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===Free blacks===

===Free blacks===

The free black population in the South grew rapidly during 1771-1815. Before the American Revolution the increase in the free black population was due mainly to local emancipations, natural population increase, and migration from rural areas. During and after the Revolution, however, there were additional ways to become free, including petitions and lawsuits, the 1782 manumission act, self-purchase, purchase by already free blacks, and individual emancipation. Fear of free blacks in an age of black revolts, however, prompted whites to impose restrictions on manumission and migration and ultimately to revert to the colonial-era policy of expelling free blacks from Virginia.<ref> Michael L. Nicholls, "Strangers Setting Among Us: The Sources and Challenge of the Urban Free Black Population of Early Virginia". ''Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 2000 108(2): 155-179. 0042-6636 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/4249829  in JSTOR]</ref>

The free black population in the South grew rapidly during 1771-1815, from 28,000 in 1790 to 186,000 in 1860 in the South Atlantic states alone. Before the American Revolution the increase in the free black population was due mainly to local emancipations, natural population increase, and migration from rural areas. During and after the Revolution, however, there were additional ways to become free, including petitions and lawsuits, the 1782 manumission act, self-purchase, purchase by already free blacks, and individual emancipation. Fear of free blacks in an age of black revolts, however, prompted whites to impose restrictions on manumission and migration and ultimately to revert to the colonial-era policy of expelling free blacks from Virginia.<ref> Michael L. Nicholls, "Strangers Setting Among Us: The Sources and Challenge of the Urban Free Black Population of Early Virginia". ''Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 2000 108(2): 155-179. 0042-6636 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/4249829  in JSTOR]</ref>

Formal laws and informal customs created innumerable obstacles to the socioeconomic advance of the free blacks in the South. Laws prohibited free blacks from some activities and occupations and restricted their participation in others. Racism and terrorism by whites also made advancement difficult. Despite these disadvantages, the free black population fared rather well, with much better nutrition than people back in Europe or Africa.  They grew nearly as tall as white Americans and towered over contemporary Europeans.<ref> Howard. Bodenhorn, "A Troublesome Caste: Height and Nutrition of Antebellum Virginia's Rural Free Blacks." ''Journal of Economic History'' 1999 59(4): 972-996. 0022-0507 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2566684  in JSTOR]</ref>

Formal laws and informal customs created innumerable obstacles to the socioeconomic advance of the free blacks in the South. Laws prohibited free blacks from some activities and occupations and restricted their participation in others. Racism and terrorism by whites also made advancement difficult. Despite these disadvantages, the free black population fared rather well, with much better nutrition than people back in Europe or Africa.  They grew nearly as tall as white Americans and towered over contemporary Europeans.<ref> Howard. Bodenhorn, "A Troublesome Caste: Height and Nutrition of Antebellum Virginia's Rural Free Blacks." ''Journal of Economic History'' 1999 59(4): 972-996. 0022-0507 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2566684  in JSTOR]</ref>