Long after emancipation from slavery in the United States, African Americans still faced economic struggles that required them to do everything they could to succeed in society. In the novel “Not Slave Not Free,” author Jay R. Mandle expresses these struggles and explains the migration of African Americans from the cities to a very rural South. The focus of this story is the early society of the South before World War II. Mandle explains the role of African Americans in this society and the massive effect they had on society. Mandle was also a very skilled writer regarding the economic situation of the American South after emancipation. He has written several novels dealing with income inequality in the United States and is also an economics specialist. Mandle is also the W. Bradford Wiley Professor of Economics at Colgate University. All these qualities that Mandle possesses make him a competent writer when it comes to economic situations in the South. This book is also the second edition and was republished in 1994. The publisher of the novel was University of Pittsburg Press and the story was also changed in the first chapter. Let us now review the levels of increasing poverty in the South that Mandle accurately described in the book. The first part of the South Mandle analyzed was the economic situation of the South before World War II. Mandle speculates that the South was the least developed region in the entire United States. He also considered the fact that it was so underdeveloped to be a key aspect explaining the poverty of African Americans in the years before the war. Due to the fact that the South was not advanced, it did not offer African Americans a chance to work and... middle of paper ... Americans were migrating from the South, there were fewer hands. work in the southern regions. This issue was also a key factor in the economic downfall of the South during post-World War II America. This book seemed quite interesting to me and opened my eyes to a different view of the United States in times of difficulty. It made me realize that everyone had difficulty maintaining life as well as maintaining an economy. I never realized the massive impact that African Americans had on the Southern economy, but I now understand that they are one of the reasons it took so long for the United States to become independent. get back on your feet. I thought Mandle did a great job of keeping the reading interesting and had a thorough knowledge of the subject. I enjoyed reading this book and it greatly enriched my knowledge of the South before World War II..