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Muster Book Of Free African Americans Essay

806 Words4 Pages

The American Revolution and the American Civil War had the same effect on African Americans: emancipation. My argument is that the Muster Book of Free Blacks represents an early major step in African American liberation from slavery in the United States. To support this argument, we will first examine the text, but then look at three different perspectives on emancipation that can be gleaned from this primary source: American, Black, and British and Nova Scotian. The Muster Book of Free Blacks is a registry for African Americans who were set free to Nova Scotia after the conclusion of the American Revolution. The Muster of Free Blacks records the dates of registry as “…3rd September 1783 to the 24th July 1784” ("Muster Book of Free Blacks."). The title, printed in the largest font on the document, reads “…Bluske’s Company”. The source goes on to separate people in to two different categories: “Heads of Families” and “Women and Children”. Under the “Heads of Families’ column, it lists all the male father figures in the household, while the “Women and Children” columns obviously lists everyone else. It is interesting to note the assumed gender roles of male leadership represented in this section of the document. On the right is a page titled “Index”. Ordered by last name, the purpose of it is to find the person you are …show more content…

The British, despite the wide-spread slavery of African American’s over civilizations, decided that they would rather be in violation of their treaty with America than put these African American people back in to the bonds of slavery. This document furthermore reflects the Nova Scotian viewpoint that these were truly free people who must be registered as truly free citizens. Thus, this document reflects a monumental step for concern for African American rights by third party

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