Were blacks really free in the North?

Authors Note:This essay is going to be about black slaves thinking the North is the answer to there freedom, but is it really?

Black people were treated very poorly in the South; many slaves thought going to the North was there path to freedom, but that reasoning is not fully correct. Which leads me to questioning, how free were blacks in the North? In my opinion, I don’t think blacks were free because there were still slave owners in the North just not even as close to as many. Some places in the North blacks could be free but they still lived under certain rules for only race and were not free for living under white people.

Black slaves had to live with many rules. For instance they weren’t allowed to vote. Although black men could vote before white women could. Black people could never say things they wanted or speak their minds for that matter. Black women and men were not allowed to vote. No blacks were allowed to have their say in anything.

Blacks also did not have social freedoms. For example they were not allowed to own property. Blacks were not allowed to be in a white man’s church. Blacks had their own churches, and what they did in there was do all of the things that they couldn’t do outside of the church. Such as speak their mind, have their voice be heard even if it was only their own race. The church was a way to get away from all of the rules of white men and to feel free.

This racism also had to do with jobs. Blacks made way under minimum wage but they still did the work because they had to support their families. Whites gave blacks the jobs they didn’t want to do and paid the black’s way less then what the job should pay. Overall they are still working for white men.

Overall I can conclude that Blacks were treated practically the same in the North as they were in the South. They still lived under a white man, which doesn’t sound exactly what you call free to me. Although the North was less racist then the South and didn’t really believe in slavery, the North still did not see blacks as equals.