Is there evidence that a significant number of small slave owners considered 
their slaves to be something other than property?

-----Original Message----- 
From: Craig Kilby
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2014 2:46 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Out-migration from Virginia early 1810-1840

Dear Paul,

I am so sorry you are insulted and deeply offended. I have no idea why you 
should be. I did not mention you by name, and in fact was not really 
referring to you specifically, just the comment that 800,000 slaves were 
sold into the Deep South and that the huge out-migration had many aspects 
that should be considered. In that vein, I talked about out-migration of 
small slave-holding families to the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys, 
specifically Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas. Nowhere did I say anything 
about Mississippi which I do not think was an area highly sought-after by 
the outwardly bound Virginians and their slave families.

It is indeed true that small slave owners had slaves owned by other people 
on other farms. More often than not, these groups moved in bulk, and webs of 
kinship were deep. I do not think that kinships were quite as uprooted as 
you would like to believe. Again, the humanity factor comes into play here. 
These were not massive cotton plantation families like the in the deep 
south. These were close-knit family units. These were real people with real 
feelings and attachments. I know this does not fit well into the narrative 
of evil white people tearing up black families, but on this I suppose we 
will have to disagree.

Craig Kilby



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