Educators Shed Light on Northern Slavery

[CrimsonTide4]

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.

[CrimsonTide4]

[Honeykiss1974]

Thanks for posting this CT4.

[CrimsonTide4]

Originally posted by Honeykiss1974
Thanks for posting this CT4.

You're welcome.

[mulattogyrl]

@ 'they are bright mulattoes'

[Honeykiss1974]

Originally posted by mulattogyrl
@ 'they are bright mulattoes'

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

[JD1913]

@ "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 @ "secured by a mortgage of the Negroes"


WOW!!

[Eclipse]

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...

[Eclipse]

Originally posted by mulattogyrl
@ 'they are bright mulattoes'

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?

[mulattogyrl]

Originally posted by Eclipse
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

[Eclipse]

Originally posted by mulattogyrl
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.

[mulattogyrl]

Originally posted by Eclipse
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.

[jitterbug13]

Originally posted by Eclipse
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...

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?

[Eclipse]

Originally posted by jitterbug13
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.

[Alouette]

Originally posted by mulattogyrl
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.

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.