The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790-1860

by John Hope Franklin

• ISBN13: 9780807804087
• ISBN10: 0807804088
• Format: Bound Book
• Copyright: 2000-11-09
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press

Summary

John Hope Franklin has devoted his professional life to the study of the American South and African Americans. Originally published in 1943 by UNC Press, The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790-1860 was his first book on the subject. As Franklin shows, freed blacks in the antebellum South did not enjoy the full rights of citizenship. Even in North Carolina, reputedly more liberal than most southern states, discriminatory laws became so harsh that some voluntarily returned to slavery. When Franklin wrote The Free Negro in North Carolina, the subject of free blacks had received scant attention from scholars. Since then, however, the topic has generated a great deal of interest. In a new foreword to this edition, Franklin surveys the scholarship on free blacks that has appeared since the original publication of his study, and he reaffirms the importance of understanding the variations and complexities of the African American experience.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Introduction	p. 3
Growth of the Free Negro Population	p. 14
Numbers and Distribution	p. 14
Manumission	p. 19
Miscegenation	p. 35
Runaway Slaves and Immigrant Free Negroes	p. 39
Maintaining the Status of a Free Man	p. 48
Legal Status of the Free Negro	p. 58
The Problem of Discipline	p. 58
The Free Negro in Court	p. 81
Citizenship in the Larger Sense	p. 101
The Free Negro in the Economic Life of North Carolina	p. 121
The Free Negro Worker	p. 121
The Free Negro Property Owner	p. 150
Social Life of the Free Negro	p. 163
Education	p. 164
Religion	p. 174
Social Relationships	p. 182
An Unwanted People	p. 192
North Carolina "Liberalism"	p. 192
The Colonization Movement	p. 199
The Growing Hostility to Free Negroes	p. 211
Conclusions	p. 222
Appendices	p. 227
Bibliography	p. 247
Bibliographic Afterword	p. 259
Index	p. 263
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