Freedom really means to determine action without restraint. In the Revolutionary war era, this was not true. Freedom meant to not be enslaved. The few rights that came with it were bonuses. Blacks did not have freedom the north.
Blacks in the North were limited to very few political rights. They were given the right to vote in less than half of the states in the north. Despite one exception, there weren't any blacks on any juries. Despite few political rights they had many economic rights.
Blacks were allowed to own property and businesses. Also they had the right to have a job and become economically strong. These rights were limited by segregation. People would not buy from blacks because they were black. Therefore black businesses were not usually successful.
Socially, blacks held no rights and many restrictions. They could not marry whites, dine with whites, care for whites as a doctor, or talk with whites in the theater, concert room, lecture room, or church. Blacks were treated the same socially as if they were outcasts and as if they were the most inferior race.
Blacks in the north had few rights. Some say that they were treated the same as blacks in the south. Not true, in the north blacks were not slaves. Northern blacks almost had it worse. They could not be socially accepted in the world that they were considered "free". They worked for a living and learned the hard way that they could not support themselves. Blacks in the north were never truly free until Martin Luther King Jr. gave blacks freedom. Although blacks were not enslaved in the north, they still were not free.
