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Good morning, Commander. I hope this day finds you well and preparing for a great holiday season.

A south were not a single state allowed a free black to move in...

I think the following runs contrary to that.

William Ellison is believed to have been the wealthiest black slave master in the antebellum South, owning more slaves than all but the richest white planters.

Memoirs from the time suggest that he did not treat his slaves well. William Ellison's slaves were said to be the most overworked, underfed, and illclothed in the district.

William Ellison was born April Ellison, a slave. His mother was a slave, his father was probably a white planter. Instead of working in the South Carolina fields, April Ellison learned how to build cotton gins. He became the best gin-maker in the district. That made him rich, and he bought his freedom. He even bought the home of a former governor of South Carolina.

The Ellisons were not the only black masters in the antebellum South. Census records in 1860 show that there were 122 free blacks in Charleston who owned slaves. Most of them owned one or two slaves; none owned as many as William Ellison.

It would seem, sir, that your statement is not entirely accurate.

Good morning to you, wasp69, it is a pleasure to hear from you again. I am looking forward to the holiday season with my family and I hope that you and yours have a safe and happy and blessed holiday season as well.

Your story does nothing to disprove my statements. I never suggested that there were no free black men and women down south. In fact at the time of the Civil war there were, I belive, about 133,000 free blacks living in what would become the confederate states, about 28% of all free blacks in the country. And I'm aware that some free blacks owned slaves themselves. But I'll stand by the accuracy of my statement. The fact remains that every southern state had laws on their books or clauses in their constitutions which prohibited a free black person from emigrating into their state. Every southern state had laws which limited the freedoms of free blacks to one extent or another.