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Slavery In Early America:
The Untold Facts

Here’s some facts from the book

“The Black and White or Racism”
(Quotes from "The Black and White of Racism" by Waylon Allen)

"One of the most vexing questions in African-American history is whether free African Americans themselves owned slaves. The short answer to this question, as you might suspect, is yes, of course; some free black people in this country bought and sold other black people, and did so at least since 1654, continuing to do so right through the Civil War.” (4)

 

 “In a fascinating essay reviewing this controversy, R. Halliburton shows that free black people have owned slaves “in each of the thirteen original states and later in every state that countenanced slavery,” at least since Anthony Johnson and his wife Mary went to court in Virginia in 1654 to obtain the services of their indentured servant, a black man, John Castor, for life.

 

And for a time, free black people could even “own” the services of white indentured servants in Virginia as well. Free blacks owned slaves in Boston by 1724 and in Connecticut by 1783; by 1790, 48 black people in Maryland owned 143 slaves. One particularly notorious black Maryland farmer named Nat Butler “regularly purchased and sold Negroes for the Southern trade,” Halliburton wrote.” (5)

 

Another misconception is that a majority of the people in the South, prior to the Civil War, owned African slaves. I did a calculation from the 1860 census.

 

The figures show:

The Total Free Population in the South in 1860: 7,582,524

Total Number of Slaves in the South in 1860: 3,861,524

Total Number of Slave Holders in the South in 1860: 379,597

 

The numbers show that the number of “White” Slave Holders, by percentage of population, was 5%. (6)

 

There is, however, some confusion regarding these numbers because some researchers figure the percentage of “Southern Families” that owned slaves. This percentage is closer to 28 % if using slave holders’ families. Since individuals, not families owned slaves, using the percent per family is not factually correct. This is indicating that even the children of the families participated holding slaves, when they were actually merely born into the circumstance.

 

But even using the family numbers, the fact is that about 72% of the families did not own slaves in the South in 1860

.

“As for free Negroes in the southern states, about 10% owned slaves.” (7)

 

A more accurate depiction of life in the South prior to the Civil War states:

“Most people and families in the South led a pastoral life, organized around agricultural activities. Most families had either no slaves or very few, so the men and children did the physical labor.” (8)

 

Click Below
To Read Additional Excerpts

From the Book

 

Slavery in Early America:
The Untold Facts

 

White Slaves

 

The Founding Father of Slavery
in Colonial America

 

Black Slave Owners

 

Abolition

And the Cost of Human Lives

in the Civil War

 

REFERENCE

4. R. Halliburton, Jr. "Free Black Owners of Slaves: A Reappraisal of the Woodson Thesis. The South Carolina Historical Magazine. July, 1975, Vols. Vol. 76, No. 3.

5. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "Did Black People Own Slaves?". American Renaissance . [Online] March 2013. www.amren.com.

6. Results from the 1850 Census. The Civil War Home Page. [Online] www.civil-war.net/pages/1860_census.html.

7. Bergman, Peter. "The Chronological History of the Negro in America. s.l. : Harper & Row, 1969.

8. Civil War Lesson Plan: Southern Life During the War. The Civil War Trust. [Online] www.civilwar.org.


(The copyrighted text of this excerpt from “The Black and White of Racism” by Waylon Allen (Pages 19, 20,21). This quote may be reprinted with an acknowledgement that the material is quoted from the book, The Black and White of Racism, by Waylon Allen.)

 

 

 

A commentary from a different perspective about Race Relations and reason for concern by Waylon Allen