Mid-Term Essays

Antebellum Black Status, Problems & Solutions HIS 1110 Dr. G. J. Giddings

Enslaved Southerners

The overwhelming majority (88-92%) of antebellum Blacks were enslaved, but a growing

percentage (8-12%) were free individuals. So there were more enslaved southerners than

any other group in many parts of the region, and up to 1865 Blacks in general were the

majority population in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana! This majority helped them

to resist bondage, using various tactics (escape, revolt, cultural and day-to-day). Despite

being in bondage many Blacks did not give in. They faced challenges head on, and

sometimes they even thrived. For example, in the War of 1812, many Blacks ran away and

helped the British beat the Americans! In Charleston, South Carolina there were more

enslaved Black carpenters (an important and lucrative profession, and Denmark Vesey being

one) than free (white or Black) carpenters! When he was enslaved the famous abolitionist

Frederick Douglass was a skilled ship caulker, hired-out by his enslavers in Baltimore. And

enslaved Africans from the Senegambia region of West Africa, know for rice cultivation,

were essential to South Carolina’s rice industry.

Enslaved Blacks were often separated from loved ones, who were sometimes sold away to

neighboring or distant plantations and therefore they visited each other, often at night. As

such, many created back trails in the Virginia terrain unfamiliar to whites. In fact, Blacks

offered this knowledge/intelligence to the British in the War of 1812 against Americans.

(Alan Taylor argued that this made whites view Blacks and an “internal enemy”!) Many

enslaved Blacks took advantage also of this war situation and escaped with the British, just

as others had done earlier during the Revolutionary War 2 decades earlier. The famous

leader of the most successful slave revolt, Nat Turner, had actually ran away from slavery in

South Hampton, VA but then returned on his own to be with his community where he was

known as a “prophet” and eventually organized 70 Blacks to resist slavery by armed

rebellion, which killed 58 whites.

Free Southerners

Of the 10 percent of antebellum Blacks who were free, approximately 51% lived the South,

not surprisingly because that’s where most Blacks lived. Blacks became free persons in

various ways - escape, purchase, manumission by enslaver, manumission by state law

(north), etc. John Parker of Virginia payed $1,800.00 for his freedom in New Orleans, then

moved to Ohio. Once liberated, Blacks mostly stayed within their community to be

connected to family and if possible sometimes purchased the freedom of their kinfolks. The

famous Denmark Vesey too purchased his freedom with funds he won in a lottery, but could

not purchase his wife and kids from their enslavers, who refused to sell. 60% “freedmen” in

Charleston, SC held skilled jobs such as masonry and carpentry.

Unfortunately, Blacks had to carry with them “freedom papers” to prove their free status. In

fact, some free labor states such as Ohio required Blacks moving there, to register their

“freedom papers” with local county officials! However, many Blacks did not migrate out of

the south, but chose instead to stay in the south because of family, community, weather,

etc.

Free Northerners

Approximately 49% of free Blacks resided in northern free states, typically in cities, which

offered a variety of economic opportunities. Elite Blacks in New York City owned "$1.4

million worth of taxable real estate and held $600,000 in savings banks.” (F&H, page 170).

But that wealth was concentrated among a very small number of elite free Blacks. As a

matter of fact, most antebellum Blacks in northern cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, and

New York worked in service industries such as barbers, servants, washers, shoe

repair/cobblers, etc. Only 20% of “freedmen” in Boston, MA held skilled jobs (carpenter,

etc.) compared to 60% in Charleston, SC. In fact, when John Melvin purchased his freedom

in VA and moved to Ohio no one would hire him as a skilled carpenter that he was, and thus

he had to work/serve as cook on lake ships.

Some successful free northern Black leaders included abolitionist David Walker (a North

Carolina native), wealthy ship sail maker James Forten (who employed Blacks and white),

Richard Allen (founder of the AME church in Philadelphia). Underground railroad conductor

John Parker who purchased his freedom for $1,800.00 migrated to Cincinnati, and settled in

Ripley, Ohio the perfect location for helping Blacks run-aways from the south to freedom in

the north and Canada. Eight northern states eventually abolished slavery from 1777 to 1804

(New Jersey being the last). Some well-known enslaved northerners (Bostonians) were poet

Phyllis Wheatley and American revolutionary martyr Crispus Attucks (who had run away

from slavery in 1750).

Emigration?

Antebellum Blacks all over the U.S. had to deal with, and counter/challenge, the pseudo-

science of ethnology which created/concocted mythical theories that the Black body, mind,

culture and heritage were inferior to that of whites and argued that the races should be

separated at all cost.

One solution to the challenges of being Black in antebellum U.S. was the emigration

movement, which encouraged and helped interested Blacks to move out of the U.S. Many

Blacks of all statuses played a role in the Underground Railroad, and although escaping all

the way to Canada was the surest way to avoid the “fugitive slave” laws, most opted to stay

in the U.S. (north and south) to fight for full freedom and citizenship.

If you were a free Black in antebellum U.S., would you emigrate out of the U.S., and go to

Canada, Mexico, Sierra Leone, Liberia, etc.; why or why not?