The Antebellum Status of Blacks in the USA

Blacks in antebellum America were far from monolithic, in their personal identities or in their cultural and political status. For example, F&H point out that even among the free blacks in free states, there would be significant differences in levels of status, wealth, and power. Some had significant savings and real estate holdings not dissimilar from their white counterparts, whereas others held positions of low status such as domestic servants. Moreover, racism continued to permeate northern white society and blacks still were disallowed from participating in the political process. Yet as Parker’s Sankofa, we meet people like Shango, who represents the ways blacks and slaves subverted the systemic racism via the accumulation of specialized skills. The historical record reveals three main categories of African-American status during the antebellum period: free blacks in free states, enslaved blacks in Southern/slave states, and free blacks in Southern/slave states. Of these three, I would personally prefer being a free black in a free/Northern state for the main reason being that I could potentially wield more power given my privileged position.
F&H do discuss the ways free blacks in New York possessed power and wealth to a far greater degree than their free black counterparts in the South could ever hope to do (Chapter 8). Although these situations were relatively rare, they showed that there was at least the potential to participate more fully in American society via starting businesses or participating in the community. I believe that by empowering my own community, and giving back to the blacks who still struggled, that I would be able to make a difference. If I were a free black in the South, even if I were like Shango or Frederick Douglass who made a clear difference through his writings, I would still be restricted legally by my status. I would also continually fear for my life. Ironically, though, the film 12 Years a Slave also showed that it was possible for a free black in New York to be bereft of his freedom, shackled and imprisoned on the sole basis of his skin color. Without idealizing life in the North, I would nevertheless prefer to be a free black in the North because there would be greater opportunities for my children and myself.
After all, even Shango and similarly highly skilled free and enslaved blacks in the South were continually at the mercy of not just their owners but of the entire white community. Blacks in the North could potentially sue or press charges in court; a black in the South could do no such thing because they had no rights, and were not even considered human beings. In the North, free blacks organized themselves or formed African-American counterparts to white fraternal organizations like the Masons. Free blacks in the South could not travel at will. Although free blacks in the North had to ride in different train cars, they were nevertheless able to move freely in society. “Although their lives were circumscribed by numerous discriminatory laws even in the colonial period, freed African Americans, especially in the North, were active participants in American society,” (Library of Congress, 2017). Owning property or businesses was more important to positions of power than race, which is why some black property owners in the North voted. This would not have been possible in the South.
Enslavement in the U.S. was a legal system embedded in the Constitution and also in local laws. It was also a social and forced system based on norms, and a system that conspired to suppress dissent or revolt. If I had the opportunity to emigrate, though, I am not sure I would. I would be concerned that life in Liberia or anywhere else that offered an opportunity for a new life might not be much better than it was in the United States. I can see the appeal of leaving, though, and certainly would consider it only if I had friends and family who could provide me with an instant social support system.




References

F&H
Library of Congress (2017). The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship. Retrieved online: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african-american-odyssey/free-blacks-in-the-antebellum-period.html
Parker