Ex-slaves, in large part, shared a different economic vision. They were "always on the move, " searching for family, denying their labor to "dishonest or oppressive employers, " and asserting their independence through their mobility. Rather than staying in place, working as much as possible for a high a wage as possible, and thus possibly accumulating a greater array of material good, a large number of freedpeople sought not to maximize income but to minimize the amount of "time spent at work on other people's behalf. Elsa Barkley Brown
About This Quote

This quote is an important example of how freedpeople challenged white supremacy and capitalism during the South’s Reconstruction era. Freedpeople understood that the "time spent at work on other people’s behalf" was not what made them free. They were free because they had taken control of the conditions under which they worked, not because they worked for other people. Their goal was to minimize the amount of time they spent working for other people, not to maximize income. The goal was to be free while working as little as possible.

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  1. Ex-slaves, in large part, shared a different economic vision. They were "always on the move, " searching for family, denying their labor to "dishonest or oppressive employers, " and asserting their independence through their mobility. Rather than staying in place, working as much as possible...
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