A free Negro or free black is the term use historically to describe African Americans who were not slaves prior to the abolition of slavery. Although almost all African Americans came to the United States as slaves, from the earliest days of American slavery, men and women were set free for numerous reasons. Sometimes an owner died and the heirs did not want slaves, or a slave was freed as reward for his good service, or he worked his way out of slavery by paying for his freedom. Free blacks in the antebellum period--those years from the formation of the Union until the Civil War--were quite outspoken about the injustice of slavery.