North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790-1860

North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790-1860 by Litwack, Leon F.. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780226485867.

A classic work of history that helped change popular understanding of what Black life was really like in the North before the Civil War North of Slavery offers a bracing account of the life of free African Americans in the North across nearly two centuries before the Civil War. Leon F. Litwack draws on a vast store of archival evidence to paint a picture of antebellum America that is significantly more complicated and nuanced than the common view that flatly contrasts the North and the South. Instead, he shows that, while Black people in the North had many opportunities that were denied in the South, they nonetheless faced segregation, repression, and violence. At the same time, Litwack reveals the many ways in which the enslaved population in the South resisted their bondage. This book was a landmark when it was published in 1965, and it has remained a crucial source for our understanding of American history ever since.