ee labor" versus slavery contained a transition that few in the south were willing to accommodate. Planters went from owning blacks as property, to negotiating a wage in exchange for their labor. Although blacks were declared free, some were required to sign a yearly contract that promised service to one planter. If a free black chose not to sign the contract, he was intimidated into signing. The underlying message was clear, sign or have you and your family live in constant fear of abuse. With these contracts, planters tightened authority and presided over all details of the lives of blacks. Blacks were closely supervised to the point that the pace of work they desired was routinely challenged. The freedmen were persuaded to sign the contract in order to preserve the labor system that had been prevalent in the South. "By voluntarily signing and adhering to contracts, both planters and freedmen would develop the habits of a free labor economy and come to understand their fundamental harmony of interests"(p.75). The Southern white planters would determine these interests. The contracts themselves bound the freedmen into a continued extorted form of slavery. At harvest time, most planters did not pay the blacks their earned wages. Blacks would labor the entire season only to be left with the feeling of desperation that was identical to slavery. Some contracts stipulated that if a crop failed the blacks would receive nothing and fines could be charged against their wages if the planter determined the work was unsatisfactory. Some contracts allowed the planter to penalize full wages accrued if the freedmen left work. On some plantations physical brutality and corporal punishment continued as if slavery never ended. "The overall goal for equal treatment for the freedmen was contradicted as "idle white men" were never required to sign a labor contract" (p.76). The South wanted the amenities that the North had, as long as the primary s...
