There were black slave owners during slavery in America.
THE BLACK SLAVE OWNERS
The majority of
black slave owners were members of the mulatto class, and in some cases were
the sons and daughters of white slave masters. Many of the mulatto slave owners
separated themselves from the masses of black people and attempted to establish
a caste system based on color, wealth, and free status.
According to Martin
Delany, the colored community of Charleston City clung to the assumptions of
the superiority of white blood and brown skin complexion.
These mulattoes of
the old free Black elite did not attend church with the dark-skinned blacks of
Charleston City. They not only formed congregations that excluded freedmen of
dark complexion, but they also married among other mulattoes to "keep
the color in the family."
Large numbers of
free Blacks owned black slaves in numbers disproportionate to their
representation in society. According to the federal census of 1830, free blacks
owned more than 10,000 slaves in Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, and
Virginia.
The majority of
black slave-owners lived in Louisiana and planted sugar cane. Slaveholding
among the mulatto class in South Carolina was widespread according to the first
census of 1790, which revealed that 36 out of 102, or 35.2 percent of the free
Blackheads of families held slaves in Charleston City.
By 1800, one out of
every three free black recorded owning slave property. Between 1820 and 1840, the percentage of slaveholding heads of family ranged from 72.1 to 77.7
percent; however, by 1850, the percentage fell to 42.3 percent. According to the
U.S. Census report in 1860, only a small minority of whites owned slaves.
Out of a population
of 27 million whites-only eight million lived in the South, and out of this
population, fewer than 385,000 owned slaves. In short, the total white
population owns about 1.4, while the southern white population owns about 4.8
enslaved Africans. On the other hand, the black population in 1860 was 4.5
million, with about 500,000 living in the South.
Of the blacks
residing in the South, 261,988 were not slaves. Of this number, 10,689 lived in
New Orleans. In New Orleans, over 3,000 free blacks owned slaves, about 28
percent of the free Black population in the city.
Year Owners Slaves 1790 49
277 1800 36 315 1810 17 143 1820 206 1,030 1830 407 2,195 1840 402 2,001 1850
266 1,087 1860 137 544 The following chart shows the free Black slave owners
and their slaves in Charleston, 1790-1860.
In 1860, there were at least six
African Americans in Louisiana who owned 65 or more slaves. The largest number,
152 slaves, were owned by the widow C. Richards and her son P.C. Richards, who
owned a large sugar cane plantation.
Another Black slave
magnate in Louisiana with over 100 slaves was Antoine Dubuclet, a sugar planter
whose estate was valued at $264 000. In North Carolina, 69 free Blacks were
slave owners. The majority of urban black slave owners were women.
In 1820,
free black women represented 68 percent of heads of households in the North and
70 percent of slaveholding heads of colored households in the South.
The large percentage
of black women, slave owners, is explained by manumission by their white fathers or inheritance from their white fathers or husbands.
Black women were the
majority of slaves, emancipated by white slave-owning men with whom they had
sexual relations. Thirty-three percent of all the recorded colonial
manumissions were mulatto children, and 75 percent of all adult manumissions were of females.
THE FIRST BLACK
SLAVE OWNER--AND THE ORIGINS OF SLAVERY
Euro-Americans
arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, and the first large group of Africans
arrived in 1619. However, the House of Burgesses records show that Africans were
already in the colony before 1619. John Rolfe provides us with an eyewitness
account of this first group.
African-Americans under bondage in America
"About the
last of August [1619] came a Dutchman of War that sold us twenty
negers." Among
them was one called Antonio from Angola. Later, we find that Antonio becomes Anthony
Johnson. Other listed was Angelo, a Negro woman," and John Pedro, a
neger aged 30."
The census of
1624-25 showed that twenty-three Africans living in Jamestown,
Virginia, were listed as servants and not slaves. Africans coming to Jamestown between
1630 and 1640 could expect to be freed after serving their indentured period of
time, about seven to ten years for Africans and Indians.
At this time, there
was no system of perpetual servitude or slavery for life, but the system was
rapidly evolving. Between 1640 and 1660, slavery was becoming a customary
reality. In 1640, three servants of Hugh Gwyn, "a Dutchman called
Victor, a Scotchman named James Gregory, and John Punch, a negro," having
run away from their master, were overtaken in Maryland and brought back to stand
trial for their misbehavior.
The verdict of the court would change the system of
indentured servitude and set the system in transition to plantation slavery.
The court ruled that the three servants shall receive punishment by whipping
and have "thirty stripes apiece."
The court ordered
that the Dutchman and the Scotchman should "first serve out their
times with their master according to their Indentures and one whole year apiece
after the time of their service is expired" and that they shall be served the colony for three years. "The third being a negro. .. shall
serve his said master or his assigns for the time of his natural life."
This marks the first time that race and color became a factor in the status of both black and
white indentured servants. In other words, the system is rapidly evolving to
meet the new demand for cheap labor, and race is slowly being used as the
justification for the enslavement of people of African origin.
Between 1640 and
1660, Africans were going to court and suing for their freedom. In 1644, Thomas
Bushrod, the assignee of Colonel William Smith, sold a mulatto boy named
Manuel "as a slavefor forever, but in September 1644, the said servant was by the Assembly adjudged no Slave but to be treated as other Christian
servants do, and was freed in September 1665."
A similar ruling is
found in the case of Robinson. In 1649, there were about three hundred Africans in
the colony and an increasing mulatto population. African and European
indentured servants' offspring were increasing and considered alarming regarding the status of the mulatto. That is a system that was evolving based on
being either black or white.
Africans who entered
Jamestown between 1620 to 1650 could expect to be freed after serving their
indentured time and given 50 to 250 acres of land, hogs, cows, and seed, and the
right to import both white and black indentured servants.
For a brief period in
American history between 1630 to 1670severalof Africans had become freedmen
and owned indentured white servants.
The act of 1670
forbade free Negroes from owning Christian servants but conceded the right to own
servants of their own race. By 1670, it was becoming customary to hold African
servants as "slaves for life," and by 1681, what was
customary became law.
The first laws
regarding the status of Africans recognized the free blacks. The first status
was passed in 1662, providing that the status of offspring should follow that of the mother.
What this law did
was to allow white fathers to enslave their own children and free women of
color to perpetuate the free black population. In other words, it also
guaranteed freed black females the right to extend their free status to their
children.
Black women who have
served their indentured period would not provide the foundation for the free black
community. Many of those Africans who were grandfathered in the new system not
only became the free black community, but this is the origin of Black slave
owners.
The act of 1668
dealt with the condition of the colored population, related solely to the tax
obligations of a free black woman, and two years later, an act guaranteed
to "negroes manumitted or otherwise free" the right
to own servants of their own race and expressly denied to them the right to
purchase or to own white or "Christian servants."
This law recognized and sanctioned slavery, but also guaranteed the continuity of
the free black class, who were now largely mulatto.
ANTHONY JOHNSON
Black slave owners
have not been studied as a part of American history, but rather as a datum to
American history, and yet slavery as a perpetual institution is legalized based
on a case brought before the House of Burgesses by an African, who had been
indentured in Jamestown, Virginia 1621 and was known as Antonio the
Negro according to the earliest records.
He later Anglicized
his name to Anthony. Anthony Johnson was believed to be the first Black to set
foot on Virginia soil. He was the first black indentured servant, the first
free black, and the first to establish the first black community, first black
landowner, first black slave owner, and the first person, based on his court
case, to establish slavery legally in North America. One could argue that he was
the founder of slavery in Virginia.
Anthony Johnson
arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1621. In 1623, Antoney[sic] and Isabella married.
The next year, they were the proud parents of William. William is believed to be
the first African American born in British America.
During his first years in
North America, he escaped death in an Indian attack on Jamestown. During the
following year, Africans and people of color were a small minority in the
Virginia colony. The census of 1625 reported only twenty-three Africans living
in the colony out of a total of 1,275 white people and indigenous Africans.
By 1649, the total
black population was only 300 out of a total of 18,500 whites. In 1635, Johnson's master, Nathaniel Littleton, finally released him. As the custom was, he received a 250-acre plantation in 1651 under the "headright
system," by which the colonial government encouraged population
growth by awarding fifty acres of land for every new servant a settler brought
to Virginia. He became the master of both black and white servants.
Anthony Johnson's
plantation was located on the neck of land between two creeks that flowed into
the Pungoteague River in Northampton County. A few years later, his relatives,
John and Richard Johnson, also acquired land in this area. John brought eleven
servants to the colony and received 550 acres, and Richard brought two and
received 100 acres.
In 165,4, Anthony Johnson
went to court and sued his white neighbor for keeping his black servant, John
Casor. Casor claimed that Johnson "had kept him his serv [an] t
seven years longer than he should or ought. Johnson, who the courts described as
an "old Negro," claimed that he was entitled to "ye Negro
[Casor] for his life." Johnson realized that if he continued and
persisted in his suit, Casor could win damages against him.
Blacks' enslavement in the United States of America
So, Johnson brought
suit against his white neighbor Robert Parker, whom Johnson charged had
detained Casor "under pretense [that] the s[ai]d John Casor as a
freeman." The courts now ruled in his favor, and John Casor was
returned to him, and Parker had to pay the court costs. This case establishes
perpetual servitude in North America, and, ironically, the case was
brought to the court by an African who had arrived from Angola in 1621.
Slavery was
established in 1654 when Anthony Johnson, of Northampton County, convinced the court that he was entitled to the lifetime service of John Casor; this was the
first judicial approval of life servitude, except as a punishment for a crime.
Anthony Johnson
lived on his plantation surrounded by his white neighbors. He had entered a
system not based on slavery, but indentured servitude. There were many Anthony
Johnsons in America who never spent a day in slavery but were owners of
slaves.
By Joseph E. Holloway
