Oooh!

First things first: the abolishment of slavery did not occur across the United States uniformly for a variety of reasons. Legally, several documents governed emancipation across the United States at different times: In 1862, the D.C. Emancipation Act; in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation; in 1864, state constitutional action in Maryland; and finally in 1865, state constitutional action in Missouri and Tennessee, legislative action in West Virginia, and the last nail in the coffin--kinda-- the 13th Amendment to the Constitution (which freed slaves in Delaware and Kentucky). Logistically, given the size of the US and the existing communication methods at the time, news of slavery's abolition took time to disseminate across the country, because many of the aforementioned abolition mechanisms granted freedom immediately upon adoption. Lastly, given that the legal authority and the de facto authority of the United States government was quite literally in conflict, vis-a-vis the Civil War, abolition only extended to areas with sufficient Union forces to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation or insufficient Confederate forces to oppose it. As legal abolition--and knowledge thereof--washed over different parts of the states, similar situations played out across the country.

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Did slaves just walk off farms in a single day?

No. Many slaves had already left the plantation by the time of legal abolition. From the outset of the war, notably, even before the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves ran away from their owners to the advancing Union Army lines. So much so, that it became a logistical problem that had to be overcome. Although they weren't free, yet, and had no real knowledge/expectation that they would become free, many viewed life with the Union Army preferable to slavery. The Union Army's response to the 'Contraband' varied wildly. Some Union troops offered little to no assistance. Andrew Johnson, whilst military governor of Proclamation-exempt Tennessee, refused to issue tents to the contrabands during the winter of 1863, arguing that to do so would make them overly dependent on government assistance. Even the troops that wanted to offer more assistance had little resources to do so. While Black men were more readily integrated into army service, black women and children posed a particular challenge.

Many camps inhabited by runaway slaves were crowded and filthy, fostering epidemic diseases and resulting in mortality rates of nearly 50 percent. At one camp near Nashville, Tennessee, one-quarter of the residents died in a three-month period in 1864. Near Vicksburg, Mississippi, one observer called the contraband camp there “a vast charnel house” with “thousands of people dying without well ones enough to inter the dead.” (From here)

In Virginia, slave owners lost over 61% of the adult male slave population between 1860 and 1865. As many as 17,000 slaves followed Sherman's army on their March to the Sea; nearly the same amount chose not to or physically could not make the journey. "Negro men, women and children joined the column at every mile of the march; many brought horses and mules which were turned over to quartermaster's department" (From here, Page 159).

The military--and later the Freedmen's Bureau--strongly believed that the interests of the South, the nation, and the freed slaves themselves would best be served by blacks' return to plantation labor. Those who survived the refugee camps and came under Union Army control were forced to sign labor contracts. They compelled them to that end. Freed blacks were barred from Southern cities, could not travel without passes from their owners employers, be on the streets at night, and were prohibited "insubordination." Many of the harsh punishments of slavery made a comeback under military rule in the south for recalcitrant blacks.

In fact, the majority of freed slaves did not abandon their home plantations in 1865, and those who did generally traveled only a few miles. Those who did move usually had specific reasons for doing so: testing the bounds of their newfound freedom; leaving predominantly white/rural areas for the safety of their own race; seeking better wages in the new wage-based labor system; and perhaps most powerfully, reuniting with family. While still remaining on their former owner's plantation under abolition, Blacks did not attempt to cease all work, but rather redefine the terms of that work. Blacks strongly resented working in gangs under an overseer. They adopted more sensible working hours. Oftentimes, they outright refused to grow cotton--the "slave crop"--instead preferring food crops, much like the poor whites of the South and the rural poor around the world. Many Black women, compelled to field labor during slavery, withdrew to attend to their own home and families**.**

Many freed slaves believed that legal abolition would be followed by the federal redistributing land. Some freed blacks thought themselves entitled to at the very least a portion of their owner's estates. These more defiant blacks refused to sign labor contracts or leave the plantations. This occurred for a time in some places. After Sherman's March to the Sea, he issued Field Order 15, which confiscated all the land 40 miles inland from Charleston, South Carolina to the Georgia-Florida border, including the Sea Islands. These 400,000 acres were to be distributed in 40-acre parcels to free black families. This didn't last, and the land was returned--sometimes violently--to the white planters.

Actually, all of these measures were met with disdain from the white planters. In hundreds of cases, planters evicted blacks too old or infirm to labor and transformed "rights" enjoyed by slaves--clothing, housing, access to garden plots--into commodities for purchase. Black annual wages fell far below what planters had paid before the Civil War to rent slaves for the year. Whites would not advance Blacks credit to purchase land at the depressed prices post-Civil War despite the overwhelming desire that Blacks had to do so. Labor contracts not only specified modes of work and payment, but also prohibited blacks from leaving plantations, entertaining visitors, or holding meetings without permission of the employer. These contracts also frequently detailed provisions regulating blacks' personal demeanor--establish a character for honesty, industry, and thrift; behave in a gentle manner; avoid impertinence, all disorderly or unseemly noise, all vulgar or indecent words, all profane swearing and all quarreling and fighting. Not to mention, the wave of violence that raged almost unchecked in large parts of the postwar South. Blacks were assaulted and murdered for attempting to leave plantations, disputing contract settlements, not laboring in the manner desired by their employers, attempting to buy or rent land, and resisting whippings. (This in stark contrast to the lack of instances of blacks attacking whites.)

Edit: Continued below!