Work and Community.

Free blacks gravitated to the Northern cities looking for work and a community. In 1790 the North was home to only 5.7 percent of the total black population of the colonies but harbored nearly one-half of the free black population. In New York and other cities a large slave and free-black population existed side by side and mingled in the streets on a daily basis, along with white servants and workers. Free blacks found sporadic employment as laborers and tradesmen: wagon drivers, construction workers, tailors, shoemakers, and sailors.

Churches.

Though few free blacks prospered in the Northern cities, they did find some degree of freedom, and they deeply treasured the community life they built there. Churches were an important gathering place, and in the mid 1700s blacks often worshipped with white congregations; African Americans did not establish their own congregations with...