceted. New opportunities for education and social mobility were built. On the other hand, class divisions were exposed. While some former slaves quickly pursued education and entrepreneurship, others faced extreme difficulty in adapting and poverty (p. 40-41) which led to stratification within African American society depending on education, skills, and economic status. The Freedmen's Bureau had mixed success in assisting former slaves. Though it provided some vital services which are like education and legal aid but its efforts were often underfunded and met with resistance from Southern whites (p. 13-14). The most significant shortcoming of the Bureau's was it failed to secure widespread land ownership for former slaves; why so as it has provided a crucial economic foundation. Many former slaves were left in a precarious economic position instead, who were forced into sharecropping and other exploitative labor arrangements that perpetuated cycles of poverty (p. 15-16). References Mehrsa Baradaran. (2017). The Color of Money?: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap. Belknap Press.More Articles From Others
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