Free Black People

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• Chapter 7
• Free Black People
• in Antebellum America

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Demographics

• Free African Americans in 1860
• The North 226,152
• The Upper South 224,963
• The Deep South 36,955
• Total 488,070
• Total Population U.S. 26,957,471

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Free Black Communities

• Dynamic communities
• Most free blacks lived in the Upper South
• Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, and Boston
• Established distinctive institutions
• To avoid inferior status in white-dominated
  organizations
• Preserve African heritage

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Free Black community

• Mutual aid societies-
• (provided members medical/burial/helped widows)
• Christian moral character
• Generally restricted to men
• Black freemasons
• Prince Hall

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Origins of IndependentBlack Churches

• Core of Afr. Am. Communities
• -pastors became leaders
• -buildings housed schools, social org., and
  anti-slavery meetings

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Origins of IndependentBlack Churches

• African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church
• Richard Allen
• Absalom Jones
• Benjamin Rush

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The First Black Schools

• After Revolution
• Black people established schools for black
  children
• Mutual aid societies and churches created and
  sustained
• Produced a growing class of literate African
  Americans

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• How was black freedom limited in the North?

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Fugitive Slave Laws

• Endangered freedom of blacks living in the North
• Escaped slaves could be recaptured
• Free Blacks were kidnapped into slavery

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Caption for visual

• This lithograph, published in 1818 by antislavery
  author Jesse Torrey Jun, depicts a free black man
  still in handcuffs and leg irons after an attempt
  to kidnap him into slavery. He is relating
  details of his experience to a sympathetic white
  man. The sparsely furnished attic room reflects
  the living conditions of many free African
  Americans of the time.

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Caption

• Blacks who escaped from slavery lived in fear
  that they might be sought by masters who often
  posted monetary offers for the return of runaway
  slaves

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Black Laws

• Limiting ability to vote
• Segregation of housing, schools, transportation,
  employment

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Black Laws cont..

• Most white northerners wanted no contact with
  Blacks
• Felt Blacks were inferior, dishonest, immoral
  lives
• Feared Black competition for jobs
• Contact would degrade Black society

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Segregation

• Atmosphere of hate caused African Americans to
  distrust white people
• Ghettos
• Boston Nigger Hill
• Cincinnati Little Africa
• Southern visitors argued blacks better off as
  slaves

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Segregation

• In 1841, the term Jim Crow was used in Mass to
  describe railroad cars
• Blackface minstrel act

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Black Communities The Urban North

• Urban neighborhoods
• Resilient families
• Poverty
• Class divisions
• Church and volunteer organizations
• Education

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Black Communities The Urban North (cont.)

• Black family
• Variety
• Two-parent households common in 1820
• Single-parent trend became increasingly common
• Headed by women
• High male mortality rate
• Employment opportunities
• Extended families

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Black Communities The Urban North (cont.)

• Employment
• Rising European immigration filled jobs
• Young black men excluded from apprenticeships
• Led to deskilling of blacks
• Menial labor
• Low wages
• Unemployment common

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Black Communities The Urban North (cont.)

• Black elite
• Ministers, doctors, lawyers, and undertakers
• Carpenters, barbers, waiters, and coachman
• Black institutions and culture
• Anti-slavery movement
• Racial justice
• Bridge to sympathetic white people

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African-American Institutions

• First appeared during the revolutionary era, then
  increased and multiplied.
• 1. Schools (Lincoln University)
• 2. Mutual aid organizations (Black Odd Fellows)
• 3. Benevolent and fraternal organizations
• 4. Newspapers and journals
• 5. Theaters

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Free Blacks The Upper South

• Greater risk of being enslaved
• An assumption of slavery in most states
• Problems traveling, congregating, owning firearms
• Greater exclusion than northern counterparts
• Hotels, trains, parks, hospitals, etc.

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Free Blacks The Upper South (cont.)

• Employment
• Urban areas before 1850
• Less competition from European immigrants
• Most free black men were unskilled laborers or
  waiters
• Most free black women washed clothes or worked as
  domestic servants
• Schools
• No racial integration and no public funding
• Most black children received no formal education
• Churches and individuals provided sporadic
  opportunities

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Free Blacks The Deep South

• No revolutionary rhetoric nor changing economy
• Fewer manumissions
• Usually mixed-race children
• Three-caste system in Deep South
• Whites, free blacks, and slaves
• Strong ties between free blacks and former
  masters
• Loans, jobs, and protection cemented this bond
• Better off economically than free black people in
  other regions
• Half live in cities
• Stronger position in skilled trades
• Increased conflict and tension among white
  skilled workers

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Conclusion

• Life for free black people in the Upper and Deep
  South more difficult than in the North
• Presumption of slavery
• More restrictive laws