Are Free People of Color Legally Protected?

Enslaved people only had the legal capacity to use the law in one instance, and that is in a lawsuit for their freedom if they were illegal. Free people of color had a legal personality in far more circumstances. And many of them had the same capacity as whites. So they could contract, they could sue and and be sued. In civil cases, in most states, they could suing whites. They do in a number of different circumstances, everything from suing for back wages to disputes over land.