Freedmen and Women

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Freedmen and Women
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An American anomaly

• John Hope Franklin describes free or freed black
  men and women as an American anomaly
• 1790 approx 59,000 free, 660,000 slaves
• 1830 approx 319,000 free, 2 million slaves
• 1960 approx 488,000 free, 4 million slaves

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White, Enslaved Blacks, Free Blacks in America
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Where free blacks were

• tidewater counties of VA MD
• piedmont regions of VA NC
• Southern cities of Baltimore, Charleston, Mobile,
  New Orleans, Savanna
• Northern cities of Boston, New York, Cincinnati,
  Philadelphia
• Isolated areas of the Northwest Michigan,
  Indiana, Ohio
• Maroon communities of NC and FL

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Life of Freedmen and Women

• Limited freedom in the North
• in their limited freedom, Northern blacks created
  many African American institutions
• Restrictions in the South
• faced with restrictions, many freedmen in the
  Upper South fraternized with slaves and joined or
  led rebellions

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Free African Americans in the North

• impact of Fugitive Slave Laws
• Black Laws--restrictions to freedmens movement
  or migration
• Some state legislatures attempted to ban African
  American migration
• no right of assembly
• prohibited from certain professions
• disfranchisement
• no legal standing in courts
• segregation

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Features of Urban Blacks

• Family households and boarders
• Jobs for the unskilled or semi-skilled
• Black elite entrepreneurs, professionals,
  artists and musicians, authors

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African American institutions

• Church
• School
• Voluntary organizations
• mutual aid societies
• Fraternities, lodges, literary societies,
  temperance societies

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Free Blacks in the South

• The Upper South
• The Deep South