Blacks Hopes and Expectations of Emancipation.

An article by Woodville K. Marshall. He preferred the title We be wise to

many more things. The article displays the behavior of the blacks during the
times of post-emancipation and Woodville displays this in several ways.
Woodville also uses the actions and words of several historians to administer
this.
The Blacks hopes and expectations in the literature did not figure
prominently. In the literature slaves were characterized as lazy niggers
however this was only because the slaves wanted better working conditions.
But the blacks were actually intelligent in a way as they devised and
executed survival strategies despite their harsh conditions. Also, there is a
suggestion that blacks had a limited view on themselves and that they were
incapable of acting fully as thinking, feeling individuals.
The range and nature of blacks hopes and expectations are derived from
what the blacks did during slavery. This is mainly to what extent the blacks
went to gain emancipation and how they portrayed their hardships and
suffering to the whites in relation to their freedom. This resulted in the
apprenticeship system which was a complete failure. Blacks even sought
freedom by practicing religion.
Freedom of movement which was the session where the blacks clearly
expected that the forced immobilization of slavery and Apprenticeship,
symbolized by pass laws, would disappear and that they would be free to
take their persons, their skills and labour to whatever they chose.
Consolidation of Family during apprentice the blacks realized that
emancipation was near as they was allowed to consolidate with their family
members that had suffered forced separation and distributing domestic
responsibilities and to allocate family labour. This was used to maximize
family effort and child labour.
Just and Equitable Wages The blacks realized that they were being
given poor wages and the employers refusal to do attend this lead to
intense and prolonged resistance among the blacks and whites. Black
notions of a just and equitable wage rate at emancipation was based on the
level of wages paid for free time during apprenticeship on the value that they
were given much less that they were supposed to be given including the cost
of basic necessities.

Loose Labour Arrangements this meant that there was a distinct

preference for uncontracted employment for task work and job work. This
provoked blacks intention to control their time and pursue their interests.
This allowed them the opportunity when to plan labour and seek to make
money or other employment.
Easy Access to Provision Grounds There had been clear indications that
during apprenticeship, since blacks were given provision grounds to make
their own crops they used their free time for cultivation of crops and to repair
their houses. In some territories laborers used their huts and grounds as a
sort of strike fund to maintain themselves while they fought their employers
attempts either to impose high rents or to dispossess of them. Due to this
marketing techniques the slaves could of improved the quality of life and live
in better standards. Therefore they looked forward to the day where they
could use their time so they could transform their lives for the benefit. This
showed that the slaves had a place in society and that there was a need to
abolish slavery for those social, cultural and economical values.
Fate of Revolution The blacks failure to illustrate and fashion the type of
emancipation they wanted was inevitable. The blacks hope for a form of
economic self sufficiency was also restricted upon restrictions on mobility,
tenancy, occupational differentiation, squatting, use of plantation property
and by the depressed wages and limited opportunities. This meant that
emancipation was a managed operation in the sense that it was sponsored
to have social or economic consequences. There had been measures
prepared to not oppose the emancipation act such as the British government
$20m compensation. The blacks decided to avoid confrontation of these wars
for emancipation and hoped that mainly passive pressure would bring the
adjustments that they sought.
Significance of Blacks hopes and expectations. The blacks failed to
realize that most of their hopes and expectations produced deep frustrations,
resentment and demoralization. It was painfully obvious that emancipation
was unfinished business because had returned to a dependent state on the
plantation and to a standard of living not to far from the slavery they
experienced. Hopefully the political developments made a change to this
agenda over the years but there still is unfinished business for the historians.
In the end Woodville tried to show us the mind of the Blacks during postemancipation and how they fought for their freedom. The blacks hoped that
emancipation would provide the opportunity for them to take control of their

own lives, to lay a completely new base for the society. Woodville tried to
show that the mind of others was important in the decision making of
emancipation. It was the work of integrating all the elements of our past,
particularly those that were criminalized and submerged and that hopefully
we would all be wise to many more things.