AN INHERENT CONTRADICTION : Revolutionary ideology which proclaimed
freedom and equality was contradictory to the existence of slavery.
 

GRADUAL EMANCIPATION

NORTH : States began to outlaw slavery, including Vermont, New York,
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and
New Jersey. New Hampshire did not abolish slavery but there
were none in the state by 1800.

SOUTH : Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland changed laws
that had restricted an owner's ability to free his slaves.
South Carolina and Georgia never did this. North Carolina
insisted that manumissions be approved by county courts.

GROWTH OF THE FREE BLACK POPULATION

In 1755 only 4% of African Americans in Maryland were free. This was
representative of the rest of the colonies. Most of these were mulattos.

The Revolutionary War changed the status of many blacks. Escaped
slaves, veterans of the army, those emancipated by their owners contributed
to the growth of free blacks. By 1800 11% of the black population was free.

In the Chesapeake there was a change-over from tobacco production to
grain which was less labor intensive. Owners began freeing "excess" slaves. Beginning in the 1780's freed slaves often went to Boston and Philadelphia.

Emancipation did not bring equality. Education, jobs, and the purchase
of property were often difficult for blacks to acquire. Blacks gradually
developed their own institutions which provided schools, churches, insurance.
 

DEVELOPMENT OF RACIST THEORY

Before the Revolution blacks were considered inferior but most
attributed this to their environment and the onus of enslavement.

After the Revolution southerners needed to rationalize their adherence
to slavery. They argued that blacks were not fully human and that the
principles of republican equality applied only to whites. Many, like
Jefferson in 1781, said blacks were inferior in the endowments of body and
mind. Blacks were believed to be congenitally lazy, dishonest, uncivilized,
and incapable of being civilized. Blacks were said to be sexually
promiscuous and black men lusted after white women.

The racist philosophy affirmed the superiority of whites whether rich or poor. It opened a gulf between blacks and poor whites who might otherwise
have united together against the elite.