Free Blacks, Antebellum

Development of Free Black Populations

Prior to the Civil War, free black populations in the United States never constituted more than a small portion of the total population. However, their numbers increased steadily throughout the nineteenth century. In 1790, there were barely 60,000 free black men, women, and children in the country; by 1860, the free black population had grown to almost 500,000. Dispersed throughout the country, approximately half of these free blacks lived in free states, and half lived in slave states. The states with the largest numbers of free African Americans by 1860 were Maryland, with approximately 83,900, and Virginia, which had about 58,000.

The increase in the free black population before the Civil War was the result of several factors. In certain states, such as Louisiana, a somewhat more liberal attitude toward manumission—the legal granting of freedom to a slave by an owner—enabled some slaves to gain liberty. Many free blacks were the children of masters and slave women. Some slaves were allowed to hire themselves out as laborers and artisans as well as sell produce grown in provision gardens and keep a portion of their earnings. With these profits, men and women sometimes were able to purchase their own freedom and that of spouses and children as well. Furthermore, although the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850 greatly increased the threat of recapture and violence, some slaves were able to escape to freedom.

As the middle rung of a three-tiered social hierarchy that squeezed free blacks between the dominant white population and the suppressed slave population, free persons of color neither enjoyed the full rights and privileges of white people nor suffered the total oppression of slaves. Former slaves and freeborn African Americans were subjected to racial discrimination as well as physical and verbal abuse. Yet, free blacks were able to reap limited rewards of their labor, develop richer social lives, and enjoy many of the intangible benefits of liberty. In some instances, free blacks acquired wealth, property, and a certain measure of social standing, sometimes becoming slaveowners themselves.

Free Blacks in the South

In the South, free persons of color appeared almost simultaneously with the introduction of slavery in North America during the seventeenth century. Prior to the American Revolution, the number of free blacks was small; the 1755 Maryland census, for example, counted only 1,800 black freemen in the state, the majority of whom were the children of mixed racial unions.

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