Ok, (Trying to figure it out here in the old brain) were the men not free when they joined up? Were they just not free because they were in the service or because of another reason? I can't give the source because I'm old and can't remember where it was but I do remember reading somewhere that it was easier for a Black man to become a sailor or work as jobbers at the ports than it was for other jobs they might want. If the miilitary was so open to having Blacks in the ranks, why were they still segregated during WWII? Just wondering. We have some residents here in town who were real pioneers in that area. That little town in Alabama that had the Black college had some mighty fine airmen but they didn't have it all that easy in the acceptance department.

It was pretty clear that the end of slavery was coming even had the war not been fought. The industrial age was upon us and the sharecropper system that did happen would have happened anyway. You may not agree with that but that's my take on it.

Not too sure about the 40 acres and a mule thing though. Unless land was given in a grant for former military service or as part of the early immigration deals, most whites had to buy or rent land. That probably would have been the case for former slaves had the Feds not passed out land they stole. One point many people fail to understand is that the real cause of ill feelings in the South was not the reason for war, not caused by the surrender. It was the use of Martial Law. The restriction of the freedom of assembly right and the deluge of carpetbaggers who flaunted the surrender in their faces. Don't think for one minute that any Southerner, not just Black ones, has not felt the sting of prejudice. We are still getting the needles stuck to us on a regular basis.

Pam