By 1800 most of the Northern states had either done away with
slavery or had made provision for its gradual abolition. Although this
might not change the status of an adult slave, he knew his
children, when they reached maturity, would be free. This meant
that the important issue in the North was that of identity.
What would be the place of Negroes who were not fully accepted as
Americans? While Northern states were willing to grant freedom
to the Afro-Americans, they continued to view them as inferiors.
Many observers remarked that race prejudice actually increased
with the abolition of slavery. Northern freedmen concluded,
like their slave brothers in the South, that they would have to
work out their own salvation. This left them to wrestle with
such questions as: "Am I an American?" "Am I an African?" "Am I
inferior"?" "How can I establish my manhood and gain
acceptance?"
In the years immediately preceding the Revolution, there were
slaves who had wrestled with some of these questions: Jupiter
Hammon and Phillis Wheatley. They tried to establish their claim
to manhood through literary ability.
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