And the Make it down. You can go. Make it down. I'm thinking about.

Making back! This is hell.

hell. Well, manufacturing descent since 1996.

This is hell, the lives of free people of color and the antebellum and even pre-revolutionary

South are far too often overlooked when studying the history of the United

States by failing to recognize their contributions and even

their mere existence, we miss an important aspect of Southern life that existed

alongside and was at times interwoven with the institution of slavery.

The fact that yes, there were people of color who are relatively free with limited rights

makes the issues of both race and slavery, far more complicated and complex,

as different communities had varying understandings of what a person of colors was or should be

and who can be free and who should not.

Our conception of who was free and who was not becomes far less clear.

When we come to the realization that the more well-off free people of color actually owned

slaves benefiting and profiting from the cruelties of slavery, even fearing the impact the

end of slavery would have on their own bottom line to the point they would

sacrifice their very lives for the cause. It's time we re-examine what we know and

what we don't know about life in the South prior to the Civil War. Throughout the period

as more radical demands of abolitionism arose from those fighting for the end of

slavery and the beginning of freedom for many people of color in the South the calls for more radical punishment

of free people of color also became louder with politicians vociferously exploiting

rising hatred for their own popularity.

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