From Wkipedia
William Ellison was African American, born into slavery in April of 1790 with the name April Ellison to a slave mother and white slave master father, Mr. William Ellison.
By 1850, Ellison had 37 slaves while his sons owned another 16. He was one of about 180 black slave masters in South Carolina at the time, most of whom were former slaves themselves. Like Ellison, they realized that the only way to get out of the lower middle class that so many freed blacks were stuck in, was slave labor. With nearly 9,000 free blacks in South Carolina, that 180 made up a tiny percentage who were willing to do anything to compete with the upper class white slave owners at the time.
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