Land ownership was true freedom because it ended economic dependence on whites.

Evidence

Why did the freedmen thirst for land? Because they knew what Reverend Frazier spoke of, that it would be through land that they would have true freedom. Owning their own land would mean black Americans were no longer economically dependent on white people for their survival. Through determination and diligence, many black people succeeded in obtaining land. Despite the many obstacles, many were thriving. That became a problem for white supremacy. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 267

Categorization

• DEFINE: This defines the freedmen’s own conception of freedom as economic independence — key to the reparations-as-accounting argument about what was actually owed.