Answer:
Slaves must have resided below it and free black people above it, with every man, woman and child in chains trying to escape to the North just as soon as they could following the proverbial North Star to a new life of unbounded opportunity while those already up there remained vigilant against being kidnapped back into slavery down in the South.
All of these people, and their descendants, continued to live in slave-holding Virginia, even during the Civil War.
"Throughout the region, repressive laws helped create the conditions for a vast underclass that for most free blacks meant living along a very thin line between slavery and freedom, debt and dependency, poverty and pride. In fact, many of those same laws would lay the groundwork for what would follow after the Civil War and Reconstruction during the Jim Crow era."
"The cruelty towards free blacks was as bad in the north as in the south. Slavery had become a southern affair, but bigotry was truly an issue for all of America. The poor whites nationwide feared free black competition and arranged for numerous race laws in the north and south both. Abraham Lincoln himself believed the racism was too deep seated to be dealt with, and so advocated removing the blacks from the whole country, not just the south."
I really hope this helps! Some of these are in quotes!
