Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
"...Children from one year to 18 months old are now worth about $100. That little fellow there", pointing to a boy about 7 or 8 years old, "I gave $400 for. That fellow", pointing to one about 18, "I gave $750 for last night after dark..."
I wonder if there's any significance to the "after dark" comment? Why would he feel the need to apply that specification? It's almost a "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" thing.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
I wonder if there's any significance to the "after dark" comment? Why would he feel the need to apply that specification? It's almost a "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" thing.
ole
Maybe he was trying to explain his purchase of a young man who looked more like Sammy Davis Jr. than Joe Frazier and blame it on the low light level after dark?
__________________ Ancestors in US Army: 13th TN Cav; 10th TN Cav; 3rd NC Inf
Ancestors in CSA Army: 48th VA; 63rd VA, 5th NC Cav; 37th NC
Wife and Grandson's CSA: 15th AL, 51st GA, 41st TN; 36th TN; GA Mil 1197 Dist
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Good morning, Gen. Ike. I'll bet (hope) there are some young folks on this board saying 'who's he talkin bout?'. You are certainly old enough to have a mental image. My appology to Joe Frazier if he's still around.
__________________ Ancestors in US Army: 13th TN Cav; 10th TN Cav; 3rd NC Inf
Ancestors in CSA Army: 48th VA; 63rd VA, 5th NC Cav; 37th NC
Wife and Grandson's CSA: 15th AL, 51st GA, 41st TN; 36th TN; GA Mil 1197 Dist
Had to back to see where I'd mistyped that -- get aging fingers on the wrong home key and you get ike. But I see now that it wasn't my aging fingers playing tricks.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
William Ellison Jr was a South Carolinian who built cotton gins.
In 1816 William Ellison Jr arrived in Stateburg SC and initially hired slave workers from local owners. By 1820 he had purchased two adult males to work in his shop.
Between 1822 and the mid-1840s, Ellison acquired slaves in increasing numbers. He became one of SC’s major cotton gin manufacturers, selling his machines as far away as MS. His business advertisements appeared across the state and a lot of his competitors went out of business because they could not compete with cheap slave labor.
In 1840 Ellison owned 30 slaves and by 1860 he owned 63 slaves and more than 900 acres of land. His children who lived on his land owned 9 slaves. His children were trained as gin makers by their father. On this 900 acres Ellison raised mostly cotton, with a small acreage set aside for raising food to feed his family and slaves.
Although a successful businessman and cotton farmer, Ellison’s major source of income derived from being a slave breeder. Slave breeding was illegal and he began this in secret in 1840. Slave breeding was looked down upon throughout the South and it was illegal in most states to sell a slave under twelve years old.
There was a significant investment return in raising and keeping young males but females were not productive workers in his factory or his cotton fields. He sold most females except for a few he kept for breeding purposes. He sold the females and many of the male children at an average price of $400. He had a reputation as a harsh master. His slaves were said to be the district’s worst fed and clothed. He had a small windowless building on his property where he chained his problem slaves.
His slaves often ran away and there are records of his offering a reward for the capture and return of them.
William Ellison Jr died December 5, 1861. His will stated that his estate be passed jointly to his daughter and his two sons. He also gave $500 to a daughter he had sold as a slave.
Ellison’s heirs supported the Confederacy during the war, producing corn, fodder, bacon, corn shucks and cotton for the Confederate armies. They also bought Confederate bonds which were worthless at the end of the war. One of William Ellison’s grandsons enlisted in the 1st Carolina Artillery CSA. When the grandson died in 1895 he was praised by his officers as being a faithful soldier.
After the war, the Ellison fortune quickly dwindled.
The slave, April was born in 1790 to Black slave parents. The slaves often named their children for the month in which they were born. Between 1800 and 1802-between 10 and 12 years old-April was bought by a white slave-owner named William Ellison. He was apprenticed and taught the trades of carpentry, blacksmithing and machining as well as reading, writing, arithmetic and basic bookkeeping.
William Ellison, April’s owner, freed April on June 8, 1816. On June 20, 1820 April appeared in the Sumter District courthouse to request a name change because it would greatly advance his interest as a tradesman. Because of the kindness of his former master and as a mark of gratitude and respect for him April asked that his name be changed to William Ellison Jr and his request was granted.
By 1860 the former Black slave, William Ellison Jr was one of the largest slave masters in the South.
NOTES 1. The American Negro, Raymond Logan and Irving Cohen New York: Houghton and Mifflin, 1970), p.72. 2. Black Masters. A Family of Color in the Old South, Michael P. Johnson and James L. Roak New York: Norton, 1984), p.64. 3. The Forgotten People, Gary Mills (Baton Rouge, 1977); Black Masters, p.128. 4. Men and Wealth in the US., 1850-1870, Lee Soltow (New Haven, 1975), p.85. 5. Black Masters, Appendix, Table 7; p.280. 6. Black Masters, p. 62. 7. Information on the Ellison family was obtained from Black Masters; the number of slaves they owned was gained from U.S. Census Reports. 8. In 1860 South Carolina had only 21 gin makers; Ellison, his three sons and a grandson account for five of the total. 9. Neither Black Nor White: Slavery and Race Relations in Brazil and the United States, Carl N. Degler (New York, Macmillan, 1971), p.39; Negro Slavery in Louisiana, Joe Gray Taylor (Baton Rouge, 1963), pp. 4041. 10. Reconstruction, 1863-1877, Eric Foner (New York; Harper & Row, 1988), p. 47; pp. 353-355.
__________________ Evelyn Rard
Proud descendant of:
2nd Sgt Calvin Scott, 1st AR (Monroe's) Cavalry, Co C
Andrew B Sears, 37th TX Cavalry, Terrells Regiment, Co H
Griffin Mizell Bennett, 17/33 AL Infantry
Willoughby Asery Fullen, 15th AR Reg, Co D
and many more.
Second, your post mentions that slave-breeding was illegal in South Carolina in 1840.
I must say, I find this very hard to believe, as from what I have read, the breeding and selling of slaves was considered a very normal and very profitable process for all who owned, sold, or used slaves. I will admit, I could be wrong, but I would like to see evidence that there was such before doing so.
Do you have a source on any law on the books in South Carolina at anytime prior to or up until the Civil War that said or stated that slave-breeding was illegal and "on the books," as it were?
As for the idea it was illegal to sell slaves in most states at below the age of twelve, I am afraid this is pretty much disproved by looking at any Southern newspaper which advertised the sale of slaves.
"I wish to sell a negro women and four children. The woman is 22 years old, of good character, a good cook and washer. The children are very likely, from 6 years down to 1 1/2. I will sell them separately to suit purchasers.--J. T. Underwood."--Louisville Weekly Journal, May 2, 1849.
"As valuable a family * * * as ever was offered for sale," consisting of a cook about 35 years of age, and her daughter about 14 and son about 8. "The whole will be sold together or a part of them, as may suit a purchaser."--Charleston Courier, Apr. 12, 1828.
I also have a website for the Richmond Virginia Enquier, which usually lists the advertisements for the sale of slaves in every daily edition from 1860 on which also lists children for sale below the age of twelve.
Sincerely,
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
__________________ Evelyn Rard
Proud descendant of:
2nd Sgt Calvin Scott, 1st AR (Monroe's) Cavalry, Co C
Andrew B Sears, 37th TX Cavalry, Terrells Regiment, Co H
Griffin Mizell Bennett, 17/33 AL Infantry
Willoughby Asery Fullen, 15th AR Reg, Co D
and many more.
On the other thread (Slavery #II). In it, Starr says: "Only Louisiana, and Alabama after 1852, probibited the sale of a child under 10 years, away from its mother."
He also said: "Nothing can change the essential viciousness of a system that turned Virginia and Kentucky into brood-farms with annual exports of 9,400 and 4,000 slaves respectively."
The general idea that the practice would have been in a social class maybe below slave-trading, it is quite likely that most practicioners carried it on without fanfare.
It's somewhat amusing that, when needing to add another field-hand or maid to his string, or to sell off some excess, the planter would go to the trader. But he wouldn't let his kids play with the trader's kids (figuratively speaking).
I know you're familiar with the talk, Blue, but maybe other's arent.
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Thanks for the link, LadyReb. I've bookmarked it for later reading.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
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