The newly found freedom for slaves was fleeting and conditional upon the presence of the Union Army who played a duel role of liberator and enforcer. When the Army moved on, Southern plantation owners reverted to old attitudes and practices, and meted out punishments, which were in many ways, harsher, crueler, more brutal and punitive. As for the union Army, their life and death struggle to survive and/or retain the ground that they had won pushed all other concerns including the welfare a newly freed slaves in a position of at minimum secondary importance. Therefore slaves who participated in actions of rejoicing, refusing to work, or proclaiming their human-hood, now that they considered themselves free, or engaged in criminal acts such as looting or "giving aid and comfort" to the Union Army were meted swift and sometimes deadly punishments. …
