However, racial prejudice against both black and Native American women made it difficult to ensure these rights in practice. But even in the South, a rising number of freed black women theoretically enjoyed the same privileges under the law as white women. In the slaveholding South, lawmakers continued to deny enslaved workers these basic human rights. On paper at least, their rights were identical to those of white women. In the North, where states abolished slavery after the Revolution, black women gained rights to marry, to have custody of their children, and to own property. The disparity in standards can perhaps be seen most dramatically in the experiences of African American women. The authority of state law meant that much depended upon where a woman lived and the particular social circumstances in her region of the country. State law rather than federal law governed women’s rights in the early republic.
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