(ThyBlackMan.com) As usual, this year’s emancipation celebrations will present the same worn-out tale of how our “innocent” and “defenseless” African ancestors were “brutalized” by the “wicked” white people. Africans in the West take it for granted that slavery was a strictly white versus black affair. However, did you know that, as far as the United States at least is concerned, slavery was the first racially integrated institution in the West?
We all know of the motion pictures “Roots” and “12 years a slave” that tried to portray the impression that blacks were always the victims and whites were always the oppressors. However, did you know that there were indeed thousands of free African Americans who owned slaves before the civil war?
According to the United States census of 1860, there were over 3,000 free African-American slave owners in the state of New Orleans alone – out of a population of over ten thousand. This means that almost thirty percent of African Americans in that state owned slaves! It must be noted that the national average for white Americans was less than five percent. Indeed, in many instances, there were more black slave owners than white ones.
It must be noted that the impression that a lot of whites owned dozens or even hundreds of slaves couldn’t be any more untrue. Indeed, the majority of people in America – both black and white, did not own any slave and most of those who did, own only a few – less than five. The rest were too poor to afford any slave.
Some African American slave owners were very rich. In 1860, in the state of Louisiana, the widow of C. Richards and her son P. C. Richards owned a large sugar plantation with over 150 slaves. Another African American, Antoine Dubuclet, owned over 100 slaves and his financial worth was $264,000 – a very large sum at the time. The average wealth of a typical white man in that state was less than $4,000.
Ever heard of the African American named William Ellison? He was a slave originally called April. Though he started out as a slave, Ellison eventually became a very wealthy and famous African-American slave magnet. He became one of the country’s major cotton-gin manufacturers. Indeed, due to his use of cheap slave labour, Ellison even managed to drive many of his white competitors out of business.
Also, in addition to his cotton gin business, Ellison made a large part of his fortune breeding slaves. Yes, here was an African American slave owner who was also a major slave breeder!
So when these anti-slavery propagandists try to do all they can to convince you that slavery was the worst evil that the white man has ever visited on us “poor” blacks, remember this: Slavery was seen as such a normal institution that even many Africans, once they got here, were as much in involved in the “corruption” as those whites.
History is clear and it cannot be changed – there is no doubt that slavery was truly the first racially integrated institution for “New World”.
Staff Writer; Michael A. Dingwall
Contact info; brothermichael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com
Assimilation is adapting to survive with little choice otherwise. That is not integration. And if the author is trying to say both “blacks” and whites joined in the slave industry as owners, thus integration – that is a stretch.
The author’s general point is incorrect. Slavery was NOT integration. Slavery was segregation through the use of oppression. If anything, I would call slavery assimilation, not integration. When assimilation happens, the group being assimilated is gobbled up, forced to take on a new form (the making of the negro)and looses it’s rights and abilities such as language, culture, identity and equality.
Slavery clearly existed before America. But slavery based on color was largely the brainchild of the North Atlantic slave trade. Thus while I am aware that African Americans (we are not black, that is the color of my car tires)did in fact have slaves or indentured servants, African Americans neither created American slavery nor forced it down the throats of the deep south. Not only did more whites have slaves than African Americans, they also imported them and set up the auction block for slave trade in the first place in this country.
Naming a few Uncle Tom “black” slave owners in your article hardly compares to the degradation, oppression, murder and mistreatment Caucasians in this country forced upon our people. There is no comparison
This history of a few black slave owners means nothing. So what there were a few black slave owners. What about after slavery in this country? Whats your answer for Jim Crow? What about Cointelpro? What about the law that made blacks 3/5 of a man? What about the destruction of Black Wall Street? Does that make the injustice done to blacks by whites excusable? These creoles were given better treatment based on the caste system of darks always getting the short end of the stick. ” Racially integrated” implies that we worked together to perpetuate slavery. Name me the lawmaker who was black that helped perpetuate these laws of slavery? What congressman or president put these laws into effect? White men That is. So spare me you sound like an Uncle Tom, punk. We still are being brutalized today but you will find some way to intellectually justify it. OK,There were some black slave owners, so what, he still had to answer to whitee cuz he probably did not own the land. You need your ass whooped for this article.