Internal Migration as Freedpeople Exercise Right to Move

The immediate exercise of freedom of movement was among the most visible signs of emancipation. Freedpeople abandoned former plantations, relocated to cities, reunited separated families, and sought better conditions. The movement alarmed white Southerners and was the specific target of vagrancy laws in Black Codes. Cities like Richmond, Charleston, and New Orleans saw their Black populations double between 1865 and 1870.