Slaves had to create new names for themselves because their names in slavery were based around who owned them. Some slaves had to trek hundreds of miles to get to their families. The end of slavery was the best thing that ever came to slaves but the hardest thing to get adjusted to. The next document is a petition from a convention in Virginia to expose how blacks were treated in America, before and after the Civil War. Blacks are not being treated as citizens of the United States. Their freedom caused a nation to split and go to war. They also helped fight for their own freedom and now being free is impossible because the citizens of the United States are not recognizing them as free. How could the former slaves be treated as an equal from their former master. …show more content…
The blacks have to be formally recognized by the Constitution as free. The Southerners will not recognize them as free for a long time so the federal government needs to help