You have free papers that show your status. However, you would be at risk all the time of people just ignoring your free papers and kidnapping you and enslaving you. This is what happened to Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave. He had his free papers with him but they were destroyed by the kidnappers. He had many friends and ample evidence that not only was he free, but he was born and raised free in a free state. His family knew within a week or two of his kidnapping what happened to him, but they could do nothing because they did not know where he was and he had no way to get word to them. The reward for capturing a runaway slave was great. This meant, as Northup describes it, every poor white person was eager to find an escaped slave to turn in. So when any black person was in public, he/she carried with him/her their papers, whether free papers or, if a slave, a note from their owner that they were on legitimate business. They could expect frequent challenges from people hoping to basically win the lottery by finding an escaped slave. Or have some fun by getting to beat up someone who was not an escaped slave but whose papers weren't entirely in order, because you were allowed to beat them up if you found them. This sort of kidnapping of slaves whose papers weren't in order, was not infrequent.