Luminary & Freedom Stories - Bennett Place State Historic Site
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Harriet Ann Daves recalled just how monumental Civil War surrenders were for her family: "When the surrender came my grandfather came to my mother and told her: 'Well, you are as free as I am.'"
Claiming freedom was not so straightforward for the 331,059 enslaved women, children, and men during the Civil War. Some took enormous risk to reach Union lines before the federal government made any promise of abolishing slavery. Others left their homes and plantations to follow Sherman's army as they marched through the southeast. Some believed home was where they already lived and worked and waited patiently for freedom to extend to them. Others still were lied to by their enslavers or moved away from the advancing U.S. Army so they would remain enslaved. Freedom came in different ways and at different times to enslaved people across the state.
One common thread unites these freedom stories: the defeat of the Confederate military ensured a new birth of freedom across the state and nation.
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