varied considerably from city to city. In Richmond, for example, black people had owned property since 1790, and, until the war, "the percentage of property holders among the free population steadily increased." By 1860, there were 211 African Americans with real estate holdings in Richmond. These owners included seamstresses, barbers, and plasterers. The same was true, in smaller numbers, in the other Southern cities. Free blacks even included a few slave owners, such as Alice Bosley and Manse Bryant, who lived near Nashville, and "owned several slaves and large amounts of land."
One of the most remarkable cases was the city of Savannah, Georgia, where free blacks (including a large number of Haitian immigrants) ran numerous very successful businesses. Free blacks in Savannah even operated semi-secret schools. Education was legally forbidden for any black people, but "the restrictive laws went unenforced," and the schools "were never harassed or closed." African American churches, which were "second only to the family as a focal point of black life," also flourished in the major cities of the South. In the cities, free black men served as ministers and preachers in many cases. Even in the smaller towns, blacks, who were allowed a secondary status as members of white churches, were frequent and faithful attendees.
When given the chance, African Americans clearly demonstrated that, even when restricted by numerous laws and confined to the lower end of the labor spectrum, they could create "a thriving prosperous community." Yet, Southern whites actively disapproved of competition from enterprising black people, and hostility toward the free communities grew as the war approached and the example of free blacks became more dangerous. Thus, by the time the war started, "Southerners were seeking to control and limit the economic opportunities of blacks."
Most African Americans, urban or rural, had long had their...