On Woodson, see Jacqueline Goggin, Carter G. Woodson: A Life in Black
History (LSU Press, 1993).  The book discusses the genesis of several
studies Woodson conducted based on census data, but not much directly on
this point.  Luther Porter Jackson's book on black property holding and
labor in Virginia discusses the phenomenon to some extent.

Analysis of the motivation for black slaveholding needs to account for the
vagaries of geography and law.  The white-black dichotomy doesn't properly
convey the legal (let alone cultural) situation in regard to racial
classification in Louisiana, so I'm not sure who a "black" slaveholder would
be there.  I assume studies of that state must be more specific on that
point.

Likewise, look at the situation in antebellum Virginia.  Newly-freed slaves
were required by law to leave the state unless they successfully petition to
remain, and free blacks could be (and were) resold for terms of labor if
they were arrested without their free papers.  In such a situation, it
doesn't seem surprising that ownership by friends and family members might
be a better strategy to keep people together.  Since the statistical
evidence is largely based in the census or tax lists, I'm not sure how much
one can generalize about motitvations anyway.

A question.  Didn't the Va legislature outlaw the holding of slaves by free
blacks other than family members in the late antebellum period?  I seem to
recall such a law.

Gregg

Gregg D. Kimball
Director of Publications
  and Educational Services
Library of Virginia
804/692-3722
[log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From: Anne Pemberton [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 2:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: black master


A good website for Carter G. Woodson is at:
http://www.chipublib.org/002branches/woodson/woodsonbib.html It lists
another book by Woodson specifically on the subject of black masters
published in 1924.

FREE NEGRO OWNERS OF SLAVES IN THE UNITED STATES IN THE UNITED STATES IN
1830: TOGETHER WITH ABSENTEE OWNERSHIP OF SLAVES IN THE UNITED STATES IN
1830, ed. Washington: ASNLH., 1924; Repr. Negro Univ. Press. E185.W8873

A less balanced view of the man is on
http://www.ritesofpassage.org/h_woodson.htm ...

                                         Anne


At 01:54 PM 2/27/03 -0500, you wrote:
>         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
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Anne Pemberton
[log in to unmask]

http://www.erols.com/stevepem http://www.educationalsynthesis.org


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