Who were they to receive compensation from?
Their former owners were bankrupt. It would be an injustice to think that nonslave owners were liable, and society as a whole paid with thousands of gallons of blood, millions of pounds of char, and a century of Southern economic destitution for white and black alike.

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They did not have equal rights either, so by default their were in a disadvantageous position.

Historically inaccurate!
They were given unequal rights in the form of superior political power over the white native both slave owner or not a slave owner. This was during the period of Reconstruction arguably 1862-1877. Now once the occupation troops were removed and the antebellum whites had their rights restored they were equally in political power but were economically inferior to the wealthy, mostly white and largely carpetbaggers. The wealthy then disenfranchised poor white and black males equally. Yes, women had almost 0 political power. But hay, Wilson’s wife was the first female American President!

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The "government largess" was basically just an economic necessity they needed due to discriminatory hiring practices of the time period.

Historically inaccurate as well. Black and white sharecroppers were extremely economically similar. If the Southern Economic Pond was 10 feet deep, then the powerful political and economic white upper class floated on top. The black share cropper sat on the 10 foot deep bottom. The white sharecropper sat at 9’ 11 3/4”. The black urban worker at 9’ 11 1/2”, and the white urban worker at 9’ 11 1/4”. And yes, there was a very small middle class with whites at 7’ and blacks at 8’. Blacks signed up for the alphabet soup of the New Deal workfare that prolonged the Great Depression until foreign war purchases ended it in the late 30s. And in further historical honesty so did the poor whites to their wealthy white Democrat overlords!
Yes discriminatory hiring practices existed before and after the great switch of political parties by blacks in the 1930s. Democrats (Northern) joined Republicans (none Southern) in demanding that blacks qualified for the failed welfare largess. But (Southern Democrats-the legislating powerhouse of the day) made sure that hiring and pay disadvantaged blacks.

That’s what I meant by exchanging morality for government largest. They sold their souls (equality) for inferior crumbs from the white Democrat table.