Pre-Civil War Free Blacks Owned Slaves. Is that significant?

wbull1

First Sergeant
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Joined
Jul 26, 2018
In other discussion groups I've seen discussions of the significance of the fact that before the Civil War some free blacks owned black slaves. To me the numbers involved are so small it seems insignificant, but maybe I'm missing something. What is your reaction?


There were approximately 319,599 free blacks in the United States in 1830. Approximately 13.7 per cent of the total black population was free. The census of 1830 lists 3,775 free Negroes who owned a total of 12,760 slaves.

Now simple math tells us the slightly more than 1% of free blacks owned slaves.

The census tells us the population of the 24 states was 12,866,020, of which 2,009,043 were slaves.

Again doing the math we see that slightly more than .06% of the slaves in the United States were owned by free blacks.

Apparently, most free blacks who owned slaves had a family relationship with the slaves. An emancipated slave might purchase a spouse or a child. It was not unusual for the purchaser to leave the legal status of the relative unchanged to fit local sentiment. Beyond question some freed blacks owned slaves and used their labor for personal enrichment and some became rich that way. The number is very small.

Free black Creoles in Louisiana who owned slaves operated until a different legal system until the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

https://www.theroot.com/did-black-people-own-slaves-1790895436
https://userpages.umbc.edu/~bouton/History407/SlaveStats.htm
 
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