A free Negro or free black is the term used prior to the
abolition of slavery in the United States to describe an African
American who was not a slave. Almost all African Americans came
to the United States as slaves, but as early as 1619, a class of
free Negroes existed in America. The free Negro population grew
from multiple sources: (1) children born of free colored
persons, (2) mulatto children born of free colored mothers, (3)
mulatto children born of white servants or free women, (4)
children of free Negro and Indian parentage, (5) manumitted
slaves and (6) slaves who escaped. Slaveholders manumitted
slaves for various reasons. Sometimes an owner died and the
heirs did not want slaves, or a slave was freed as reward for
his or her good service, or the slave was able to pay in order
to be freed. Slaves could also be promised their freedom by
serving in the army during the Revolution; the British were the
first to recruit and promise slaves their freedom, and then the
Americans began to allow blacks to en