" (Fort, 1)

To an extent, freedom could not be experienced until it was understood. And yet, the utopian multiracialism that we might like to attribute to the post Civil War era would hardly be accurate. Instead, the period of Reconstruction bred hardship for the nation, for the South and especially for freed slaves. As Fountain Hughes tells in his narrative, "we had no home, you know. We was jus' turned out like a lot of cattle. You know how they turn cattle out in a pasture? Well after freedom, you know, colored people didn' have nothing." (Fort, 1) This is a compelling point to close on as it dispels the myth that slaves were immediately granted opportunities comporting to those of their white counterparts. The end of the Civil War would be the beginning of a new struggle for identity and a foothold in the context of freedom. The...
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