Long before the end of enslavement with the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil War ended, Juneteenth, or ratification of the 13th Amendment, depending on who and where you were. There were free Black men and women in many parts of America, especially in the North, and America’s capital city, Washington DC.
In 1835, freemen and women already outnumbered the enslaved in Washington, DC, and had done so for five years. In much of the nation, particularly in the South, the percentage of enslaved people was increasing, but not in the nation’s capital. Freemen worked as cooks, drivers, and laborers, and could, for a time, own and operate their own businesses, such as restaurants.
They could not escape from the sight of coffles, pairs of enslaved people in long lines, chained at their feet and yoked at their necks like cattle. Slave traders marched the enslaved through the capital by day, and slave patrols looked for freemen to capture at night to sell down South, not caring whether they were free or not. Freedom in 1835 meant constantly watching your back lest circumstances find you no longer free.
“The free Black man was denied the use and enjoyment of many of the most valuable rights of freemen, and subjected in all cases of the most vigorous exactions of penal law.” — Pleasant Roane
There seems to be little difference between being yoked at the neck or having a knee on your neck. Freedom in 1835 directly correlated with staying in the good graces of white people; the same can be said in 2023. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) famously proclaimed, “America isn’t a racist nation,” apparently forgetting his constant stops for “driving while Black” in Washington DC, and even while walking through the halls of the Senate wearing his Senator’s lapel pin.
In 1835, restauranter Beverly Snow barely escaped with his life after unsubstantiated rumors suggested he spoke ill of white women. His license to operate along with other Black business owners was revoked because though he was free, he wasn’t actually free. John F. Cook, Sr. was a pastor and educator; he headed the Union Seminary in 1835 when he had to flee for his life during the same racial unrest that almost got Snow. The classrooms of Union Seminary were partially burned. Cook was able to return the following year and begin anew. Are the teachers and principals (Black and white) any freer when fired after being falsely accused of teaching Critical Race Theory or, more recently, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)?
In 1835, what passed for the police force was an auxiliary watch with one captain and 15 policemen. There was a District Attorney at that time, a gentleman named Francis Scott Key. Twenty-one years earlier, he wrote The Star Spangled Banner. Key and the auxiliary watch were the law during the day. At night, the slave patrols came out, and any free Black person was fair game to be captured and sold into enslavement. The novel turned movie, “12 Years a Slave,” told just such a tale.
Throughout American History, including the present. “Free” Black people are still getting “the talk” about how to behave when confronted by the police. Sometimes, as in the recent case of Tyre Nichols, who made it within a block of his mother’s residence. There’s nothing you can do to assert your freedom.
Politicians in 1835 bolstered their reputations by demonstrating how much they controlled their Black populations. President Andrew Jackson sounded much like Donald Trump, talking about “We The People” while acting to displace Native Americans and promote the continued enslavement of Black people. The freeing of enslaved people, manumission, was gaining in popularity in 1835, and Andrew Jackson never freed any of his. Ron DeSantis places his Presidential hopes on denying freedom to others. He attacks Black History as having “no educational value” and blocked an Advanced Placement (AP) Black History course from being taught in Florida schools. He created an election police force and widely distributed videos of them arresting Black voters whose local election boards had told them they could vote. Well beyond Florida’s borders, “free” Black men and women are being disenfranchised at four times the rate of the national population. One in sixteen Black adults is ineligible to vote, and a high percentage is afraid to.
Free Black Americans in 1835 had opportunities; make no mistake that they couldn’t do all the things their white counterparts could do. A free Black man could join the Navy, which was far less segregated than one might imagine unless you wanted to be an officer. He couldn’t join the Army until Abraham Lincoln signed the emancipation in 1863. Four years after Nat Turner’s revolt, few Black Americans could get an education, whether free or not. In 2023, what we can learn about American History related to Black people is still heavily restricted or edited. You can’t go around making white children feel bad by telling the truth.
Free Black women of 1835 had greater restrictions on them than men. Not only did they face misogyny, but they were subject to sexual harassment to a degree not experienced today. Filmmaker Harvey Weinstein wasn’t the first to demand sexual favors to get work. Enslaved women were often raped by their owners and free women by their employers. Of course, the white men could be reported to the auxiliary watch, and I’m sure that would go well. Today’s Black women face two glass ceilings, one denying opportunities to women of all colors, another reserved for Black women.
Black Americans have alternately received certain rights throughout American History, then had then eliminated or reduced. Black people couldn’t vote in 1835; they got that right generally with the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. That right was heavily restricted after 1877 and the end of the Reconstruction, especially in the South. That right was fully restored with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Supreme Court has been whittling down those rights ever since, notably in Shelby v. Holder in 2013 but also in many times since.
Janis Joplin famously sang the lyric, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” I submit that freedom means no longer having to look over your shoulder. Black Americans still haven’t reached that point. My youngest grandchildren are reaching the point where they, too, must be given “the talk.” Maybe one day, it will no longer be necessary.
—
This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
***
You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
Escape the Act Like a Man Box | What We Talk About When We Talk About Men | Why I Don’t Want to Talk About Race | The First Myth of the Patriarchy: The Acorn on the Pillow |
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: iStock.com