There were two things that most former slaves did when they got their freedom. One of them was to get a last name. Most slaves were simply called by their first name. A slave named John who belonged to a man named Hatcher was called Hatcher's John or John Hatcher. But such a man who became free changed his name to John S. Lincoln or John S. Sherman. The "S" did not stand for anything. It was simply what the former slaves referred to as their "entitles."

The other thing that former slaves did was to leave their former plantation, at least for a little while. This was done just to test this thing called "freedom." However, many of the older ones came back and worked out some kind of arrangement with their former masters and remained on their estate.