ABSTRACT
For most Southern whites and many Northern whites as well, the emancipation of former slaves posed a major problem since these individuals, who were once property and the responsibility of their owners, were no longer under this form of social control. Emancipation was regarded in the South as a danger to the white population. In many large cities, rents are well beyond what prospective tenants can afford, given housing shortages and the unwillingness of landlords who own buildings in white neighborhoods to rent to African Americans. Access to legal services to prevent a potential eviction or to fight one is very limited. A prominent eighteenth-century Boston attorney, James Sullivan, came up with a radical solution to eliminate the negative consequences of emancipation. To alleviate the insecurity felt by a white population that still stigmatized blacks, he recommended educating the children of slaves, so whites would regard them differently from their parents and hold them in higher esteem.
