Volume 32, Number 2 · February 14, 1985
The Free 'Brown' Slaveholders
By C. Vann Woodward
Black Masters: A Free Family of Color in the Old South
by Michael P. Johnson, by James L. Roark
Norton, 422 pp., $22.50
No Chariot Let Down: Charleston's Free People of Color on the Eve of the Civil War
edited by Michael P. Johnson, edited by James L. Roark
University of North Carolina Press, 174 pp., $16.95
Born a slave in 1790, William Ellison purchased his freedom when he was twenty six, and by the time of his death in 1861 he had acquired a fortune. In the numbers of slaves he owned he ranked among the top 1 percent of all slaveholders. He also became a large landowner and planter. Compared with the mean wealth of whites in the South, Ellison's was fifteen times greater. That did not make him the richest free man of color, for there were a half dozen richer in Louisiana, but he was probably the richest who started life as a slave. On the backs of slaves he built his fortune and founded his freedom.
Review, 2992 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |