The Negro in Tennessee, 1790-1865

Excerpt: 'This work was undertaken to discover the exact status of the negro in one of the border states. An effort has been made to give definite information as to the legal, social, economic, and religious condition of the negro from his introduction into slavery in Colonial Western North Carolina to the abolition of slavery in Tennessee in 1865. The study reveals the struggles of the slave from a status of servitude under the common law through the institution of slavery regulated by an extensive slave-code into the final condition of an almost helpless citizen with a responsibility for which he was only partially prepared. The status of the free negro is also established in his relations to both the slave and the whites. It was rather disappointing to find that the free negro was more disadvantageously situated than the slave. He never attained either civil or political equality, although he exercised the suffrage until 1834. He was subject to a special code different from either the slave code or the regular code. It is clear, however, that the negro, whether slave or free, was making progress. He was receiving an industrial training without which he could never have sustained himself without help, when freedom came. His training for active participation in the body politic was negligible. He was taught the lesson of being obedient to law.'