Freedom in Mississippi

Between 1820 and 1860, southwest Mississippi, principally the Natchez District, was the most settled and developed part of the state. It was home to a majority of the state’s free black population. In 1840, when Mississippi had its largest free black population of almost 1,400, nearly a third lived in just two of the state's fifty-six counties – Adams and Warren counties, both river counties. The majority of the free blacks in each county were urban dwellers. Blacks in Mississippi, and elsewhere in the South, became free in several ways. Prior to 1825, it was common and legal for slaves to become free either by purchasing their freedom or by slaveholders freeing them. (Davis n.d.)

Restrictions

The rising number of free blacks alarmed many white. This led to further restrictions on their activities. Political, economic and social restrictions were imposed on them.

A. Texas

When the Republic of Texas won its independence, the government changed the immigration laws. The Texas government set limits on immigration by free blacks to Texas and on the status of the free blacks already in Texas.

The whites in Texas begun to differentiate themselves from the free blacks in dress, manners, religion, and architecture. Moreover, the whites defined the word “black” as being evil and filth. (Barr 1973)

The Republic of Texas set laws that did not allow free person of one-eight Negro blood to vote, own property, testify in court against whites, or intermarry with whites. After Texas separated from the republic, more laws were developed that restricted free blacks. (Barr 1973)

Free blacks were whipped for insulting, abusive, or threatening language to whites. They could not have firearms, gamble, hire slaves, dispense medicine, or preach without two slave holders present. The number of free blacks in Texas began to decrease because of the limitations they had to encounter to reside in Texas. (Barr 1973)

With all the laws to restrict free blacks to acquire status as free people, free blacks was not that much different from slaves.

B. Mississippi

Mississippi’s laws required every black of free status to appear before the local court to give evidence of his or her freedom. If the court was provided of satisfactory proof, the applicants received certificates of free status, or freedom papers. The certificate indicated the bearer’s name, color, physical stature, and any distinguishing features, such as scars. Every three years the certificate had to be renewed at a fee of $1. In 1831 the fee was increased to $3.3. (Davis n.d.)

Free blacks in Mississippi may placed themselves at great risk if they failed to have in their possession a certificate of registration. They could ran the risk of seizure and even jail. If blacks were unable to establish their free status within a specified period of time, they could, as allowed by law, be sold into slavery at public auction. Free blacks’ certificates of registration were their single most important source of documentation. (Davis n.d.)

Free blacks faced extensive limitations and restraints. The required certificate of registration, rather than ensuring for physical mobility of free persons of color, hampered their movement instead. They were frequently treated as vagrants and arrested when traveling outside their county of residency, especially if proof of “honest employment” was not provided. Furthermore, all firearms and weapons of free blacks had to be licensed. If engaged in commerce, they could sell their goods and wares only in an incorporated town. They were not allowed to sell grocery items or liquor to the public. Laws in Mississippi further prohibited free persons of color from operating a house of entertainment or a printing establishment. (Davis n.d.)

C. COLUMBUS, OHIO

In Columbus, Ohio, restricted laws were enforced and used to harass and intimidate Blacks by those inclined and to discourage their influx into the state. (Burns & Jefferson 1997)

Blacks could not settle in the country unless a bond of $500 be paid within twenty days and the signatures of two white men must be secured guaranteeing his good behavior. They were also excluded from serving in the militia. They could not attend common schools, and were exempted from paying taxes which raised funds for public schools. (Burns & Jefferson 1997)

Blacks must present a certificate of freedom in order to work for more than one hour. A fine of $10 to $50 was imposed on any person hiring a Black without a certificate, and even higher fines if the Black was an escaped slave. They also could not testify against a white person no matter what the circumstances. Furthermore, they were not allowed on juries, nor allowed to vote or hold public office. These Black Laws reflect the contradictions inherent in the prohibition of slavery and the imposition of legal, social, political, and economic restrictions that denied Blacks equality of opportunity. (Burns & Jefferson 1997)

Other Forms of Restrictions

White society was clearly not congenial towards free blacks. Restrictions were put on free blacks. Free blacks were barred from some professions. They were refused the right to assemble. Blacks were also required to register in the free black registry. (Farnam 1938)

This registry, though probably primarily intended to control the free black, may have also served to protect. In a society where the majority of one's race is in servitude, it was useful, even necessary, to be able to prove one's freedom. This is seen by the type of people who registered as free. (Farnam 1938)

The middle class urban free black was much more likely to register than the country day- laborer. With this, it is seen that the people that were most likely to register were the ones who had the most to lose if it was thought that they were runaway slaves. (Farnam 1938)

Free blacks were certainly oppressed by these laws, but these laws do not paint a complete picture. Clearly there is much more to be told than what is written in textbooks or what laws were on the books.

Restrictions in North States

The northern States pioneered viciously discriminatory black codes long before they existed in any Southern State. The Revised Code of Indiana stated in 1862 that “Negroes and mulattos are not allowed to come into the State”, forbade the consummation of legal contracts with the same, imposed a $500 fine on anyone who employed a black person, forbade interracial marriage and forbade blacks from testifying in court against a white person. (Greene 1942)

In Illinois, the land of Lincoln, added almost identical restrictions in 1848 as did Oregon in 1857. Most northern States in the 1860’s did not permit immigration by blacks or, if they did, required them to post a $1000 bond that would be confiscated if they behaved improperly. (Farman 1938)

Free blacks were required to work on roads a certain number of days a year in Massachusetts, at the discretion of the local selectmen. They could only use ferries under certain conditions in New England. In South Kingstown, Rhode Island, they could not own horses or sheep. In Boston, they could not carry a cane unless they were unable to walk without one. (Greene 1942)

Pennsylvania colony's “Act for the better Regulation of Negroes” set penalties for free blacks who harbored runaway slaves or received property stolen from masters that were potentially much higher than those applied to whites. If the considerable fines could not be paid, the justices had the power to order a free black person put into servitude. (Litwack 1961)

Under other provisions of the act, free Negroes who married whites were to be sold into slavery for life; for mere fornication or adultery involving blacks and whites, the penalty for the black person was to be sold as a servant for seven years. Whites in such cases faced different or lighter punishment. (Greene 1942)

All in all, the "free" blacks of colonial Pennsylvania led severely limited lives; they had no control even over their own family arrangements, and they could be put back into servitude for "laziness" or petty crimes, at the mercy of the local authorities. (Greene 1942)

Having set controls on their black residents, the Northern states busied themselves in passing laws to make sure no more blacks moved within their boundaries. These were not elitist actions. The pressure for total exclusion came from the working class whites, struggling for a little bargaining power with the shop owners and fearful of inexpensive black competition that could drive down wages. (Tocqueville 1966)

Like the black codes of the South and Midwest in the 19th century, enforcement of Northern colonial race laws was selective, and their real value lay in harassment and discouragement of further settlement, and in being a constant reminder to free blacks that their existence was precarious and dependent on white toleration. Across the North, such laws were the sword hung above the heads of a whole black population. (Tocqueville 1966)

Restrictions in the South

In the South, free blacks could be enslaved if caught without proof that they were free. Fears that they would lead slave revolts almost all states were encouraged to pass laws severely limiting the right of free blacks to own weapons. (Rothman n.d.)

Free blacks met many challenges. They paid a high and continuing price for their free status. They paid heavily as their group’s numbers were kept low and their dreams and aspirations went unrealized. Their lives were bleak, and their blackness continued to be equated with servitude. (Rothman n.d.)

Free blacks were generally brutally treated by whites, and they faced prejudice and discrimination at nearly every turn. Colonization sentiment -- proposals to remove blacks from the United States altogether was especially popular in Virginia.

Free blacks often lived in dire economic conditions as well. Many lived in poverty at the very bottom of the socioeconomic order. In rural areas, free blacks worked largely as agricultural laborers, or as tenant farmers living in a perpetual cycle of debt that prefigured the postwar status of many freedmen. In cities, they often worked at unskilled or menial jobs. (Rothman n.d.)

They had no right to a jury trial in most cases and faced criminal penalties as severe as those designed for crimes committed by slaves. It was illegal to educate free blacks, who also were forbidden to preach or meet in churches outside the presence of whites. Political or legal struggle for free blacks was futile; they could not vote, hold political office, sit on juries, or testify against whites in court. (Rothman n.d.)

Conclusion

In general, blacks were just freed to be restricted. These restrictions are the keys to appreciating and understanding the challenge and the world filled of free blacks. Clearly, it was a world between slavery and freedom.

References:

Barr, A 1973, Black Texans: A History of Negroes in Texas, Austin Jenkin.

Brion, D 1966, The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture, Middlesex, Penguin.

Burns, Jacqueline and Jefferson, Tracy 1997, An Interpretative History of African American Education 1700-1950 Columbus, Ohio.

Campbell, R 1989, An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, Louisiana State University Press.

Davis, Dernoral; 2002-2004; Mississippi History Now, viewed 07 September, 2006,

Farnam, H 1938, ‘Chapters in the History of Social Legislation in the United States to 18620,(pp. 219-220), Carnegie Institution, Washington.

Greene, L J 1942, ‘The Negro in Colonial New England, 1620-1776, (p. 302), Columbia University Press, NY.

Litwack, L 1961, ‘ North of Slavery’,Cincinnati Gazette, Aug 17, p.72.

Smedley, A 1999, Race in North America, Westview Press.

Tocqueville, A 1966, ‘Democracy in America, p.343, transl. George Lawrence, Harper & Row.