Why is it important to examine the life of free African-Americans in the North before the Civil War?

In my honest opinion , i’d say franklin d roosevelt was a president that impacted our nation , i say this because fdr is voted among top three best us presidents and he was the longest serving president by 3 terms , usually presidents only supposed to have two terms increments of 4 years , equivalent to 8 years total before election time. and he established the fdic , through the 1933 banking act and he established the us , social security system , during his presidency, and established a national minimum wage , through the fair labor standards act , fdr led the allied coalition to victory in wwii and he played a major role in the creation of the united nations.