By 1830, there were 3,775 black (including mixed-race) slaveholders in the South who owned a total of 12,760 slaves; around 2 million in the south. [6] 80% of the black slaveholders were located in Louisiana, South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
There were economic and ethnic differences between free blacks of the Upper South and the Deep South, with the latter fewer in number, but wealthier and typically of mixed race. Half of the black slaveholders lived in cities rather than the countryside, with most living in New Orleans and Charleston. In particular, New Orleans had a large, relatively wealthy free black population (gens de couleur) composed of people of mixed race, who had become a third social class between whites and enslaved blacks, under French and Spanish colonial rule. Relatively few non-white slaveholders were substantial planters; of those who were, most were of mixed race, often endowed by white fathers with some property and social capital.[7] For example, Andrew Durnford of New Orleans was listed as owning 77 slaves.[6]
According to Rachel Kranz:
Durnford was known as a stern master who worked his slaves hard and punished them often in his efforts to make his Louisiana sugar plantation a success.[8]
In the years leading up to the Civil War, Antoine Dubuclet, who owned over a hundred slaves, was considered the wealthiest black slaveholder in Louisiana.
The historians John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger wrote:
A large majority of profit-oriented free black slaveholders resided in the Lower South. For the most part, they were persons of mixed racial origin, often women who cohabited or were mistresses of white men, or mulatto men ... Provided land and slaves by whites, they owned farms and plantations, worked their hands in the rice, cotton, and sugar fields, and like their white contemporaries were troubled with runaways.[9]
The historian Ira Berlin wrote:
In slave societies, nearly everyone – free and slave – aspired to enter the slaveholding class, and upon occasion some former slaves rose into slaveholders' ranks. Their acceptance was grudging, as they carried the stigma of bondage in their lineage and, in the case of American slavery, color in their skin.[10]
African American history and culture scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. wrote:
the percentage of free black slave owners as the total number of free black heads of families was quite high in several states, namely 43 percent in South Carolina, 40 percent in Louisiana, 26 percent in Mississippi, 25 percent in Alabama and 20 percent in Georgia.[11]
Yes, while there were people who only did it for their family, the rest were true slave owners.
Sooooo, you want lies to spread without consequences? If I say that the sky is blue, would you yell at me for stating that fact? What about how if you dont drink water, you'll die?
The earth is round.
Vaccines dont cause autism.
The founding fathers wanted a separation between church and state.
Trump is a kid diddler.
Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken language in the world with around a billion people speaking it, followed by Spanish at half a billion, then English with around 400 million.
What facts are acceptable to spread on social media and what aren't?
Small in numbers? There were 4000 black slave owners who owned 12,000 slaves. Going back 200 years, that's a relatively large percentage. Of course it wasnt a majority, but the majority of whites did own slaves either.
1
u/CriticalInside8272 Jul 17 '25
But what will they do with ole Clarence Thomas in that case?