It is really strange at this point that I cannot really put an answer to this one. I mean let's put it like this one: on my mom's side, Joel House, was free prior to 1850; he had his own work in 1850 and in 1860 in Cabarrus County, N.C.; not sure when Joel House met Keziah, though looking at Keziah at 47 in 1870 Rowan County, Census, shows her oldest at the age of 17, which means if he was in slavery he would have been born about 1852, during slavery. My grandfather, Keziah's youngest was born in 1860. Looking at mom's mother's side, the Crowells are mentioned in the 1870 census
In South Carolina, on my dad's side not sure at all about the Evans and the Vance families. I have them listed in the 1880 census. So this is all I am looking at. Perhaps on mom's side there, many of the House and Crowell folks were free. Joseph