In 1860, there were at least six black slaveholders in Louisiana who
owned 65 or more slaves.  The largest was Clara Richards who owned 152 slaves
that worked her sugar plantation.  The second largest black slaveowner was
Antoine Dubuclet, another sugar planter, who owned over 100 slaves and who
had an estate of $264,000 in 1861.   There were slaveholders with equal
numbers of slaves in South Carolina, Maryland, and Georgia.

       One book that discusses black slaveowners is The Negro in Our History
(1922) by Carter G. Woodson.  He was a professor of history at UVA for a
number of years and is considered the father of black history in the US.  Dr.
Woodson argued that black slaveholders were predominantly freed slaves who
bought their relatives and held them as slaves as a means of giving them
their freedom.  This view is largely disregarded these days due to all the
records that have been found of black slaveholders buying and selling slaves
for profit just like white slaveholders, and conveying their slaves upon
their deaths along with the other property in their estates.

JDS









To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html