Final answer:
The labor system for former slaves that developed post-Civil War was sharecropping, which led to continued economic dependence and bound labor through unfair practices, despite an intended move towards wage labor.
Step-by-step explanation:
After the Civil War, a labor system that developed for former slaves was the sharecropping system, particularly in the Southern United States. In this system, landowners allowed tenants to use their land in exchange for a portion of the crops produced on the land.
The sharecropping system was supposed to be a step towards an economy based on wage labor, but it often resulted in a cycle of debt and economic dependence due to unfair agreements and high interest rates charged by landowners and supply merchants under the crop-lien system.
The transition to wage labor was further complicated by legal and extra-legal tactics used by white Southerners to maintain systems of bound labor, such as vagrancy laws and the convict-lease system.