Comment Re:Considering the mindset of the era (Score 1) 360
And segregation didn't exist as a concept in 1600s, 1700s, or early 1800s america. The southern states treated blacks as slaves, and the northern states treated "freemen" blacks the same as whites
You mention the southern states as if they were a different country. I think you're exaggerating about how many free blacks there were, and about the rights they enjoyed. Free blacks were the exception, not the rule.
A few states adopted "gradual emancipation" laws in the 1780s, and by 1800 only ten percent of blacks were free. This hardly sounds like racial equality.
The scarcity of free blacks isn't surprising, however, considering that the vast majority of blacks were concentrated in the South until the Great Migration of the 20th century.