Was there a place the US sent all the slaves? Was slaves just let go without shelter or food? Were Owners fighting law-in-forcers to keep their slaves? Did owner let their slaves work for money?
Would really like to know the history of this process. Thanks r/Askhistorian community.
The long and short of it is that it depends. Sharecropping was incredibly common. Sharecropping was the practice of dividing up plantation land and letting former slaves work there. The catch was their rent was a good portion of the crops which was paid to their former master. Many former slaves went into debt in this system.
Other places people started their own businesses. Some places in Florida and coastal South Carolina had communities made up entirely of former slaves. Generally, things were rough for quite a while but there were also many African-American elected officials in office and voting was common until Jim Crow laws began to be enacted.
Eric Foner has a good overview of it in his book Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. If you want something more concise the History Channel has a great segment with a brief article and video on the subject here. It focuses a lot on the Northern response, but it's a pretty ok overview for the basics.