Compare and contrast the lives of free blacks to enslaved Af

Compare and contrast the lives of free blacks to enslaved African Americans? What privileges and rights did free blacks have that the enslaved did not? How did free blacks work to undermine the system of slavery?

Solution

Q1) Free blacks are the black people by race who had legal and human rights whereas enslaved African Americans are merely viewed as a property without any rights. Free blacks used to work and earn on their own in low paying and skilled jobs mostly whereas enslaved blacks solely worked to earn for their owners or masters. Though there existed legal privileges for free blacks, they were still discriminated at professional and social places by whites. Enslaved blacks were purely viewed as a commodity or property which can be bought, sold and transferred to heirs at their will.

Q2) The privileges and rights that free blacks had but the enslaved did not include -

i) Legal right to vote, live and work as they wish to.

ii) Human rights to speak, express opinions, visit religious places, apply for skilled jobs etc.

iii) Right to establish own organizations, employ people irrespective of race, purchase and sell goods as they wish.

Q3) Though there were legal rights for free blacks to live on their own terms, a majority of the them were discriminated at a social, professional and personal level by the white population. Hence, to utilize their rights for life and to undermine the system of slavery, the free blacks worked together as below -

1. Establishing schools and religious places to accommodate the black population.

2. Establishing organizations to offer skilled and unskilled jobs to black population.

3. Gathering blacks for meetings to increase awareness on their rights

4. Encouraging literary works that motivated people to opine about the slavery and protest against the dominant practices thay suppressed the blacks.