Final answer:
During the antebellum period, white reaction to black institutions and emancipation varied, with more support in the North than in the resistant South. Post-war, Southern whites attempted to reassert control through Black Codes and economic exploitation. Nonetheless, freedmen pursued education and legal advocacy to fight segregation and discrimination.
Step-by-step explanation:
During the antebellum period, the response of whites to the establishment of black institutions and the events celebrating emancipation varied greatly between the North and South. In the North, the movement towards emancipation received much more public support, and this is where gradual levels of freedom for African Americans began. Laws for gradual emancipation were passed in several states, such as Pennsylvania and Vermont in the 1770s, and later in Connecticut and Rhode Island in the early 1780s, with New York and New Jersey following in the late 1790s. However, the South resisted these changes, maintaining a social order based on slavery. The invention of the cotton gin in the 1790s further entrenched the system of slavery in the South, leading to a dramatic increase in the number of slaves.
Following the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, southern whites struggled with the new reality of a free black population and sought to maintain control through mechanisms such as the Black Codes and racial terrorism. These efforts aimed to reestablish the antebellum power relationships by criminalizing black leisure, restricting mobility, and forcing blacks into exploitative labor contracts, which some scholars describe as "slavery by another name".
Despite the challenging conditions, freedmen and women pursued education as a means to achieve freedom and social inclusion. Black institutions, such as schools for former slaves, were established with the support of Northern benevolent societies and church organizations. This period also saw the formation of organizations like the NAACP, which used the legal system to fight against segregation and discrimination.