However, they "were too few in number to provide adequate protection and were not always themselves fully committed to ensuring justice for freed blacks" (Cary Royce 67). The American public wanted reform to happen but few people were actually willing to risk their position in society by supporting black people. As a consequence, former slaves were provided with little support and were practically forced to maintain many of their attributes as slaves despite the fact that they were free.

Works cited:

Berlin, Ira, et al. "The Terrain of Freedom: The Struggle over the Meaning of Free Labor in the U.S. South." History Workshop Journal 22 (1986)

Cary Royce, Edward, the origins of southern sharecropping, (Temple University Press, 1993)

Fast, Howard, Freedom Road (Armonk, NY M.E. Sharpe, 1995)

An Interdisciplinary Bibliography, 1865-1980 an Interdisciplinary Bibliography, 1865-1980, vol. 1 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982)

Lanza, Michael, L. Agrarianism and Reconstruction Politics: The...
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