From slave to landowner : how black farmers used tenant farming as a stepping stone Nelson County, Virginia 1865-1910

Author:
Harris, Martha Terrell, Department of History, University of Virginia
Advisor:
Ayers, Edward, History, University of Virginia
Abstract:

Pleasant Wood worked as a slave on a farm in Nelson County, Virginia until he was twenty-eight years old. The end of the Civil War and the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments abruptly altered his life. Formerly a person with no legal identity, trapped in a system of enforced economic dependence, Wood legally became a full citizen.

Degree:
MA (Master of Arts)
Keywords:
emancipation, agriculture, farmer, slave, freedmen
Rights:
All rights reserved (no additional license for public reuse)
Issued Date:
1993/08/01