This Paper Directly Challenges the Common Belief that Slaveowning Was Based Strictly on Racial Distinctions (the Idea that Whites Owned Slaves and Blacks Were Slaves)

In fact, by 1830 this third caste of wealth[y] free African-Americans numbered just over 3,000 and owned over 12,000 slaves, along with hundreds of thousands of land acreage. In St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, three free black plantation owners held an average of forty-six slaves each; likewise, in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, eight planters had about thirty-seven slaves each. These numbers alone directly challenge the commonly held belief that slaveowning was based strictly on racial distinctions: the idea that whites owned slaves and blacks were slaves.

Thus, this study focuses on the general occurrence of affluence amongst free blacks and their shared role in the system of slavery; specifically how their experience differs from the predispositions of modern society’s belief of the notion. That is to suggest that the existence of  an affluent free black slaveholding caste challenges the belief that slavery was strictly based on racial distinctions—despite an unequal ratio of free blacks to slaves. Though there are many questions lacking scholarly attention, the research contained in this paper will specifically address four questions. What are the origins of black slave ownership and the historical development revolving around the third caste? What defined a free person of color, and how was such a status obtained? What was the rationale behind becoming a free black slaveholder? Finally, how significant was black slave ownership?

--Colton Adams, “A Peculiar Institution Within the Peculiar Institution: An Examination of Affluent Free Black Slave Owners in the Third Caste,” Journal of Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research 8 (2016): 1-2.