NEGROES WHO OWNED SLAVES 493 



The above is from a New York paper, and refers to the Harrison property, 

 which was purchased by Cyprian Kicaud, a free man of color of our parish. If 

 the property had contained as many acres as stated above and as many slaves, 

 it would have brought nearer a million and a quarter than a quarter of a million. 

 On the contrary, the land, we believe, comprised some sixteen hundred acres, and 

 there were about one hundred slaves of all sizes. It lies in the rear of Madame 

 C. Eieaud's plantation; and the two plantations, now owned by that family, 

 probably do comprise the number of acres of land and slaves as above stated, 

 making them, doubtless, the richest black family in this or any other country. 1 



We shall now attempt to make an estimate of the number of negro 

 slaveholders throughout the period of the existence of slavery in 

 America, and the number of slaves held by them. We shall proceed 

 upon the basis of certain data already ascertained and set forth in this 

 paper. 



Let us take first the date 1790. In that year there were in Maryland 

 forty-eight negro slaveholders, owning one hundred and forty-three 

 slaves. 



There were then in that state free negroes, 8,043. The ratio of 

 negro slaveholders there and then to other free negroes in 1790 in 

 Maryland was 1 in 167. The average of slaves per owner was 3. 



There were in 1836 in New Orleans 610 slaves owned by free 

 negroes. The average of slaves per negro owner in Maryland was, 

 as we have shown, 3. Taking the same average as holding in New 

 Orleans in relation to these 640 slaves, we have 213 colored slave owners 

 in New Orleans in 1836. We may safely assume that there were as 

 many more in the whole state of Louisiana, or 426 in all, at that date. 



There were in Louisiana in 1830 (we have the census by decades, 

 and not for the years between), free negroes, 16,710. The ratio of the 

 426 colored slave owners to other free negroes would be 1 in 39. 



Again, in Charleston, S. C, there were in 1860 colored slave owners, 

 132. We may safely assume that there were as many more in the whole 

 state of South Carolina, or 264 in all. 



In 1860 there were in South Carolina free colored people, 9,914. 

 The ratio is 1 to every 37 other free colored people in that state at that 

 time. 



There were in the slaveholding states during the whole period of 

 slavery at least 500,000 free negroes. This can be estimated by taking 

 the total census of free negroes, by decades, from 1790 to 1860, dividing 

 in half to avoid counting any one twice, and dividing again in half to 

 exclude the free states. 



Taking the ratio 1 in 167 in 1790 in Maryland, and 1 in 39 in 

 Louisiana in 1836, and 1 in 37 in South Carolina in 1860, and taking 

 their sum and dividing by 3, we have the ratio of 1 in 80 as a slave 



1 Extract from the Plaquemine, La., Sentinel, 1859. 



