What did the ex-slaves see as key to significantly improving their condition?

A) getting paid pages for field work on plantations
B) receiving help from white northerners
C) getting access to higher education
D) leasing land in return for a share of their crops
E) receiving free land as their own property

Ex-slaves saw receiving free land as their own property as a crucial step towards significantly improving their condition. This belief was rooted in the idea that owning land would provide them with economic independence and the ability to sustain themselves and their families, breaking the cycle of dependency on former slave owners or the precarious conditions of sharecropping and wage labor.