The Washington times., 1924-02-18
4, 5Q0FREEDMEN
HAD SLAVES
IN 1880
Or. G. G. Woodson Reports on
Their Activities and Rela-
tions With Whites.

Taking UP the study OF the free
negro in the United States the re-
search department of the Associa-
ton for the Study Of Negro Life
and History, directed by DIR. G.. G..
WoOdson, has issued statistical re-
port on the heads Of families, their
ownership of slaves, and social rela-
tons with whites.
The aim is to facilitate the further
study OF this group. The report
shows that 100000, almost one
seventh Of the negroes of this coun-
try were free prior to the emancipa-
ton in 1865. OF these $500 were
owners Of slaves in 1880, and in
many cases controlled large planta.
tons.
The census records show that the
majority OF the negro owners of
slaves were such for philanthrophic
reasons. In many instances the
husband purchased the wife or vice
versa. Slaves Of negroes were in
some cases the children Of q free
father who had purchased his wife.
II he did not thereafter emai1cipate
the mother, as many such husbands
failed to do, his own children were
born his slaves and were thus re-
ported by the enumerators.
Put Wives on Probation.
Some Of these husbands were not
anxious to liberate their wives i'm.
mediately. They considered 1t ad-
visable to put them on probation
for few years, and IL they did not
find them satisfactory they would
sell their wives as other slavehold-
ers disposed Of negroes. For exam
pie, a negro shoemaker in Charles
ton, s. c., purchased his wife for
800, but, on finding her hard to
please, he sold her a few months
thereafter for $3.50, gaining $50 by
the transaction.
DR.. c. G. Woodson personally
knew man in Cumberland county,
virginia, whose mother was pur-
chased by his father who had first
bought himself. Becoming enamored
OF q male slave she gave him her
husbands manumission papers that
tney 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 ar
rested the freed man for the sun.
posed offense. He had such diff.
Guilty in extricating himself from
this complication that his attorneys
fees amounted to $500. To nav them
he disposed of his faithless wife for
that amount.
Sometimes Freed Slaves.
Benevolent negroes often pur.
chased slaves to make their lot
easier by granting them their free.
dom Tor nominal sum or by per.
uniting them to work 1t out on
liberal terms. John Barry Meachum,
a negro Baptist minister in St.
Louis, thus came into possession of
as many as twnety slaves by 1896.
The exploitation type of negro slave.
nO1uer, moreover, sometimes feeling
the sting OF conscience, liberated
his slaves. Thus did Samuel Glib
son, a negro OF Mississippi, in 1914.
when he brought his six slaves to
Cincinnati, Ohio, and settled them
on free territory.
In the South where almost all If
the negro Shareholders were found
some OF them competed with the
large planters in the number of
slaves they owned. Most of such
negro proprietors lived in Louisiana.
south Carolina, Maryland and Vir-
Excepting those Of Louisiana most
OF the negro owners Of slaves lived
IN urban communities. The free
negroes themselves, however, en-.
countered such difficulties in the
lower South and Southwest that
tney mad to seek more hospitable
communities in free States