The abolition of slavery was not an immediate action that freed every single slave at one exact moment in time. In fact, many slave owners failed to let their slaves know that they were deemed free. The slaves were kept to work their same agonizing shifts without any knowledge that they had recently been granted rights by the U.S. government that some had been waiting decades and lifetimes for. In the same way, the integration of the Freedmen's Bureau, to alleviate some of the hardships and tribulations of the South, was not a means for immediate calming of the social and political situations. Some men and woman found the chaos that occurred during these times so heinous, demoralizing and unjust that they often planned on running away from the U.S.
On Oct. 13, 1866 Davis, M.E. of Brenham, Texas wrote a letter to one of his commanding officers telling of the "murders and outrages committed upon Union men and Freedmen in this country". He explains one particular event in detail when he wrote, "a freedman named King Davis was shot and killed on Mill Creek by one Davis as "Dock Davis". This freedman it is alleged was murdered for attempting to leave Davis and fined employment elsewhere after learning that he was free." Davis, M.E. then went on to tell of another young colored boy, about 16 years old, being shot in the arm, causing amputation, for simply asking his master if he was free. Resources were low and the slave's opportunities to communicate with anyone outside of their workplace came few and far between. If I could put myself back into that decade and be someone in the South arguing for equality, one thing that I would absolutely be most passionate about would be to make sure that each slave received their long awaited freedom that had recently been granted to them.
On July 11th 1868, B.G. Shields writes his account of what is happening in the South, in regards to the social and political mistreatment of both a free colored man as well as "his old master, Labon Dodson" Shields explains this occurrence as "murder in the most atrocious and cruel manner".
