African Americans in The Revolutionary War - Free African Americans

Free African Americans

By 1770, there may have been 40,000 or more free African Americans the Thirteen colonies.Template:ColoCitation needed This number may have included runaway slaves, descendants of early indentured servants, and black immigrants from the West Indies.

The status of free black people in colonial America was one of uncertainty, one between a slave and a free white. He was faced with special legal, economic, and social restrictions. However, few opted to trade their free status for that of a slave. Many acquired property, and left wills leaving their property to their children.

Read more about this topic:  African Americans In The Revolutionary War

Famous quotes containing the words african americans, free, african and/or americans:

    The confirmation of Clarence Thomas, one of the most conservative voices to be added to the [Supreme] Court in recent memory, carries a sobering message for the African- American community.... As he begins to make his mark upon the lives of African Americans, we must acknowledge that his successful nomination is due in no small measure to the support he received from black Americans.
    Kimberly Crenshaw (b. 1959)

    I believe that man is in the last resort so free a being that his right to be what he believes himself to be cannot be contested.
    —G.C. (Georg Christoph)

    The treatment of African and African American culture in our education was no different from their treatment in Tarzan movies.
    Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)

    Americans will listen, but they do not care to read. War and Peace must wait for the leisure of retirement, which never really comes: meanwhile it helps to furnish the living room. Blockbusting fiction is bought as furniture. Unread, it maintains its value. Read, it looks like money wasted. Cunningly, Americans know that books contain a person, and they want the person, not the book.
    Anthony Burgess (b. 1917)