What do you think?
Rate this book
Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South
Slaves Without Masters is a vivid and moving history of the quarter of a million free blacks who lived in the South before the Civil War. First published to great acclaim in 1974, Slaves Without Masters established Ira Berlin as one of the outstanding historians of African American life in slavery and freedom. It traces the lives of free black men and women, portraying their struggle for community, liberty, economic independence, and education within an oppressive society.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
6 people are currently reading
331 people want to read
About the author
Ira Berlin
32 books52 followersA historian of American slavery, Ira Berlin earned his BA in chemistry, and an MA and Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle and Federal City College in Washington, DC before moving to the University of Maryland in 1974, where he was Distinguished University Professor of History. A former president of the Organization of American Historians, Berlin was the founding editor of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, which he directed until 1991.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 17, 2011
If you feel like learning something today, this is definitely a book to pick up. A detailed history of the tenuous position that freed blacks held between the Revolution and Emancipation, this book shows all the contradictory forces that acted upon this marginal population. A fascinating--and heartbreaking--read.
November 29, 2019
The early history of people of color in the United Stated has focused almost exclusively on their enslavement, which has incompletely presented and positioned the identities of, ideologies about, and policies toward blacks in this country up through the modern age. For those seeking a more expansive and nuanced portrait of early African American history, Slaves Without Masters presents the oft-untold histories of the approximately quarter million people of color freed between the Revolutionary and Civil wars...what is perhaps most illuminating and impactful about this historical narrative is that it provides an incisive analysis of the varied cultural perspectives, social ideologies and political and economic agendas that shaped and shifted the lives of free people of color during this vacillating and volatile period leading up to the Civil War.Read the rest of my review at https://reneecanwrite.com/2019/11/29/the-concealed-history-of-free-people-of-color-in-america/
June 26, 2024
AN INSIGHTFUL HISTORICAL STUDY OF THIS IMPORTANT CLASS
Ira Berlin (1941-2018 ) was an American historian, professor of history at the University of Maryland, and former president of Organization of American Historians. This 1974 book was awarded the Best First Book Prize by the National Historical Society.
He wrote in the Preface, “the line between slavery and freedom was never quite what some abolitionists made it out to be. Once free, blacks generally remained at the bottom of the social order, despised by whites, burdened with increasingly oppressive racial prescriptions, and subjected to verbal and physical abuse. Free Negroes stood outside the direct governance of a master, but in the eyes of many whites their place in society had not been significantly altered. They were slaves without masters… With hard work, skill, and luck, some free Negroes climbed off the floor of Southern society, acquired wealth and social standing. A few masterless slaves themselves became slave masters… Yet neither were they free. Instead, Southern free Negroes balanced precariously between abject slavery… and full freedom, which was denied them….
“This book … tells how free Negroes lived, worked, and worshipped, how they educated, entertained, improved, and protected themselves. Its purpose is… also to understand how they conceived of themselves as a black elite in a slave society… [or] to understand how different classes of freemen conceived of their social role… a second theme of this book is race relations. Here the thesis, simply put, is that in learning to deal with free blacks before the Civil War, Southern whites developed institutions, standards of personal relations, and patterns of thought which they applied to all blacks after Emancipation… When the Emancipation Proclamation and the thirteenth Amendment freed all blacks, white applies the panoply of attitudes and institutions they had long used to control the free Negro caste… within a generation the web of constraints that had dominated the lives of antebellum free Negroes had been imposed on all Negroes.”
He explains, “The American Revolution swelled the ranks of the tiny Southern free Negro population… The War of Independence propelled large numbers of blacks from slavery to freedom. The desperate need for troops and laborers forced both belligerents to muster blacks into their service with the promise of liberty. Given the chance, most blacks gladly traded the chains of bondage for military service and eventual freedom. The British, who had no direct interest in slavery, were the first to offer the exchange.” (Pg. 16)
He points out, “Bitter experience cautioned blacks against depending too heavily on white benevolence of justice. Many slaves did not wait for their masters to offer freedom or for the courts to certify their liberty; they bought it by their own hard work. Masters sympathetic to the libertarian spirit of the age, but unwilling to suffer the economic losses that accompanied manumission, often permitted their slaves to purchase freedom. At the same time, the transformation of the Upper South economy increased the practice of allowing slaves to save some cash. Many slaves bought their liberty with money they earned while hiring their own time.” (Pg. 35)
He notes, “Like abolition in the North, large-scale manumission in the South encouraged slaves to leave their masters. The sudden liberation of men and women long known as equals shook those who remained in bondage… Slaveowners understood the disturbing effect freeing some slaves had on all slaves… many other slaveholders thought it ‘natural’ that [their] slave would attempt to pass as free…” (Pg. 38) He adds, “many masters viewed the evangelicals as dangerous subversives and sometimes kept their slaves from religious meetings. Yet it was difficult for Christian masters to deny the opportunity of salvation to their charges, even though many black converts were the first runaways.” (Pg. 40)
He observes, “it took a special kind of person to leave the familiarity of a relatively small, if harsh, world and risk almost certain punishment that would follow failure. Slaveholders seemed to understand this and often noted the character traits that set these slaves apart… Most of the runaways were skilled artisans, mechanics, and house servants. Almost all were acculturated Afro-Americans; many were literate, and some had traveled widely. These blacks had seen more of the world, had a wider range of experience, and were not blinded by the narrow alternatives of plantation life. Before they ran off, most fugitives were already part of the black elite.” (Pg. 45)
He acknowledges, “Although Christian equalitarianism momentarily bent the color line, it could not break it. In most churches, membership did not assure blacks of equal participation. Indeed, free Negroes, like slaves, were usually seated in a distant corner or gallery and barred from most rights of church membership.” (Pg. 69)
He says, “Naturally, the strongest supporters of the African schools were the blacks themselves. Free Negroes, like whites, looked increasingly to education as a prerequisite for upward mobility and greater participation in American society.” (Pg. 75) He adds, “Ironically, the more the free Negro became like them, the more enraged whites became. It was easy … to despise a slave; whites needed reasons to hate blacks who were free. The growth of the free Negro caste and development of Afro-American culture … forced whites to define more carefully than ever the differences between free and slave, white and black. It was no accident that an articulate defense of slavery appeared with the emergence of the free Negro caste.” (Pg. 89-90)
He points out, “Only rarely did slaveholders shed the sin of slavery at once by freeing all their slaves as did Robert Carter and George Washington in the earlier period. Instead, manumitters … liberated just one or two favorites and willed their remaining slaves to a worthy relative or profitably sold them south. Slaveholders saw no contradiction in doling out liberty with one hand and tightening the chains of bondage with the other.” (Pg. 150)
He notes, “Under the pressure of common conditions, poor blacks and whites became one. They lived together, worked together, and inevitably slept together… The cramped working-class districts of Southern cities promoted the easy intimacy between free Negroes and whites… Fraternization between whites and free Negroes extended to all corners or working-class life. Poor whites and blacks often patronized the same tippling shops, gambling houses, and other places of entertainment.” (Pg. 261)
But he adds, “The same lines of class and color that separated free Negroes from slaves also created divisions within the free Negro caste. Wealthy free Negroes often looked with disdain upon their poorer brethren who caroused with slaves and lowly whites.” (Pg. 273) He continues, “In striving to identify with the white upper class, the free Negro elite became imbued with the very racial attitudes that prevented them from enjoying the benefits of their elevated class position.” (Pg. 276) Later, he adds, “Well into the twentieth century, the descendants of the free Negro elite maintained their lofty status within black society.” (Pg. 390
He suggests, “The free Negro’s implicit challenge to white dominance made racial segregation imperative. If the South developed segregation more slowly than the North, it was nevertheless present from the emergence of the free Negro caste.” (Pg. 321)
This book will be of great interest to those studying African-American history and the history of slavery and emancipation.
Ira Berlin (1941-2018 ) was an American historian, professor of history at the University of Maryland, and former president of Organization of American Historians. This 1974 book was awarded the Best First Book Prize by the National Historical Society.
He wrote in the Preface, “the line between slavery and freedom was never quite what some abolitionists made it out to be. Once free, blacks generally remained at the bottom of the social order, despised by whites, burdened with increasingly oppressive racial prescriptions, and subjected to verbal and physical abuse. Free Negroes stood outside the direct governance of a master, but in the eyes of many whites their place in society had not been significantly altered. They were slaves without masters… With hard work, skill, and luck, some free Negroes climbed off the floor of Southern society, acquired wealth and social standing. A few masterless slaves themselves became slave masters… Yet neither were they free. Instead, Southern free Negroes balanced precariously between abject slavery… and full freedom, which was denied them….
“This book … tells how free Negroes lived, worked, and worshipped, how they educated, entertained, improved, and protected themselves. Its purpose is… also to understand how they conceived of themselves as a black elite in a slave society… [or] to understand how different classes of freemen conceived of their social role… a second theme of this book is race relations. Here the thesis, simply put, is that in learning to deal with free blacks before the Civil War, Southern whites developed institutions, standards of personal relations, and patterns of thought which they applied to all blacks after Emancipation… When the Emancipation Proclamation and the thirteenth Amendment freed all blacks, white applies the panoply of attitudes and institutions they had long used to control the free Negro caste… within a generation the web of constraints that had dominated the lives of antebellum free Negroes had been imposed on all Negroes.”
He explains, “The American Revolution swelled the ranks of the tiny Southern free Negro population… The War of Independence propelled large numbers of blacks from slavery to freedom. The desperate need for troops and laborers forced both belligerents to muster blacks into their service with the promise of liberty. Given the chance, most blacks gladly traded the chains of bondage for military service and eventual freedom. The British, who had no direct interest in slavery, were the first to offer the exchange.” (Pg. 16)
He points out, “Bitter experience cautioned blacks against depending too heavily on white benevolence of justice. Many slaves did not wait for their masters to offer freedom or for the courts to certify their liberty; they bought it by their own hard work. Masters sympathetic to the libertarian spirit of the age, but unwilling to suffer the economic losses that accompanied manumission, often permitted their slaves to purchase freedom. At the same time, the transformation of the Upper South economy increased the practice of allowing slaves to save some cash. Many slaves bought their liberty with money they earned while hiring their own time.” (Pg. 35)
He notes, “Like abolition in the North, large-scale manumission in the South encouraged slaves to leave their masters. The sudden liberation of men and women long known as equals shook those who remained in bondage… Slaveowners understood the disturbing effect freeing some slaves had on all slaves… many other slaveholders thought it ‘natural’ that [their] slave would attempt to pass as free…” (Pg. 38) He adds, “many masters viewed the evangelicals as dangerous subversives and sometimes kept their slaves from religious meetings. Yet it was difficult for Christian masters to deny the opportunity of salvation to their charges, even though many black converts were the first runaways.” (Pg. 40)
He observes, “it took a special kind of person to leave the familiarity of a relatively small, if harsh, world and risk almost certain punishment that would follow failure. Slaveholders seemed to understand this and often noted the character traits that set these slaves apart… Most of the runaways were skilled artisans, mechanics, and house servants. Almost all were acculturated Afro-Americans; many were literate, and some had traveled widely. These blacks had seen more of the world, had a wider range of experience, and were not blinded by the narrow alternatives of plantation life. Before they ran off, most fugitives were already part of the black elite.” (Pg. 45)
He acknowledges, “Although Christian equalitarianism momentarily bent the color line, it could not break it. In most churches, membership did not assure blacks of equal participation. Indeed, free Negroes, like slaves, were usually seated in a distant corner or gallery and barred from most rights of church membership.” (Pg. 69)
He says, “Naturally, the strongest supporters of the African schools were the blacks themselves. Free Negroes, like whites, looked increasingly to education as a prerequisite for upward mobility and greater participation in American society.” (Pg. 75) He adds, “Ironically, the more the free Negro became like them, the more enraged whites became. It was easy … to despise a slave; whites needed reasons to hate blacks who were free. The growth of the free Negro caste and development of Afro-American culture … forced whites to define more carefully than ever the differences between free and slave, white and black. It was no accident that an articulate defense of slavery appeared with the emergence of the free Negro caste.” (Pg. 89-90)
He points out, “Only rarely did slaveholders shed the sin of slavery at once by freeing all their slaves as did Robert Carter and George Washington in the earlier period. Instead, manumitters … liberated just one or two favorites and willed their remaining slaves to a worthy relative or profitably sold them south. Slaveholders saw no contradiction in doling out liberty with one hand and tightening the chains of bondage with the other.” (Pg. 150)
He notes, “Under the pressure of common conditions, poor blacks and whites became one. They lived together, worked together, and inevitably slept together… The cramped working-class districts of Southern cities promoted the easy intimacy between free Negroes and whites… Fraternization between whites and free Negroes extended to all corners or working-class life. Poor whites and blacks often patronized the same tippling shops, gambling houses, and other places of entertainment.” (Pg. 261)
But he adds, “The same lines of class and color that separated free Negroes from slaves also created divisions within the free Negro caste. Wealthy free Negroes often looked with disdain upon their poorer brethren who caroused with slaves and lowly whites.” (Pg. 273) He continues, “In striving to identify with the white upper class, the free Negro elite became imbued with the very racial attitudes that prevented them from enjoying the benefits of their elevated class position.” (Pg. 276) Later, he adds, “Well into the twentieth century, the descendants of the free Negro elite maintained their lofty status within black society.” (Pg. 390
He suggests, “The free Negro’s implicit challenge to white dominance made racial segregation imperative. If the South developed segregation more slowly than the North, it was nevertheless present from the emergence of the free Negro caste.” (Pg. 321)
This book will be of great interest to those studying African-American history and the history of slavery and emancipation.
May 15, 2022
The pages have yellowed with age, but Ira Berlin’s Slaves without Masters is one of the most useful and well-sourced texts I’ve found on free African Americans in the pre-Civil War South. The author describes the political causes and social nuances that drove both the success and demise of antebellum free blacks with clarity and objectivity. The depth and breadth of the research with footnotes that sometimes fill the page is impressive, but does not interfere with the readability of this important, and relatively unexplored aspect of American history. Written almost fifty years ago, this book is most relevant in helping the reader understand how and why some of our most egregious social and cultural problems persist today in the United States.
August 31, 2016
Free blacks before the Civil War occupied a complicated position. This book details their relationships with slaves (sometimes amicable, sometimes hostile, often linked by blood or marriage), whites (who needed their work, but resented their claims to equality), the class rifts within the group (divided by income, profession, and lightness of skin) and the many restrictions white Southerners placed on them. If the subject interests you, it's an excellent book.
August 6, 2015
Way overrated. blech. Should have been called Free Negro because this overly used, and abused, phrase appears on almost every page. There have been slaves all through history, the Romans took whole towns and populations. Not impressed with this one.
December 2, 2015
Written in a way that makes it hard to follow for even advanced readers.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews