Prosperous Blacks in the South, 1790-1880
Author(s): Loren Schweninger
Source: The American Historical Review , Feb., 1990, Vol. 95, No. 1 (Feb., 1990), pp. 31-
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Interesting observation is that postbellum South put freedmen at an economic advantage. Their white counterparts, if they survived the war, were likely to come back disabled or otherwise impaired. Freedmen had not been sent into combat; at most they had dug fortifications.
Land was also much cheaper after the war. Without slaves to work the land, it was not worth as much, thus making it more affordable to freedmen who saved their wages.
Many antebellum free blacks had lost their slaves. Without those slaves, their landholdings declined in value, and many suffered the depredations of war to their properties.
I'm sure that putting a sign up at the entrance to your farm "[Black[ owned Farm" gave as much protection during that unpleasantness as it did in Capitol Hill Seattle, Washington, or Ferguson Missouri did more recently
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