Black Slave Masters
 

taken from BlackVoices.com

Black Men, Black Masters
By Anne Farrow
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The first U.S. Census for Connecticut lists six black men as owners of slaves, notably a New London County man named Prince, who is shown as owning four people.

In his doctoral dissertation on the lives of black people in Colonial-era Connecticut, Guocun Yang says this demonstrates that "slave-ownership was not exclusively a white privilege, and that free blacks could accumulate material wealth." This ownership by black people of black people also demonstrates the ubiquity of slavery in Connecticut at that time, and the social acceptance of the institution, he says. Still, black owners represent less than one-half of one percent of the state's 1,563 slave owners in 1790.

That first federal census shows that 413 free black families, none of whom owned slaves, were living in Connecticut. Though many black people still lived in slavery, many others had been freed by their owners or had purchased their own freedom. Some black men had also been freed in exchange for their war service. Scholars say that the gust of freedom that blew through the colonies at the time of the American Revolution prompted many slaveholders to free the people they held in bondage.

In his authoritative 1942 survey "The Negro in Colonial New England," Lorenzo J. Greene says that despite the many legal and social sanctions against black people in late 18th-century Connecticut, they were permitted to own property, though sometimes the permission of the town was required.

Greene's research also shows that freed black men usually tried to reassemble their families in freedom, and would, as soon as they were able, buy their wives and children. He cites the case of a Wethersfield man named Abner who was given his freedom in 1777 and four years later bought his wife, Zepporah, for the British pound-equivalent of about $180. In the 1790 census, Connecticut showed an enslaved population of 2,648. In the South in 1830, more than 3,600 free blacks or mixed-race people owned slaves, according to Kenneth Stampp, author of the 1956 landmark study "The Peculiar Institution." A few were substantial planters, but the great majority of these slave owners, he explains, had purchased family members or spouses whom they had been unable to emancipate under existing law.

Yang, now a college professor, notes that Venture Smith, who lived one of America's most famous slavery-to-freedom stories and wrote an autobiography, is not listed in the census, though Smith owned substantial property in the East Haddam area and owned two slaves.

"Being after this labor forty years of age, I worked at various places, and in particular on Ram Island, where I purchased Solomon and Cuff, two sons of mine, for two hundred dollars each," he wrote in "A Narrative of the Life and Adven-tures of Venture, a Native of Africa."

"After this I purchased a negro man, for no other reason than to oblige him, and gave for him sixty pounds," Smith wrote, also noting that the man promptly ran away.

I figured this thread is the best place for this
 

Thanks for posting this CT4.

You're welcome. :)

:( @ 'they are bright mulattoes'

I peeped that...as well as the "negro wenches" being used to refer to the women.

:( @ "well worthy the notice of a gentlemen of fortune needing such" which is colonial speak for "you can hit it if you break bread"

and @ "the 16 year old wench has one eye"

and :eek: @ "secured by a mortgage of the Negroes"


WOW!!

I visited the Slave Market in Charleston, SC a few years ago and it was one of the most sobering things I ever experienced. On the same trip we also visited several plantations--included the setting for the movie Queen. To see the slave cabins and the ledger with the cattle and slaves listed in the same way was amazing.

What a reminder...

No offense mulattogyrl, but when you first joined GC, I was quite taken aback by your name. I have never thought of mulatto as a positive term. I understand that you are biracial, but I see biracial one way and mulatto in a totally different context.

If you don't mind me asking, why did you pick that name?

No offense taken, and no I don't mind you asking. The word never offended me, but then again, I have a different outlook on certain 'words' that some consider offensive. That a different thread though ;). In some contexts it's offensive, in others it's not. For those that may want some history on the word:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulatto

Thanks for your reply. I think my distaste comes from the origin of the word. It is a derivitive of the Spanish word for "mule" (the sterile offspring of a donkey and a horse) and that just seemed really condesending to me.

That's interesting you point that out because I was just looking on a website called mulattonation.com that had a picture of a half mule half woman looking thing. They call it the Patron Saint of the Mulatto Nation. Interesting.

Co-sign. And all of this happened in my hometown. The Market is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city. I heard many of the slaves came through Charleston (after arriving from Africa) to be sold at the Market.

Eclipse, which plantations did you visit?

It was so long ago, I hope I remember the names...we went to one out on the Ashley River I know. I think that was the one that Queen was filmed at. I know one of the names was Middleton or Middleplace??? This might be one of the ones that I've already mentioned, but there was one that had brick slave cabins in front of the "big house".

I enjoyed my visit to Charleston. I hope to go back one day.

Aaaargh. I don't know WHAT to think about that....

for Catholics, anyhow, the patron saint of biracial folk (and black folk as well) is Martin de Porres.

At any rate, the most disturbing thing for me was reading about the children being separated. I just cannot imagine being separated from my (young) children. They'd have to kill me. :(

Someone tie my shoes for me :( but that website...mulatto nation.. please tell me that is a joke, a parady, satire, something :o

I'm really speechless....oh my goodness

Middleton Plantation is one of the ones in Charleston. Come on back to Charleston! We have the Southeasten Wildlife Expo next weekend, our first Food and Wine Festival next month, Spoleto in May-June and MOJA in October!

I had to put in a PSA on tourism! :D ;)

Re: I figured this thread is the best place for this
 

CT - can I have the link to the webpage that this came from? I want my kids to see this.

Re: Black Slave Masters
 

I have always wondered about freed Blacks owning slaves, but this does put it in a new perspective for me as one of the reasons.

Re: Re: I figured this thread is the best place for this
 

I received it in an e-mail forward last year and this year.

Re: Re: Black Slave Masters
 

At this time, I can't find information on the internet, but I do recall reading about a small percentage of people who purchased slaves for the sole purpose of giving them freedom. I think it's easy to look back at the transactions (which is exactly what they were viewed as) and not know the reasoning.

However, for most, slaves had to become a commodity - less than human, less than worthy - else I doubt the majority of slaveowners would have been able to stomach the realization of what they were doing. And, it is this mentality that continues to be the cause of suffering today, though it may take different forms. People and pain have to be trivialized so as not to taint abounding bubble worlds.

I consider myself fortunate to have documents like the one you posted, CT4, to remind me and future generations of the reality of slavery and its implications - on so many levels - for the past, present and future human condition.

I know, wasn't that frightening? :confused:

Rare Slave Photos
 

this site:Society & Culture ( http://www.aapci.org/cgi-bin/search/dirs2.cgi?cid=58)

Select African Diaspora/Slavery


The first site has thousands of photos for various categories

http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/

Educators Shed Light on Northern Slavery

Excerpt
Most Americans do not know the story of slavery in the North, said Jill Lepore, a professor of history at Harvard University and author of "New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery and Conspiracy in Eighteenth Century Manhattan."

"There's no reason to hide the fact that New York City was built by slaves," she said. "It's an important part of the city's past."

Harlem state Assemblyman Keith Wright, who sponsored the legislation creating the Amistad Commission, said although the majority of the commission's members have yet to be appointed and no meetings have been held, he is optimistic that more schoolchildren will be taught about slavery.

Teaching about the slave trade "is the right thing to do," Wright said. "Absent South Carolina, the biggest importer of slaves was New York City."

The New York Historical Society recently presented an exhibition on slavery in New York that featured documents, paintings, video and sculpture.

In lower Manhattan, a long-lost burial ground where thousands of slaves and free blacks were laid to rest during the 18th century was recently declared a national monument by President Bush.

Slavery was abolished in New York in 1827, but when the American Revolution began in 1776, the only city with more slaves than New York was Charleston, S.C.

Oyster Bay eighth-grader Fiona Brunner said she was amazed to find out there were slaves buried near Oyster Bay.

"You always think that happened so far away, only in the South, and a lot of it was right here in our town," she said.

Please forgive me for crashing, but I think it's the duty of everyone who is interested in history to get the entire story, not just the sanitized version fed to us in grade school.

CT4, that poster is amazing! "Likely" - to be what? The master's offspring? Never does one understand the concept of slavery as well prior to realizing that posters such as that are NOT for an auction of furniture or real estate, but for people! It seems incredible that this actually took place, not even 200 years ago!

I give a yearly introduction to history talk to third-graders in a suburb which is mostly white, and when I show them a copy of the Pennsylvania 1790 census for their town (which includes 4 slaves), the children are shocked. In fact, I show them the copy only because, when I just told them about it, NO ONE BELIEVED ME!

Too many people think that slavery was confined to artistically beautiful scenes of southern plantations - when it was so widespread, and so varying in socio-economic status!

Slavery in the North consisted more of families with one or 2 slaves to take care of them personally or to hire out. In the South, most slaves were worked on agricultural plantations.

The nature of slavery was different in the two regions because one economy was more industrial and the other more agricultural. However, each region depended on the other for the economic good of the entire country.

The similarities - buying and selling human beings, racism, legal status and rights of enslaved persons, etc - are more overarching than the differences.