494 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



owner. Applying this ratio to the 500,000 free negroes, we have 6,200 

 negro slave owners. 



Accepting the proportion of slaves to each owner, as found already, 

 3 each, we have more than 18,000 slaves held by negroes in the course 

 of slavery in this country. 



"We believe this to be a very moderate estimate. We are of the 

 opinion that these figures are much below the fact. Yet they may be 

 suggestive as a conservative estimate on a matter concerning which no 

 estimate has ever been made before, so far as we know. 



This puzzling subject has interested me for a number of years. 

 Several years ago, I gathered such data as I could at the time and 

 prepared a paper on " Black Masters," which appeared in the North 

 American Review, November, 1905. Later, I undertook a further 

 search. I searched as much of the literature of slavery as was accessible 

 to me, and this was done to a major extent with only negative results. 

 I carried on a wide correspondence with state librarians, public libra- 

 rians, historians, historical societies and a host of individuals who might 

 probably be possessed of some of the knowledge I was seeking. I sent 

 cards to twenty newspapers asking for correspondence on the subject. 

 These letters in two conspicuous instances came to the notice of leading 

 newspapers, which took up the subject and printed letters, quoted docu- 

 ments and brought out a good deal of illuminating information. Dur- 

 ing the summer of 1907 more than forty newspapers quoted these data 

 or commented on them, in the main giving the few facts over again as 

 they had appeared in the two or three papers that opened up the dis- 

 cussion. This was spoken of as " the new phase of slavery," and was 

 discussed editorially in several instances. Certain editors frankly ac- 

 knowledge previous ignorance of such a condition. Others lifted their 

 eyebrows and suggested a degree of incredulity, perhaps scenting a fake. 

 A number of journals, however, brought some grist of desired informa- 

 tion to the mill. 



The bibliography of this subject is exceedingly sparse. There is no 

 treatise specifically on the theme, except my own paper in the North' 

 American Review. There is no reference to it in any encyclopedia, as 

 far as I can learn. There are only scattered references to it in a few 

 books and in files of newspapers. The bulk of the facts is still buried 

 in unpublished documents in court houses, historical societies and 

 libraries. There are probably a few hundreds of people still living who 

 have recollections of this phase of slavery. So we are justified in call- 

 ing this subject, in its completeness, a lost chapter. 2 



2 The facts for this essay were gathered by me for Mr. A. H. Stone, repre- 

 senting the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and are here used by his consent. 



