What type of financial success did many former slaves have in the South after the US Civil War?

Answer 1

As unlikely as it may seem, there were a good number of former slaves in the South who prospered despite racial discrimination. By 1870 former slaves owned $68,500,000 worth of property in the South. This was quite a number, as just ten years earlies, in 1860, Black ownership of property in the South was very low.

Answer 2

While slavery ended, segregation (sad to say) did not. Still, freed slaves were able to set up their own parallel universe, where some earned a good living and were respected by their peers (and in some cases, were even respected by white society). One thing that helped make this possible is that freed black men (and some black women) could now attend school, including college, and get the specialized training they needed. There were a growing number of black-owned or black-operated colleges, some set up by churches in order to train preachers, but others set up by advocates of racial justice, who wanted to give southern black students the opportunity to become lawyers, doctors, educators, business owners, etc. Thus, in many southern cities, there were black communities that, although still under segregation, had their own success stories in such fields as real estate, health-care, education, entrepreneurship, and sales.