Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1924-02-16
NEGRO AR|ST0CRACY ACENTURY AG0
FORTY-FIVE THOUSAND COLORED PEOPLE
OWNED SLAVES IN THE UNITED
in YEAR 1880.
The Association for Study of Negro Life and
History Engaged in Research Work Find
Some Interesting Data.
MAJORITY FOR PURELY PHILANTHROPIO
REAsONs-DR CARTER WOODSON, NOTED NEGRO
HISTORIAN CHARGE GREAT WORK.

Taking up the study Of the Free Ne
g,o in the United States, the Research
Department of the Association for the
Study of Negro Life and History. direct
cd by DR.. G. G. WoodsOn, decided to
make this statistical report as to trs
heads of families their ownership OF
slaves and social relations with the
whites. The aim was to facilitate the
further study of this neglected group.
Most of these people have been forgot
ten, for persons supposedly we'll In
formed in history are surprised TO
learn today that about half million
almost one-seventh Of the Negroes o.
this country, were free prior to the
emancipation in 1865. They can hardly
believe that 1900 of these were owners
of slaves themselves in 1880, and IN
many cases controlled large planta
tiOnS..
The census records show that the ma
jority Of the Negro owners OF slaves
were such from the point Of view Oh
philanthrophy. In many instances the
husband purchased the wife or vice
versa. The slaves belonging to such
families were few compared with the
large numbers found among the whites
ON the we'll developed plantations.
Slaves of Negroes were in some cases
the children of a free father who had
purchased his wife. If he did not there
$ after emancipate the mother, as 50
many such husbands failed to do, his
own children were born his slaves and
were thus reported by THE enumera-
tors.
Some of these husbands were not
anxious to liberate their wives immedl
ately. They considered it advisable to
Put them On probation for few years
and if they did not find them satisfac-
tory they would sell their wives as
ether slave holders disposed Of Negro
es. For example Negro shoemaker
in Charleston, South Carolina, pur-
chased his wife for $500; but, on find
ing her hard to Please, he sold her q
few months thereafter for $3.50, gain
ing $50 by the transaction. DR.. c. G.
Woodson personally knew man IN
Cumberland County, Virginia, whose
mother was purchased by his father
who had first bought himself. Becom
ing enamOred of a male slave, she gave
him her husbands manumission
rapers that they might escape together
to free soil. Upon detecting this plot,
the officers Of the law got the impress
sion that her husband had turned over
the papers to the slave and arrested
the freedman for the supposed offense.
He had such difficulty in extricating
himself from this complication that his
attorneys fees amounted to $500. To
pay them he disposed Of his faithless
wife for that amount.
Benevolent Negroes often purchased
slaves to make their lot easier by
granting them their freedom for a
nominal sum or by permitting them 70
work it out on liberal terms. John Bal
ry Meachum, a Negro Baptist minister
in ST. Louis, thus came into possession
of as many as 20 slaves by 1886. The
exploitation type Of Negro slave!hold
or. however sometimes feeling the
sting of conscience liberated his slav.
Is. Thus did Samuel Gibson, Negro
Of Mississippi in 1914, when he
brought his six slaves to Cincinnati.
Ohio and settled them On free terri
tory.
Practically all of these Negro slave
holders were in the South. Slavery,
however at that time had not been eS
terminated altogether in the North.
and even there the Negro was follow.
ing in the footsteps of the white man
as this~report will show.
In the South where almost all of the
Negro shareholders were found, mora
over we find some of them competing
with the large planters in the number
of saves they owned. Most of such Ne
gro proprietors lived in Louisiana
South Carolina. Maryland and Virgin
ia, as did the majority of all such slave
owners.
Excepting those Of Louisiana one
may say that most Of the Negro owners
of slaves lived in urban communities
In those parts of THE South where the
influence of the kind planter near the
coast was not felt the Negro owner Ut
saves did not frequently appear. The
free Negroes themselves moreover, en-
countered such difficulties in the lower
South and Southwest that they had to
seek more hospitalable communities In
free States.