Were The Free Slaves Truely Free ?

   Back when the Union had successfully won against the Southern Confederacy in the Civil War, Lincoln had set the slaves free. This was a double edged dagger for the newly freed slaves. For one, they were free and granted American freedoms, but not having a penny to thier names and no where to go, they turned to the system of sharecropping. During the Reconstruction time period white land owners set up a system where many huts were scattered across his land and all black slaves rented part land, tools and such. To repay the landowner the once forced to work slaves had to relinquish half of thier grown crops to the landowner, and to add insult to injury, had to work by the landowner's command. Also not having the ability to leave one's home if there was work to be done. So were the free slaves REALLY free ? Seems to me that they were still slaves, just without the abusing which I'm sure some still recieved from an unhappy caretaker. Why even bother freeing the slaves if they were still stuck to the plantaion fields ? At least though, it was a step for Americans to accept African-Americans into America. Indeed these former slaves had a harsh time building up thier work but they did what was neccesary for thier families. So they took the work and the harassment a little more just with knowing that they were now freed, even though it was a covered freedom.