Whining While Black - (excellent analysis by James Atticus Bowden)

DEFENDING TRUTH.ORG ^ | MAY 4, 2005 | JAMES ATTICUS BOWDEN

[AnAmericanMother]

my BLACK HS students were astounded to learn (I told them) that there had been many Blacks who themselves OWNED Black slaves.

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 > )

[Mamzelle]

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!

[AnAmericanMother]

That was also the case in the wilds of frontier Alabama (at least it was the frontier then.)

Interestingly enough, the fourth largest slaveholder in this county was Jewish.

[AnAmericanMother]

My father's mother's people were all in East Central Alabama, from Cherokee county down to Barbour county, all along the Chattahoochee River Valley.

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.

[Carolinamom]

Fascinating historical facts, aren't they? I agree about Dubois and wish students would delve into that area of history more than they do.