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I am a grad student at U. Memphis working on a dissertation focusing on free black and slave life in antebellum to Reconstruction era Middle & West TN from their own perspectives. To date, my main focus has been upon the WPA ex-slave narratives gathered in the mid-to-late 1930's. This has been a problem because E.H. Crump, a Democrat who hated FDR and controlled TN, prevented any interviews in TN save for 6 in Knoxville.
Recently, however, I discovered that black for-profit slaving (as opposed to buying family members) was not as 'numerically insignificant' as I'd always believed-- at least in some places. In New Orleans for example, 28% of the free black population in 1860 owned slaves. In 1860, only 4.8% of the white population of the South owned 1 or more slaves (I don't know if the last stat includes Delaware or Maryland).
The earlier thread posted in this forum includes some recommendations of books which appear to be classics-- thank you all who contributed. None of them, however, are specific to either the fairly peculiar state of TN or to specific black slave owners in TN. In fact, at present, all I know is that there were at least 5 blacks with 100+ slaves from 1830 to 1860, and that two of them were Sherrod Bryant and Joe Clouston. Outside of the facts that Bryant owned more land and slaves than Jackson at his peak, and carried papers from high ranking white officials instructing all that he should be "treated as a white man" in matters involving real estate, I know next to nothing about either man.
So, I would greatly appreciate any help any of you can provide me, even if it is just additional books or resources about the subject from other states or regions which you have thought of or discovered in the years since the original thread was posted. Obviously, though, my greatest needs are the names of additional for-profit black slavers in or near TN, and, most of all, the locations/ likely locations of their archives/ correspondence.
Thank you in advance, and, even if no one can help with my particularly problem, I'm really happy I discovered this 'place'; y'all have created a great collective resource.
C. Wilson Viar, III
322 Patterson
University of Memphis
Recently, however, I discovered that black for-profit slaving (as opposed to buying family members) was not as 'numerically insignificant' as I'd always believed-- at least in some places. In New Orleans for example, 28% of the free black population in 1860 owned slaves. In 1860, only 4.8% of the white population of the South owned 1 or more slaves (I don't know if the last stat includes Delaware or Maryland).
The earlier thread posted in this forum includes some recommendations of books which appear to be classics-- thank you all who contributed. None of them, however, are specific to either the fairly peculiar state of TN or to specific black slave owners in TN. In fact, at present, all I know is that there were at least 5 blacks with 100+ slaves from 1830 to 1860, and that two of them were Sherrod Bryant and Joe Clouston. Outside of the facts that Bryant owned more land and slaves than Jackson at his peak, and carried papers from high ranking white officials instructing all that he should be "treated as a white man" in matters involving real estate, I know next to nothing about either man.
So, I would greatly appreciate any help any of you can provide me, even if it is just additional books or resources about the subject from other states or regions which you have thought of or discovered in the years since the original thread was posted. Obviously, though, my greatest needs are the names of additional for-profit black slavers in or near TN, and, most of all, the locations/ likely locations of their archives/ correspondence.
Thank you in advance, and, even if no one can help with my particularly problem, I'm really happy I discovered this 'place'; y'all have created a great collective resource.
C. Wilson Viar, III
322 Patterson
University of Memphis
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