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You are here: Home / History / Why did free blacks in Colonial America own slaves?

Why did free blacks in Colonial America own slaves?

July 22, 2020 by Karen Hill

Some free blacks did own slaves. Others bought their own relatives to get them out of slavery.

There were also a number of skilled free blacks, such as tailors, shoemakers, and carpenters, who bought slaves and made them apprentices.

In 1850, 19 percent of the black tailors in Charleston, South Carolina, owned slaves. According to the 1830 census, 753 blacks in New Orleans, Louisiana, owned slaves. Slaves were also used by free blacks as maids or day workers.

A small number of blacks owned slaves for the same reason as whites did: to perform the labor in their money making operations, such as farms.

Related Facts

  • How did slaves in Colonial America protest slavery in the 1700s?
  • How did free slaves in Colonial America lead a normal life?
  • How many states in Colonial America had slaves by the 1800s?
  • What kind of work did slaves do in Colonial America?
  • How many American blacks wanted to return to Africa after the abolition of Slavery?
  • How many free blacks owned businesses during the American Colonial Period?

Filed Under: History

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « Who else tried to help the slaves in Colonial America?
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