> <snip>
> How much discussion was there in the 18th and pre-Civil War 19th century
about the
> mechanics of earning a living for manumitted slaves? By this I mean did
anyone
> actually work out on paper or in practice how freed slaves were to be
integrated
> into the local economy?
<snip>
I don't think there was an integration into the economy in many parts.  My
late Mother-in-law's family near Woodville, Mississippi lost most of
everything during the Civil War and their money was worthless after the
Confederacy surrendered.  Her Grandmother used mealy flour to bake biscuits
to feed chickens to get eggs, for example.  Their slaves declined to leave
their quarters on the property and declined to work after being freed,
except to garden a little for their own table.  Therefore, the family tried
to scrape together enough to support the old loyal hands on the place.  The
younger ones drifted off after they became old enough to seek something for
themselves and often share-cropped as farming was about all they knew.  The
family never had a large plantation with specialized training in
brick-making, brick-laying, saddlery, etc, as some of the Virginia planters
may have had, so they really had few skills other than farming.

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