[BroJoeK]

rockrr: "Some states, like the states of Indiana and Illinois were frank and blunt: 'we don't want you here'. All telegraphed a similar sentiment: 'we don't know what to do with you'. "

That has lead pro-Confederates to claim blacks were treated better in the South than the North.
But the proof of it would be some evidence -- any evidence -- of migration from the "hostile" North to the "friendly" South, and to my knowledge, despite the hostile Northern climate, it never happened until relatively recent years.

[1010RD]

Black migration north into industrial cities helped start unions to keep out that “cheap southern labor”. Northern cities were racist, but they were more modern, cities and weren’t the deep south.

There was a shoot out with a black doctor in Detroit, IIRC.