The well-managed plantation, lying near the highways of commerce, with its division of labor, nearly or quite self-sufficing, was the bulwark of the Confederacy.

When the fighting ended, an industrial revolution began in these untouched parts of the Black Belt.
The problem of free Negro labor now appeared.

During the year 1865, no general plan for a labor system was formulated except by the Freedmen's Bureau.

That, however, was not a success.

There were all sorts of makeshifts, such as cash wages, deferred wages, cooperation, even sharing of expense and product, and contracts, either oral or written.
The employers showed a disposition to treat the Negro family as a unit in making contracts for labor, wages, food, clothes, and care.* In general these early arrangements were made to transform slavery with its mutual duties and obligations into a free labor system with wages and "privileges." The "privileges" of slavery could not be destroyed; in fact, they have never yet been destroyed in numerous places.