Rmember Yankee General U.S. Grant? At the beginning of the war, his wife owned slaves. At the end of the war, she still owned slaves. It took the 13th ammendment to free her slaves.
Remember General William T. Sherman? He also owned slaves.
I’d be interested in a movie portraying the lives of their slaves.
It was all bad. North and South.
Several years ago archeologists discovered a slave cemetery in New York City. That’s right—New York City.
It was amusing to watch the reactions of the holier-than-thou Yankees when they learned that slavery existed in the North as well as in the South.
Indeed, the much-revered Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves only in those states which were in “rebellion.”
The ignorance of most Americans of their own history is breath-taking.
Or, that the first slave owner in the colonies was a black man and former indentured servant - Anthony Johnson. In fact at the time Anthony Johnson became the first legal slave owner in the colonies, ONLY blacks could be slave owners of other blacks and only Indians could own other Indians. The white man could neither own slave, or be a slave.
I'm by no means defending slavery, but if we're going to talk about race and slavery, then we should tell the full story.
Untrue, or at minimum incomplete.
Grant's wife may or may not have owned slaves. Her wealthy father certainly did and "gave" some to her to help around the house. There is no record of any transfer of legal title, which may or may not have happened.
Whether she or her father owned the slaves legally, they were freed with all other MO slaves in January 1865 by state action, almost a year before 13A in December.
Almost all slaves were freed by Emancipation Proclamation or state action. 13A freed slaves only in DE (about 200) and KY (around 50,000).
More to the point with regard to Grant's attitude towards slavery, he actually legally owned one slave. This was a couple of years before the war. Grant and his family were in severe financial straits.
We have the record of Grant freeing this slave, who could probably have been sold for around $1000, considerably more than the median annual income for the time.
IOW, somewhere upwards of $50,000, in today's terms.
When and where?
When and where?