At the conclusion of a long and bloody civil war, with their emancipation from slavery and involuntary servitude, over 4 million Americans were permitted a kind of political and economic freedom for the first time in their lives. Beyond doubt, this change in the status of black Americans was accompanied by an unambiguous and substantial improvement in their economic well-being. It is also probable that most blacks were emboldened and enheartened by emancipation. But whatever the ex-slave's initial reactions to freedom – with its opportunities, its responsibilities, and its uncertainties – the material gains were real and stimulated an optimistic view of the potential for further economic advancement. This optimism was further reinforced when black workers found that they possessed the power, not only to shape their own destinies within the society in which they found themselves, but also to change that society, at least in a limited way. For nearly two and one-half centuries, black slave labor had been an integral part of southern life. Emancipation had destroyed the foundations of the southern economy and southern society.