Question

What did most freed slaves do during the period immediately following the Civil War

Answer 1

One of the immediate aftermaths of the civil war by slaves was that slaves in the South seized land from their slave owners; however federal troops returned the land to the white owners. Hundreds and thousands of slaves freed after the civil war after the civil war died out of diseases and hunger after being liberated. Union soldiers neglected freed slaves who faced widespread outbreaks of cholera and smallpox while others starved to death.  It is estimated that a quarter of the four million slaves died either out of diseases or starvation. Several slaves knew nothing except for their lives of servitude on the plantations and, with their newfound freedom, couldn't find new opportunities thus opted to remain on these farms.

Answer 2

When the 13th Amendment was ratified by all states and slavery ended officially, life did not get easier for African Americans. Many of the brutalities against them persisted, Southern States passed a series of laws that made life difficult for them, they were unable to serve on juries, testify against whites, serve in state militias. Since most of African Americans did not know how to read or write, many of them remained poor due sharecropping and tenant farming, that mostly maintained the same structure as slavery.