What kind of restrictions did free blacks have? Why were free blacks restricted on certain things they could do compared to most whites? Both of these questions can infer both free and enslaved blacks due to their lack of rights that they had. Around the years of 1800-1860, 14% of the population was blacks in the U.S. About 416,000 free blacks had lived in the U.S. at the time, but the other half of the population were enslaved by their own separate slave-holders.
Even though more than half of the black populations were enslaved and had their rights taken from them. Those who were free from enslavement had jobs and could pay taxes, but even thought they were free they still had their own list of restrictions and were limited as to what they wanted to do.
Despite free blacks not being in most states (mainly due to the slave-holders choice), the free blacks who were lucky enough to vote and get better paying jobs had mainly lived in the New England states like Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, & Vermont.
Most if not all other states had restricted voting rights with blacks who had moved to their state. All other states (besides the New England ones listed earlier) had very few jobs blacks could get and some didn’t even allow blacks to pay taxes. If a black tried to own a house in a state for example like New York, they wouldn’t have it under their name but instead the government had owned most houses and the people living their had to pay much more than any other house.
Blacks would live and survive any conditions the state threw at them unless they were restricted on getting a good paying job.
Blacks were discriminated and were treated as slaves, but even then this didn’t stop them from living a normal life even in states that had tried to stop them from getting jobs, paying taxes, and even having freedom of speech. Very few states however like Vermont had treated blacks free or not equally and did have rights for them to vote, get good paying jobs, own a house under their name, and have the freedom of speech, But during the mid to late 1800’s slavery was abolished and all slaves in that state were either let free or killed. Not to long after in the times of 1865 the 13th amendment had been passed which had fully abolished slavery in every state in the U.S. which had given the chance to those who were enslaved to get jobs.
After the 13th amendment was passed slaves all around the U.S. were legally allowed to get good paying jobs, vote, have freedom of speech etc. However, some states like New York hadn’t gone through with the amendment and it wasn’t until the 1870’s when they finally abolished their slavery rights. Most other states had also uplifted the male jury duty law, which gave blacks more freedom and had given them the chance to become official U.S citizens. In Conclusion, during the years of 1800-1860 slavery was massive through most of the states in the U.S. However, as time passed on laws were uplifted and gave free & enslaved blacks more rights. It wasn’t until 1865 when the 13th amendment was passed that slavery was abolished throughout most if not all states (except New York) and uplifted all laws against blacks and slavery was no more.
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