Although they rejoiced at their emancipation, many also felt fearful and confused about what lay ahead. A scene Miss Jane describes early in the novel is typical of what many newly freed slaves experienced. "What's we to do?" one slave asks on hearing that they have been freed.
"Slavery over, let's get moving," somebody said. "Let's stay," somebody else said. "See if old Master go'n act different when it's freedom." "Y'all do like y'all want," I said. "I'm headed North." I turned to leave, but I stopped. "Which way North?" (Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, p. 13)
For a group that had been forced into dependency on white masters for hundreds of years, the transition to freedom was difficult. In fact, the prospect of leaving home to start a new life was often too much for former slaves. While some moved out of the South, many chose to stay in the same area-sometimes even on the same plantation-where they had worked as slaves; others returned after failed attempts at starting anew. Although these freedmen and freedwomen often performed the same functions they had before emancipation-plowing fields, picking cotton, cooking meals, caring for white children-they were paid for their work (in land, harvest, or wages) and expected to pay for their food and shelter.
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