How Free Were Free Blacks in the North?

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Imagine that you are an escaped African slave. After years of being a slave you’ve finally done it, you escaped the terrors that is slavery. You are looking forward to the freedoms that you have heard are promised in the north. However, these “freedoms” are all what they were made out to be. Blacks in the north were to some extent free in the years before the Civil War. This can be shown by looking at four areas of society: political and judicial rights, social freedoms, education and job opportunities, and religious freedom. Generally speaking, blacks in the north were somewhat free in the area of political and judicial rights. Most of the northern states in the year 1860 allowed or restricted voting. This might seem great, but, New England was the region that had the most states that black males could vote. Out of 221,000 blacks in the north, only 25,000 African-Americans lived in New England. Furthermore, only males were permitted to vote. Any women, regardless of race was prohibited from voting until many years after the Civil War. Five of the 16 northern states allowed restricted black male voting. Of 11,000 blacks in New York CIty only 100 could vote. The reason behind this is that you had to pay a $250 property requirement in order to vote. This kept most blacks in New York from voting. Jury Duty is also another activity that nearly no blacks could partake in. Out of the 16 northern states, Massachusetts was the only state in 1860 that allowed black males to serve in the jury. These limitations of freedoms are important because blacks got hardly any say in their government. A voice in the government is important for anyone is because anyone who lives there needs to also be taken into consideration when making or chang... ... middle of paper ... ...olitical and judicial rights of free blacks, their social freedoms, opportunities for jobs and education, and religious freedom. Blacks who escaped enslavement, didn’t all go on to have perfect lives in the north. They still had to go through hardships and endure many burdens even though they were free. The reason it is important to learn about the life of free blacks in the north is that even though they were free, life wasn’t all that easy for them. This is important to learn because it clears up misconceptions that the north was a complete safe haven for slaves. They were free, but were not treated as equal beings and it was still hard for them. These things are important today because we see how much our country has changed. We need to know this because we can see how much we've changed for the better and use that as motivation to keep improving into the future.

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