This book focuses on a select group of Black slaveowners and free Black communities in Virginia, South Carolina and Louisiana. It examines briefly the free African Americans between 1790 and the start of the Civil War. By 1820, 233,504 free African Americans were spread throughout the country. By 1860, there were 488,070 free Blacks, with 47.3 percent of the free Blacks living in cities with populations of more than 100,000. 62.5 percent of free Blacks lived in the cities rather than in rural areas.

[click here to order by mail]