Nice try but those incidents do not change the FACT that without the Slave Patrols slaves would have fled to the North in the thousands to escape the tyranny of the Slavers.
They understood where they would have a better chance at life.
I certainly don't claim the North was perfect for ex-slaves but compared to the Tyranny of the Whip and Lash it was vastly better. Why all the trouble about runaways and the Fugitive slave laws if there was no difference? Why did the Blacks flee to the North if given half a chance?
You can pretend all you want but all your pretending does not change the fact that Abolitionists were a strong and growing force feared by the South. They were not nearly as racist as their fellow Yankees and chances are most of the most severe racists actions such as the Draft Riots you illustrated were perpetrated by new immigrants not Yankees.
Northern Black Laws prohibited them from settling in the Northern states.
Frederick Douglass observed emancipation laws in the North had merely transformed people of color from slaves of individuals into "slaves of the community."
In the Northern states, we are not slaves to individuals, not personal slaves, yet in many respects we are the slaves of the community.
[jsuati #368] They understood where they would have a better chance at life.
If you say so.
Then why did the majority of legally freed slaves remain in the south to live? And if the north was so great, why did the state of Illinois auction off black people into indentured servitude for the "crime" of simply crossing into their borders and staying too long?