Thanks, Jon. Very good points, which will add nuance. I do know Berlin, that's where I started. -- Stephan on 5/12/02 9:36 AM, Jon Kukla at [log in to unmask] wrote: > Re question 2 and on the assumption that your gaze may extend beyond the > boundaries of the Old Dominion.: I've just been reading Carl Brasseaux's essay > on "Creoles of Color in Louisiana's Bayou Country" in connection with my book > on > the Louisiana Purchase - He offers very reliable figures on slave-holding by > free people of color and raises the question and attempts to gauge the degree > to > which _some_ of their slave purchases were done for the purpose of manumitting > or taking care of family members - while others were for laborers and with > attitudes that paralleled their white planter neighbors. Of course Louisiana > had > a different legal approach to manumission than Virginia; the Louisiana law & > practice is well described in the late Kim Hanger's essay on The Origins of > NEw > Orleans's Free People of Color - Both essays are found in James H. Dormon, ed > Creoles of Color of the Gulf South (Knoxville: Univ of Tenn Press1996) along > with other good things. > I trust you're familiar with Ira Berlin's Slaves without Masters (New York: > Oxford 1974) and Berlin's more recent big book (title of which eludes me until > the coffee kicks in........) Brasseaux (who edits the journal Louisiana > History) says good things about H. E. Sterkx's The Free Negro in Ante-Bellum > Louisiana (Rutherford NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press 1976 > > Jon Kukla > > "Stephan A. Schwartz" wrote: > >> I am doing research for a major national magazine piece I have been asked to >> do which will touch on the issue of reparations. In the course of my work, >> I have come across the following volume: >> >> Black Masters. A Family of Color in the Old South, Michael P. Johnson and >> James L. Roak New York: Norton, 1984) >> >> Two questions for the list: >> >> 1.) Although the book seems sound, and comes from a reputable publisher, >> does anyone know any reason I should be leery of the research it uses (I am >> more interested in the research than the arguments); >> >> 2.) Can anyone provide any additional material on free black ownership of >> slaves. >> >> I am not writing a polemical piece and am not interested in arguing a >> partisan position. My interest is solely factual accuracy, so that I give >> an honest presentation of the history here. Since this is such an explosive >> subject, I want to make sure I am on firm ground, and would appreciate any >> input from other members of this list. >> >> Thanks. >> >> -- Stephan >> >> Stephan A. Schwartz € Email: [log in to unmask] >> Personal Website: http://www.stephanaschwartz.com € Schwartzreport: >> http://www.schwartzreport.net 147 Pinewood Road, Virginia Beach, Virginia >> 22932 € Voice: 757.422.4549 >> >> >> >> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions >> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html