Hello my name is Tom and I am a former slave living in the south. After the civil war was over we were freed and granted citizen ship. But even though we were free we were still slaves in our own poverty. Discrimination was a very big deal in this time. Because we were "free", this made many people in the south uncomfortable and wanted to keep us out of any political airfares. For example if we could not read some difficult peace of writing we were not allowed to vote. The south also made laws that restricted our freedoms. They were called Jim Crow Laws. They made separate water fountains for us and different telephone booths for us . And if a former slave was hurt or needed to go to the hospital white doctors and white nurses were not allowed to treat us. We also had to go in the back door to a restaurant if we wanted something nice to eat.