Posted on 05/04/2005 1:49:04 PM PDT by CHARLITE
In the course of examining property tax records for my thesis, I discovered that one of the two largest slaveholders in a county in East Alabama was a free black (full disclosure: the other was my great great grandfather < ouch > )
Not many people at all could own slaves--those from my neck of the woods couldn't. Wouldn't have done them any good, anyway, in the highlands with rocks to plow. If you really want to create a stir and listen to some screams, head to beautiful old Charleston and look at the archives of antebellum Jews and "gens libre de colore" (free blacks) who owned slaves. Sort of puts that interesting spin on the "white racist confederate" stereotype...not to mention the rare Cherokee or Nez Perce who also were slaveholders!
Interestingly enough, the fourth largest slaveholder in this county was Jewish.
His father's people were your mountainy folk. Out of western Virginia and east Tennessee. They got tired of plowing rocks and came down out of the hills around 1810 or so.
Fascinating historical facts, aren't they? I agree about Dubois and wish students would delve into that area of history more than they do.
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