More buried history: Black slave owners in the US
A very interesting read!!
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In many instances, free black slave owners shared a similar view of slavery with their white counterparts. Slave owners of both races occasionally manumitted a trusted servant and in the same moment requested the sale of another slave. The act of freeing one or several slaves while others remained in bondage did not constitute a firm commitment against slavery, but a personal view which acknowledged that some slaves, through merit or hard work, deserved their freedom, while others were destined to be slaves until death. So when philanthropic free blacks purchased slaves and then emancipated them, they were not always paternalistic owners as Carter G. Woodson suggested.
For example, Richard Holloway, Sr., a free black of Charleston City, bought a slave named Charles Benford in order that the slave might enjoy his freedom. Yet at the same time, he owned other slaves who were not treated so kindly. In 1834, for instance, he purchased a Negro woman named Sarah and her two children, Annett and Edward, from Susan B. Robertson for $575. Within three years after the purchase, he apparently became dissatisfied with the slave family and sold them for $945. Even though Richard Holloway, Sr., allowed a trusted servant to enjoy a greater degree of freedom, he was still a slaveowner for profit. So he sold and purchased slaves as an investment even while he held other slaves for benevolent reasons. To consider him a benevolent master would be erroneous because he also exploited other slaves for his own benefit. (more…)
Related links:
Black slaveowners in South Carolina
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You will be somewhat hard-pressed to find this particular historical fact listed on the Internet, or in most of our schools.
Sure, and even more bizarre are the black slave owners who attempted to join the Confederacy.
This happened near New Orleans, I believe. These idiots wanted to form their on fighting unit and actually began training. And Jeff Davis actually considered it for a while then thought the wiser.
Ric
Black Bloggers Assn.
http://blacklogs.com
Comment by Ric Landers | February 28, 2005
I’M TIRED OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH TOO! IT SEEMS ALL THE
ESTABLISHMENT CAN REMEMBER IS SLAVERY/CIVIL-RIGHTS-60′S
WHEN THERE ARE TONS OF POSITIVE OTHER EVENTS IN HIS-
TORY.
Comment by lawrence moore | March 1, 2005
It has been pretty well established that over 65,000 free blacks joined the Confederate Army and Navy with 13,000 soldiers and 1,650 sailors actually being in combat against the North. Black historians Evrin Jordan and Edward Smith have published books on this. Even the National Park Service now acknowledges this suppressed history. Interestingly, it was accepted fact until about 1910—there were monuments to Black Confederate veterans built,there were Black Confederate Veterans groups,and Black Confederate veterans received pensions. Then starting about 1910 things began to change such as the word “soldier” being crossed out on their records and “teamster” written in. In spite of this there are several groups of Black Confederate Civil War re-enactors active in southern states.
Comment by Michael | August 31, 2007