Beyond Slavery's Shadow: Free People of Color in the South

Abstract

The first thought that comes to mind when thinking about free people of color in the American South before the Civil War is why they remained in a region where the “peculiar institution” and racial tension was so predominant. Warren Eugene Milteer's work reveals the complex nature of the over 250,000 Blacks in the South prior to 1861 who lived surrounded by slavery, plantations, and the slavocracy. Milteer asserts that “in the face of discrimination and exclusion” people of color “created their own churches and social organizations. Even during the height of proslavery and white supremacist attacks” (p. 6). These Blacks’ collective experiences were diverse, posed serious challenges to their safety, and were filled with discrimination, exclusion, and disfranchisement.In the past, historian Ira Berlin called these individuals of the South “slaves without masters,” but Milteer demonstrates the ways free Blacks navigated the coarse terrain of brutality, bigotry, and numerous battles to remain liberated (pp. 10–11). There has also been an array of state and local studies, biographies, and family histories that have addressed this subject matter. Milteer stresses that people of color in the South were a conundrum who oscillated between being despised and victimized, and privileged and celebrated; these conflicting realities were a common part of their “multifaceted” existence.By way of seven dense chapters, Milteer highlights the lives of people of color who were called everything from “negroes,” “mulattoes,” and “mustees” to “Indians” (pp. 8–10). In Chapter 1, “Liberty in the Colonial South,” he illustrates how, in the 1600s and 1700s, “lawmakers slowly chipped away at the rights and privileges of free people of color” (p. 19). This chapter investigates colored indentured servants, manumission issues, the fear of interracial relations, and the ways in which enslaved people manipulated imperial conflicts to achieve greater freedom. In Chapter 2, “The Revolution of Freedom,” Milteer discusses the late 1700s, including the Haitian Revolution, Quakers, Benjamin Banneker, and the Spanish and French colonies in North America. The slight advancements people of color achieved during this era make up Chapter 3, which is unfortunately titled “The Backlash.” Milteer clearly demonstrates that progress was not linear for colored people of the South. Things did not progressively get better; instead, there were hazardous social, political, and economical zigzags, and the twist and turns took a toll on them.Chapter 4, “Making Freedom Work,” examines the United States Census to accentuate the increase of free people of color from 1800 to 1830. Within this timeframe the number of free people nearly tripled, thus causing racial contention, but it also allowed colored families, some free, others enslaved, to gather and to build deeper community bonds. Milteer asserts that whites depended on the unskilled and skilled labor of people of color. Chapter 5 highlights the aftermath of the 1831 Nat Turner Rebellion, which resulted in the arrest of colored people, heightened surveillance, and new rules hindering movement, alcohol consumption, and assembly. People's homes in the surrounding area were looted for valuables, yet those in states far from the Virginia epicenter, like Louisiana and Arkansas, were untouched by the Rebellion.Chapter 6, “Resisting Radicalism,” starts with a vignette on Pierre Casanave, addresses the population increase of free people, and ends with institution building and the defending of rights, which many historians have reserved for the aftermath of slavery. Chapter 7, “Preserving Freedom in a Divided South,” details the Civil War Era and the battles free people fought to keep their liberty and property. The Confederates tried to force people of color to act in their interest, and they reacted with violent retribution when Blacks resisted.The book's conclusion briefly tells of Hiram Revels, the first US senator of color, who finished the term of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Mississippi. Revels's ancestors were free for generations in America, and Milteer deemed him “no ordinary man” and “a man of privilege” (p. 250). The author explained that free people of color post-slavery were leaders in their communities and fought against Jim Crow policies. Overall, Beyond Slavery's Shadow answers vital questions, offers a new approach to studying free people of color, and provides an examination wide enough to show their varied experiences from lowly unskilled labors to upper-class entrepreneurs. A few of the author's claims, however, are doubtful. For instance, it is hard to fathom how it was somehow elevating or liberating for free people to do “the most difficult jobs as servants and common laborers” (p. 127). Also, many free people of color left the South for greater freedoms in the North or other places like Liberia. Nonetheless, the book will be a staple for scholars studying this subject matter, and it possesses valuable anecdotes on little-known individuals such as Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Marietta T. Hill, and Daniel A. Payne, which humanize their struggle, success, and survival in the South.