The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22
SOUTHERN NEGROES WHO OWNED SLAVES History SkipS Many Important and Interesting Things WOMAN OWNS HUSBAND "Dick' Hunter of South Carolina Is Bought in by Wife for $500.
 Debt Paid After
 Freedom.
WOMAN OWNS HUSBAND

It sometimes happens that history skips the most interesting incidents in giving an account of the customs and habits of a people at certain periods.
 When writers of historical novels neg feet the negro slaye-owner, who flour ished in many parts of the south before the civil war they miss chapter capa- ble of most entertaining treatment.
 For negroes actually owned men and women of their race, bought and sold them as the white people did. Some of these owners are accounted well to do fin their day because of the number of their slaves.
 In the official list of taxpayers pub lished in Charleston & C., in 1S6O the names of 1S2 colored people were given who owned and paid taxes on 300 slaves in that city.
 The tax on slaves was 8 per capita, and the amount paid on the negroes owned by the more fortunate of the race in Charleston was $l170 at the beginning of the war.
 One negro owned fourteen slaves, an- other thirteen. three owned twelve and many owned from one to seven each.
 These negro slave owners came into the possession of their slaves exactly as cid the white people, and managed them in very much the same way, often hiring them out to their employers and taking all the wages the workers earned.
 Owned Husband.
 One case of interest is that of Dlsey Pope of Columbus, Ga, who owned her own husband.
 She hired him out to work for other people until he offended her in some way when she sold him 10 a neghbor.
 Another negro of Columbus, Ga, "Joe' Clark. a barber. owned and worked ne- groes whom he had purchased.
 Bob" Parker, another slave owner of Columbus. operated a line of drays, own ing both the drivers and the drays. and also owning number of negro women and children.
 The largest owners of slaves among the colored people in Charleston was R. E Dereef. an Indian. and Maria Weston each of who possessed fourteen.
 The free colored people of Charleston were generally very intelligent folk, and always composed the colored ars- tocracy of the town. The negro when possessed of the means and opportunity, was not wholly ayerse to dealing in his own kind.
 "Dick" Hunter of Laurens county, South Carolina. was the slave of his wife, and did not finish paving for his freedom until long after the close of the war.
 Dick was at first the slave of James Hunter, who entered into an arrange ment with the boy by which the latter was permitted to work for others for wages and 10 reserve a part of his earn ings. the latter to be applied to the pur- chase of his freedom, SLIGO being the price | stipulated.
 1 "Dick" married free woman of color, and had paid 5000 of his purchase money to his master when the latter died inte- state, leaving TO record of his private ar rangement with the slave boy.
 cold 1,r.1l l..,1.. named Nugent. Meantime, Dicks" wife had died and he had married another free woman of color. This woman then pur- chased her husband from Nugent, agree ing to pay for him on the installnent plan.
 Before all the instalments had been paid the war between the states brode our. and in little while Nugent died. an l his estate was claimed by relatives in the west.
 Bought in by Wife.
 "Dick" wa9 sold on the block for sl5oo' his wife beinA the purchaser Clark Tenn pleton, a whGte neighbor indorsed the wife's note. or ,in some way provided the money. and whtn the war closed the debt was still due the Templeton estate
 This debt "DiGk" did not repudate, though he probably could have done so, but continued to work and save, and sev eral years after emancipation paid the last dollar with inteTest.
 George shewsberrH,Na "a Charleston negro, owned twelve slaves. Me was a quiet, ex- emplary citizen, and NNas elected to the city council without s6licitude on his part.
 shewsberry died in 1S7S, at which time he was still an aldermank and an alms- house commissioner. His funeral was a;- tended hy the members of the >Gity eoun- cil in body.
 These slave owning negroes had( no po- litical privileges. hut they were amply protected in all their civil right* and were free to buy and sell and to engage in whatever legitimate commercial enter prise or undertaking they pleased.
 Tho story of the negro slave owners or the south before the war is an interesting one The descendants of these negTocs stand high in the south and are usufuy well behaved and quiet and enjoy the re- ~,oot of tbnir white apouaintanCCS.