Crossroads Of Oppression's End:Liberty Or Greater Tyranny-Part Two

The sudden freeing of slaves on a resentful White populace in the South and a prejudiced populace in the North caused much antagonisms. It caused nearly all states to pass discriminatory laws against Blacks. No time was given to Whites to mentally adjust to their expected accommodation of Blacks.

Many freed slaves were good farmhands. However as the South was beginning its transition from an agrarian power to an industrial one due to the onset of the industrial revolution, the freed slaves were not capable in making a proper economic contribution to society. Most slaves (two-thirds to three quarters) picked cotton and tobacco. The literacy rates and productive skill set proficiency were very low for most freed slaves. As the vast majority of them also lacked managerial capabilities in agriculture, their foray into sharecropping in the next 60-70 years met very limited success. They had never received the high levels of training needed to generate productive yields.

Pets cannot be totally released from captivity immediately without transition. Neither can zoo animals be released into the wild in full immediately without transition. POWs cannot be kicked out of prison without provisions of adjustment. There has to instead be a phase-in period! Yet there was none in the abolition of slavery. 

Slave owners, just like pet owners, were masters. However they still had the responsibility to take care of their property. When President Lincoln suddenly released the slaves, most slave owners adapted the belief that they were absolved of that responsibility. They thereby forced the slaves to leave their premises as their farms and/or plantations were no longer normally producing because of the US Civil War and the Union blockade of the South. This caused the death of 250,000 freed slaves from 1863-1870. The consequences were heinous.