North of Slavery
| North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States: 1790 – 1860 | |
| Author(s) | Leon Litwack |
|---|---|
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press |
| Publication date | 1961 |
| Pages | 325 |
| ISBN | 0226485862 |
Litwack’s examination of the treatment of African-Americans in northern states prior to the Civil War shows that freedom from slavery did not guarantee a status comparable to that of white citizens. Though slaves in the South faced more explicit deprivation of rights, “even the more subtle forms of twentieth-century racial discrimination had their antecedents in the ante bellum North.” In fact, northern whites and their political representatives actively discriminated against African-Americans because they believed that the two races were naturally unequal.
Litwack is careful not to overstate his case. northern African-Americans had more rights than slaves, and many northern whites opposed slavery. That said, “most northern whites would maintain a careful distinction between granting Negroes legal protection . . .and political and social equality.” Patterns of discrimination were not uniform among the different states but, in sum effect, the psychology of prejudice combined with legal measures to “restrict northern negroes in virtually every phase of existence.” This system undermined northern politicians who sought to regulate slavery at the Federal level. On the floor of the House of Representatives, one congressman from Virginia once demanded: “Go home, and emancipate your free negroes. When you do that, we will listen to you with more patience.”
African-Americans in the North had little political recourse, as they were excluded from voting and participation in the court system. As suffrage expanded in the Jacksonian Era, it often came at the price of insuring African-American exclusion. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont granted equal voting rights, but they only accounted for some six percent of the entire northern African-American population. Several northern states prohibited African-Americans from testifying against whites in court, and many more barred them from serving on juries. As a result, justice in northern states took on a “two-sided nature”, where sentencing for African-Americans was disproportionately harsher.
According to Litwack, political exclusion had profound psychological, social, and economic impacts. Segregated school systems weakened education and literacy, which had a dual effect of impeding political mobilization and severely limiting African-Americans’ opportunities in the labor market. Relegating African-Americans to mostly menial jobs also meant that they could only afford to live in the poorest neighborhoods. Efforts to move into better homes, even when it could be afforded, aroused threats and even violents from white residents. “The vigorous exclusion of Negroes from white residential neighborhoods,” Litwack concludes, “made escape from the ghetto virtually impossible.” In turn, economic and social exclustion made it very difficult for many African-Americans to feel much optimism towards a better future. In short, northern whites viewed blacks as inferior, and they developed a system to reinforce this notion.
Litwack clearly broke new ground with this study, and his thesis is well supported. Though it may be unfair to ask that he achieve something different from his original aim, his work still leaves a reader to wonder about the origins and evolution of this system. A few other questions are also worth asking: what were the impacts of Dred Scott and Plessy vs. Ferguson? Both cases, though significant in their shaping of American race relations, receive little Schrift from Litwack here. Most importantly, what was the relationship between northern systems of exclusion and southern slavery? Aside from weakening abolitionism, did they influence one another?
In short, it appears that North of Slavery is an effective piece of historiography in that it provokes questions about its chosen topic and inspires further research.
