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For free African Americans, the South was never a comfortable place. In a slave society their presence was always suspect, and slaveholders went to great lengths to limit their numbers.

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Those Northern cities closest to the South experienced the largest growth.

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Southern white men were expected to strive for the independence that land owning brought. If they could not all be planters, at the very least they were expected to be small farmers.

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For African Americans, finding employment in Northern cities was no easy task. Their job possibilities were limited by discriminatory labor practices demanded by European immigrants competing with blacks for skilled jobs.

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In the North, however, African Americans were generally denied skilled jobs. Southern migrants were particularly disadvantaged since they were more likely than Northern-born blacks to have job skills.

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In the North, however, African Americans were generally denied skilled jobs. Southern migrants were particularly disadvantaged since they were more likely than Northern-born blacks to have job skills.

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African Americans found it almost impossible to obtain licenses as hack drivers or pushcart operators, denying them important opportunities to become small businessmen.

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The few exceptions were "one or two employed as printers, one blacksmith and one shoemaker."

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Migration from their Southern homes was not easy, but as the antebellum period wore on, more and more African Americans made the move.

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Their travel between the Virginia and New York homes was so frequent that various family members might be found living together in either location at any given time.

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The rampant discrimination against black men in the Northern labor markets made it unlikely that a family could be supported on one salary.

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The domestic work open to African-American women was often steady, unlike the seasonal nature of many of the laboring jobs available to men.

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Black women were often very influential within the household.

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Studies of the black family have long noted the increased independence and authority women exercised within the household because of their crucial role in the family economy.

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One attractive feature of domestic work in the homes of others, or of "taking in" washing or sewing at one's own home, was that such an arrangement allowed for the care of children at the workplace.

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For free African Americans, the South was never a comfortable place. In a slave society their presence was always suspect, and slaveholders went to great lengths to limit their numbers.

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States like North Carolina prohibited free African Americans from entering their territory.

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In several states, including Maryland, free blacks convicted on the most minor charges were sold into slavery.

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It is hardly surprising that many free men and women seriously considered leaving the South. Although some would cast their lot with those advocating immigration to Africa and the West Indies, the overwhelming majority of voluntary migrants moved into established African-American communities in the North.

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In 1859, South Carolina's legislature established the Committee on the Colored Population, which seriously considered enslaving all the state's free African Americans.

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The Southern colonies who practiced the system of plantation farming were the Maryland Colony, Virginia Colony, North Carolina Colony, South Carolina Colony and the Georgia Colony

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The economy of the plantations was based on a massive labor force and the ability to produce large quantities of cash crops

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The reason that the system of plantation farming sprang up in the South was due to the climate of the regions.

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Mild winters and hot, humid summers made it possible to grow crops throughout the year which was ideally suited for plantation farming

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Plantation Farming - Colonial America