Black Masters: A Free Family of Color in the Old South

by Michael P. Johnson, James L. Roark

"A remarkably fine work of creative scholarship." ―C. Vann Woodward, New York Review of Books In 1860, when four million African Americans were enslaved, a quarter-million others, including William Ellison, were "free people of color." But Ellison was remarkable. Born a slave, his experience spans the history of the South from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. In a day when most Americans, black and white, worked the soil, barely scraping together a living, Ellison was a cotton-gin maker―a master craftsman. When nearly all free blacks were destitute, Ellison was wealthy and well-established. He owned a large plantation and more slaves than all but the richest white planters.

While Ellison was exceptional in many respects, the story of his life sheds light on the collective experience of African Americans in the antebellum South to whom he remained bound by race. His family history emphasizes the fine line separating freedom from slavery.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, Biography, Civil War, Historical, Race

440 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Michael P. Johnson (Ph.D., Stanford University) is a professor of history at the Johns Hopkins University. He has written or edited six books, including No Chariot Let Down: Charleston’s Free People of Color on the Eve of the Civil War (1984) and The American Promise.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a few irritating things about this book but for the most part it's really engrossing. And it's full of little tidbits of history that I never knew before. The book is centered around a wealthy african-american family in the pre-war south who were cotton gin makers and plantation owners and actually owned dozens of slaves themselves. The authors use this family as a jumping off point to examine the life of free blacks and mulattoes in the antebellum south, going into great detail on the ways that skin color and shade separated free blacks into a light skinned, better-off elite and a larger group of dark skinned free laborers, who had a terrible time. The problem is that the authors really have no information on anybody outside of information in the letters of this one rich family. Because free blacks weren't allowed to vote or testify in court or really be citizens the way white people were, there is very little information about them. So the authors rely on these tax records from Charleston all the time, but tax records are REALLY dry and boring, and I found myself getting pretty fed up with endless percentages and numbers that all basically tell the same story. Plus they have those numbers in graph form at the end of the book, so why summarize them in the text?
There are some shockers of history here though. For example, I never knew that some states (like S. Carolina) passed laws in the early 1800s forbidding the emancipation of slaves. So slave owners were actually not allowed to free their slaves. Some got around the law by stipulating in their will that their slaves be allowed to live AS IF they were free, but they had no legal right to be free and unscrupulous whites could re-enslave them. And even worse, some states (like Arkansas) passed laws re-enslaving all free blacks living within their borders. South Carolina considered the same law, although it never officially passed. I didn't really think that I could ever read something that would make the slave era seem worse, but that did it. The idea that someone could buy themselves and their families out of slavery, only to have a law passed that would re-enslave them...wow.

[Andy Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story of William Ellison, a man born a mixed race slave who buys his own freedom and then his wife’s and daughter’s. Having been trained as a cotton gin maker, he became wealthy. His wealth included up to 60 slaves, and his family were reliably pro-South before and after the Civil War. The book is self-admittedly thinly sourced in places, which leads to much supposition — all of it reasonable enough. If you have an interest in history of the South and/or race relations and slavery, this is pretty good on all accounts.

Most notable is the in depth examination of free blacks, particularly mixed-race society, and it’s occupations, wealth, culture and enslaved humans. Probably a side of history you are not familiar with.

[GrinnolaAlum · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the History of the Ellison family. It is largely centered around April Ellis who changed his name after being manumitted to obscure his former enslavement. He was a skilled laborer who learned to repair and build cotton gins. His training and education were organized by a white relative (likely his father or brother), he apprenticed and learned the cotton gin repair business and was manumitted. He worked and saved up enough money to purchase his wife and child. He moved close to Charleston, became wealthy because of his cotton gin repair business, purchased land and farmed and owned other enslaved people who he appeared to treat worse than other slave owners in his community. As a wealthy bi-racial (mulatto was the term used then) person he became focused on building wealth, establishing his business and social connections. He befriended white people who sort of vouched for him as required by South Carolina law, he was a member of a blue-vein society the most elite in the free Black community, his family purchased a pew in church on the first floor with white congregants as the enslaved people were on the second floor. He lobbied for his sons to join the Confederate army; they were denied because of racist Confederate policies and laws that prohibited Blacks from bearing arms.

In many ways this book had some fascinating History. The formerly enslaved son of a white slave owner who was educated, apprenticed, and freed and identified with the lifestyle of his owner, supported slavery, the system including societal ideas about race enough that he supported the Confederacy. The book also explores the community of free people of color including the many ways this community tried to replicate antebellum society including the colorism among various social clubs; one had to be certain complexions to be involved in a particular club. The author’s captured the pressure on free people of color many of whom were mixed race under a system of slavery that was based on white supremacy and the assumption that to be African or Black was to be property not human.

What I found lacking was any exploration or analysis of how the free people of color engaged a society built on slavery beyond complete capitulation. Why did they stay in Charleston? Why stay in SC where they were required to work to earn the trust and support of white sponsors? What did they feel about their own role in enslaving others for economic reasons?

Also, it lacked any perspective from enslaved people who were owned by the Ellison family. Perhaps there was no way to access this, but I think having the perspective from a contemporary narrative, newspaper article or descendants of the enslaved people owned by Ellison and his family would have given this book more depth. It needed more than gossip from other white slave owners that the Ellison's treated their slaves worse than they did as enslavers; I think some information from descendants, narratives, Freedmen's bureau records, oral History from enslaved descendants would have been welcome.

As the civil war brought changes the author followed the family and their economic ups and downs, turning from the cotton gin business to farming, supplying the Confederate Army, selling to locals. The book carries on until the end of the life of the last person they could document in the family, though the most interesting part was the focus on April and his journey from slave to wealthy slave owner. Good read that could have been better, but it was a tough topic and relied heavily on letters found in the abandoned family home and the research to verify the content of the letters. I would say read this with or preferably after other books on SC History, and Rebellions by Enslaved people. I suggest Black Majority: Negros in South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion; Denmark Vesey: The Buried Story of America’s Slave Rebellion and Man Who Let It; Notorious in the Neighborhood; New York Burning and David Walker’s Appeal.

Happy reading.

[C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Black Masters: A Free Family of Color is one of the most important books on my list. This is more than the genealogy of the Ellis Family and deeper than Historic Charleston, South Carolina, the civil war, and the fight for freedom.

The first section, 75%, covers how the mulatto patriarch Ellis, learns a trade and buys his freedom, wife, and children. Then Mr. Ellis created an empire based on his trades of cotton gin making and blacksmithing. He then buys land, enslaved people, and a modest home, always careful not to draw too much attention to himself.

Even though he was free, he like other free negros/blacks, needed to prominate white citizens to vouch for their character and help them with legal matters. The Ellis family believed that their complexion was a form of currency, security, and acceptance. They kept separate from darker people, though they were never truly accepted by the white or black community.

Everything goes as expected until those in charge decide they want the free negros to prove their right to freedom. They also pass laws to stop manumissions after 1820. So if your free papers were signed after 1820, the law didn't recognize you as a free person.

Some free negro/blacks had been free for generations and had no proof that the law would consider. If the person was female, then everyone in her line was also suspected of not truly being free. So generations were put into servitude. The choices were to stay in Charleston and be enslaved or try running and pray you don't get caught. If they got caught fleeing, they risked being sold south and away from their family.

Some wealthier free people tried to clear their affairs, sell their property, collect their debts, and send their children and family north but had little warning of the law changes. Those who did not have a previous white owner became the property of the lawmakers. The magistrates were glad to enslave them and become “rich.” Their official notes, letters, trial records, and accounts show how maniacal minds got sicker and more depraved based on the dollars they envisioned.

They tried to change laws and add new legislation that said if you were free-born and committed a crime, you could be enslaved. Thankfully that law failed. But it didn't stop the desire to take everything from the free negroes. The records indicated that legislators went to vote on several occasions, trying to legally overthrow black citizens and their rights.

These records showed how evil and conniving some people were based on jealousy, pettiness, and perceived superiority. Sections of this book left me breathless. Much of the problem stemmed from the white mechanics who didn't want to compete with the negro/black mechanics.

Some of the lawmakers wanted to remove every negro/black right to freedom within Charleston. They said no matter how much intellect, education, money, land, or property the negro/black had, they should never be allowed to be equal to or above white citizens. They wanted to block blacks from being able to make money.

There were a few wealthy negros/blacks that they made "honorary white people,” but that, too, only worked for those who agreed to honor the ruling. What we saw was that no matter your lineage, community standing, tax bracket, or history, your life, and freedom could be snatched away in an instant. This was a long (13 hours) and daunting read, but it was worth it.

[Leon Atterberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting book that had me thinking how I would react in certain situations. I really enjoyed how the author reminded us to look at this issue, not in our time, but in theirs.

Of course, every Black person, today, would say they wouldn’t own slaves but is that true??

Very thought provoking and makes you ask yourself some tough questions.

[Kevin Key · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author Rourke gives detail about freed slaves in the south. Very educating read.

[Mike Horne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. My son lent it to me from one of his classes at A&M. The story of a very well off black man in Antebellum South who ownned slaves. Very well written.

[Sonya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book interesting as we once owned and lived in 7 Coming Street in Charleston.

[Dinkey]

Enjoyed the topic, but it has a lot of percentages and such that it seems to distract from the reading.