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Buying Freedom
Several paths to freedom existed for enslaved African Americans before general emancipation in 1865. Many were manumitted by their masters to honor a pledge, as a reward, or before the 1700s to fulfill a servitude agreement. A few were bought by Quakers, Methodists, and others for the sole purpose of freeing them (a practice soon banned in the southern states). Many ran away to free territory and were able to avoid capture and forcible return to their owners (See Theme II: ENSLAVEMENT: #8, Runaways, and Theme III: COMMUNITY: #7, Fugitives.)
Many slaves purchased their freedom from their masters or occasionally from slave traders. In 1839 almost half (42%) of the free blacks in Cincinnati, Ohio, had "purchased themselves" from their masters.1 Often this required negotiating a price with the master and working at a wage trade for years to amass enough funds, as we read in Elizabeth Keckley's narrative. (Such a plan could fail, however, as we read in the narrative of Moses Grandy who bought himself three times before ultimate freedom.) John Meachum, after buying his own freedom, purchased about twenty other enslaved African Americans who ultimately purchased their freedom from him. We will read these accounts and those of Moses Grandy, Venture Smith, Richard Allen, Aaron Siddles, and others. In contrast, we read several accounts of African Americans who were freed by their masters as a reward; we do not know how often this occurred. (For free blacks' letters to their former masters, see Theme IV: IDENTITY: #3, Slave to Free). (xx pages.)
Discussion questions
- How were slaves able to purchase the freedom of themselves and their families?
- Where did they choose to live after buying their freedom? How did they make a living as free people?
- How did they relate to the former masters? to members of their families still enslaved?
- Compare the experiences of those who gained freedom through purchase, running away, and being emancipated in 1865. How do they each relate to freedom? to building a life after slavery?
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Framing Questions
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How did enslaved African Americans construct communities over time? What were their principal characteristics? |
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What obstacles did slaves confront in constructing communities? |
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How did white Americans respond to the collective behavior of African Americans? |
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How was autonomy exercised through community by antebellum African Americans? |
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Printing
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Supplemental Sites
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Image: Richard Allen, engraving in Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising, ed. Rev. William J. Simmons, 1887. Reproduced by permission of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.
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1 Loren Schweninger, Black Property Owners in the South, 1790-1915 (University of Illinois Press, 1997), p. 66; cited in Colin A. Palmer, Passageways: An Interpretive History of Black America, Vol. I: 1619-1863 (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Group, 2002), p. 187.
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