Free African Americans in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania.

Creative writing

Write a series of letters between a free African American in Augusta and a free African American in Franklin. It might be interesting to have the authors be actual people listed in the census manuscripts or Virginia free black registries. These letters could refer to the following: 1. the particular information you have learned about your two subjects, 2. information on free blacks in general, such as economic status, relationship with county and city government, educational opportunities.

or

Traditional essay

Compare the lives of free blacks in Augusta and in Franklin County OR compare the lives of free blacks and whites in Augusta County only. Your essay could consider the following: residential patterns, occupations, depiction in newspapers, place of birth, wealth.

Research suggestions:

• Use the population census (in Part I: The Eve of the War, Public Records) o both communities to uncover matters such as black or mulatto property ownership, family size, and place of birth for free blacks. For example, look for all blacks with value of real estate greater than $1.

• Read the transcribed articles on race relations in the newspaper browser.

• Examine the Augusta and Staunton Free Black Registries. From what you can tell, what percentage of the free blacks had been emancipated, and how many had been born free? How did they prove that they were not slaves? What other clues do the Registries give us about life for free African Americans in and antebellum South?