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I have a tangential question, and hope someone can help find an answer to it. I searched a bit but didn't find anything. It seems this man was still in early t

I have a tangential question, and hope someone can help find an answer to it. I searched a bit but didn't find anything. It seems this man was still in early twenties when he was freed after the civil war. Further, he was a new arrival and not descendant of generations of slaves who had been Americanized and had made the new place their home just as their owners had. So my question is: why he and other new arrivals like him didn't try to return home? Wasn't there any support and means for new arrivals to return? FYI, I know about Liberia, and I specifically want to know about new arrivals like Cudjo.

Broken_Hippo 8y ago
It is a little difficult to travel back home when you have no money, and I'm guessing doubly difficult doing so while living as an oppressed person in a nation of racists, who most definitely do not want you to be seen with their white passengers. I'm pretty sure this was a major reason for more folks not returning "home" - no money, no help from the government (freedom was enough to the government at the time). He was lucky enough to be accepted since he was from Africa. Many more weren't from Africa. They. like their parents, were American. Slaves, but still American - complete with conversion to Christianity and the English language. Even if you were lucky enough to have money, this would have made it a tougher decision.
- not_kurt_godel 8y ago
  Not to mention, home is where he was kidnapped by slavers in the first place. Doesn't seem like the kind of place one would want to go back to after being freed from slavery.
toxicFork 8y ago
The excerpt on vulture.com[1] linked in other comments has a bit of info about that: "...Know how we gittee free? Cudjo tellee you dat. De boat I on, it in de Mobile. We all on dere to go in de Montgomery, but Cap’n Jim Meaher, he not on de boat dat day. It April 12, 1865. De Yankee soldiers dey come down to de boat and eatee de mulberries off de trees. Den dey see us and say, “Y’all can’t stay dere no mo’. You free, you doan b’long to nobody no mo.’ ” Oh, Lor’! I so glad. We astee de soldiers where we goin’? Dey say dey doan know. Dey told us to go where we feel lak goin’, we ain’ no mo’ slave. FREEDOM After dey free us, we so glad, we makee de drum and beat it lak in de Affica soil. We glad we free, but we cain stay wid de folks what own us no mo’. Where we goin’ live, we doan know. We want buildee de houses for ourselves, but we ain’ got no lan’. We meet together and we talk. We say we from cross de water so we go back where we come from. So we say we work in slavery five year and de six months for nothin’, now we work for money and gittee in de ship and go back to our country. We think Cap’n Meaher dey ought take us back home. But we think we save money and buy de ticket ourselves. So we tell de women, “Now we all want go back home. Derefo’ we got to work hard and save de money. You see fine clothes, you must not wish for dem.” De women tell us dey do all dey kin to get back, and dey tellee us, “You see fine clothes, don’t you wish for dem neither.” But it too much money we need. So we think we stay here. ..." [1] https://www.vulture.com/2018/04/zora-neale-hurston-barracoon-excerpt.html https://www.vulture.com/2018/04/zora-neale-hurston-barracoon...
deleted 8y ago
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DEFCON28 8y ago
The Wikipedia article about the Clodilda says: > After the Civil War, the people had asked the U.S. government to repatriate them, but they were refused.

Broken_Hippo 8y ago

It is a little difficult to travel back home when you have no money, and I'm guessing doubly difficult doing so while living as an oppressed person in a nation of racists, who most definitely do not want you to be seen with their white passengers. I'm pretty sure this was a major reason for more folks not returning "home" - no money, no help from the government (freedom was enough to the government at the time). He was lucky enough to be accepted since he was from Africa. Many more weren't from Africa. They. like their parents, were American. Slaves, but still American - complete with conversion to Christianity and the English language. Even if you were lucky enough to have money, this would have made it a tougher decision.

not_kurt_godel 8y ago
Not to mention, home is where he was kidnapped by slavers in the first place. Doesn't seem like the kind of place one would want to go back to after being freed from slavery.

toxicFork 8y ago

The excerpt on vulture.com[1] linked in other comments has a bit of info about that: "...Know how we gittee free? Cudjo tellee you dat. De boat I on, it in de Mobile. We all on dere to go in de Montgomery, but Cap’n Jim Meaher, he not on de boat dat day. It April 12, 1865. De Yankee soldiers dey come down to de boat and eatee de mulberries off de trees. Den dey see us and say, “Y’all can’t stay dere no mo’. You free, you doan b’long to nobody no mo.’ ” Oh, Lor’! I so glad. We astee de soldiers where we goin’? Dey say dey doan know. Dey told us to go where we feel lak goin’, we ain’ no mo’ slave. FREEDOM After dey free us, we so glad, we makee de drum and beat it lak in de Affica soil. We glad we free, but we cain stay wid de folks what own us no mo’. Where we goin’ live, we doan know. We want buildee de houses for ourselves, but we ain’ got no lan’. We meet together and we talk. We say we from cross de water so we go back where we come from. So we say we work in slavery five year and de six months for nothin’, now we work for money and gittee in de ship and go back to our country. We think Cap’n Meaher dey ought take us back home. But we think we save money and buy de ticket ourselves. So we tell de women, “Now we all want go back home. Derefo’ we got to work hard and save de money. You see fine clothes, you must not wish for dem.” De women tell us dey do all dey kin to get back, and dey tellee us, “You see fine clothes, don’t you wish for dem neither.” But it too much money we need. So we think we stay here. ..." [1] https://www.vulture.com/2018/04/zora-neale-hurston-barracoon-excerpt.html https://www.vulture.com/2018/04/zora-neale-hurston-barracoon...

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

DEFCON28 8y ago

The Wikipedia article about the Clodilda says: > After the Civil War, the people had asked the U.S. government to repatriate them, but they were refused.