THE NEGRO AT THE CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR J
a reasonably short time many individuals might
attain economic independence. Wages were high
after the war; the cost of living was not great in
the South and the Negro’s expenses for the neces-
sities of life were not heavy; land was a “drug on
the market” and could be purchased for a mere
fraction of its former value. If the weaknesses of
the Negro could be strengthened, if he could at
once take advantage of the opportunities offered,
his place in the social organization would be
better assured.
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION
What was the actual condition of the Negro
population when “Freedom cried out”? An ex-
amination of the conditions surrounding the race
during the latter years of the war and in 1865
will lead to a better understanding of the eco-
nomic difficulties that it had to solve, and will
help to a better appreciation of the possibilities
of the Freedmen’s Bank system. It must be re-
membered that, although the mass of the Ne-
groes was not free until after the surrender of the
Confederate armies, large numbers of them had
before that time passed through a transition
stage toward freedom. In North and South in
1860 there were half a million free Negroes, many
of whom had acquired property. The Federal
army, as it invaded the South, gave practical
freedom to many thousand slaves in the border
states and in the theatres of war. During the
first year of war these “contrabands,” as they
were frequently called, were employed as labor-
ers in the Federal camps and on the military