Introduction
Following President Andrew Johnson’s directive during the summer of 1865 that ordered the return of land initially distributed to freed slaves to their original owners, a committee of freed men wrote a petition requesting for the right to own land. It is through Major General O.O .Howard that the former slaves learnt that the government had plans to evict them in order to give the land to the original owners. In the petition the freed slaves pleaded with the authorities to consider the interests of the colored race as they made a decision pertaining to the question. According to the freed slaves, South Carolina was the only home they knew. It is in this place that they were born, nurtured and toiled for their entire lives as slaves. They wanted the government to consider them as loyal citizens of the union with equal rights of land ownership. In their opinion, land monopoly was a major block to the course of freedom and liberty.
Johnson did not give full regard to the terms of the petition but changed the policy. In the new policy, a contract was to be signed between freed men and Thomas Joss. This saw very few freed men owning land after the civil war. The terms of the contact were that the freed men would work in the plantations and at the harvest; they would get a share of the crop. In the course of their service they were supposed to toil for one dollar in a day and respect the instructions of Thomas Ross. This resulted into most of the freed men working as sharecroppers who worked in the white-owned plantations.
Work cited
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. Print.
