850, 92 percent of all American blacks were concentrated in the South, and of this group approximately 95 percent were slaves.
             Under the plantation system gang labour was the typical form of employment. Overseers were harsh as a matter of general practice, and brutality was common. Slaves could own no property unless sanctioned by a slave master, and rape of a female slave was not considered a crime except as it represented trespassing on another's property. Slaves could not present evidence in court against whites. In most of the South it was illegal to teach a black to read or write.
             Blacks were forbidden to carry arms or to gather in numbers except in the presence of a white person.
             Free blacks, whether living in the North or South, were confronted with atti
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