The article The Dark History of New Years Day in the US in Time on January 1st 2020， mentions that Americans are likely to think of New Years Day as a time to celebrate the fresh start that a new year represents， but there is also a troubling side to the holidays history. In the years before the Civil War， the first day of the new year was often a heartbreaking one for enslaved people in the United States. In the African-American community， New Years Day used to be widely known as “Hiring Day” — or“Heartbreak Day”， because enslaved people spent New Years Eve waiting， wondering if their owners were going to rent them out to someone else， thus potentially splitting up their families. The renting out of slave labor was a relatively common practice in the antebellum South， and a profitable practice for white slave owners and hirers.

最新一期的美國《時代周刊》一篇題為《美國元旦黑暗史》的文章提到，美國人把元旦看作是慶祝新年伊始的時刻，但該節(jié)日歷史也有令人不安的一面。在南北戰(zhàn)爭之前，元旦對于美國黑奴來說往往是令人心碎的一天。在非洲裔美國人群體中，元旦曾經(jīng)被廣泛稱為“雇傭日”——也就是“心碎日”，因為被奴役的人們在除夕夜等待，想知道他們的主人是否會把他們租給別人，從而導致家庭撕裂。出租奴隸在南北戰(zhàn)爭前比較常見，這也是白人奴隸主和雇主的一種有利可圖的做法。