Free Blacks In The North

How free were free blacks in the north? Well they were as free as the state that they lived in let them be free. This in some states for a very long time was not that free at all. But some states on the other hand let them be freer than they ever were before. So how free were free black in the north?

            As I was saying is how free they are. They really weren’t that free because they only had a little bit of freedom but nothing compared to what freedom a white man had. Some freedoms that they had that only a couple states let blacks do is vote. Those states are Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rohde Island, and lastly Vermont are the only ones. If you think that is little out of every state there is only one state that aloud jury rights to the blacks and that state was Massachusetts. But like they said in the document, “Not all black men could vote but by the 1830’s all white males could vote, but no women of any race could vote until after the Civil War.”

            As I was saying is that all of the rights that the African Americans had but imagine all of the restrictions they had if they only had a couple rights. Some of the restrictions are that in other states they didn’t allow blacks to vote so that is a restriction. In all of the other states besides for Massachusetts they had do right to be on the jury. So even with the little things that they were able to do there still was more restrictions than non-restrictions.

Now off of the topic of how free and not free the blacks were, what does free really mean? Well I believe that free really means that there are more non-restrictions on what you can do than what restrictions there are on what you are not able to do. Another example of free is that you are not under the power or control of another person. Such as you are yourself and that you can have your say in something that you want to have a say in.

           

Now overall blacks just weren’t that free. Even though some states may say, “Yeah the blacks are free here” don’t think that they are going to get as much freedom as a white man because that just isn’t going to happen. But you have to admit in some states they were a lot more generous to blacks then other states were, because some states at this time were still using them as slaves. So, how free were free blacks in the north? They were as free as the states that they lived in let them be.