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Old 05-25-2014, 01:50 AM
 
Location: Chesapeake Bay
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mircea View Post
In the South --- before the Civil War ---- I could take you to cities and towns where you would see Black people and you would never have a freaking clue they were slaves. They'd probably dress better than you wearing suits and ties and big flowing gowns for the ladies --- their work clothes. They were accountants and shop managers and other skilled or semi-skilled professionals. And of course the trades...black-smiths, cobblers, tailors, etc etc etc.

The only strange thing would be that on the boardwalk, they would always step aside to let you pass, and they would never look you directly in the eye....they would always look down while speaking with you. Aside from that, they dressed nicely, lived in apartments atop their stores or in houses or hotels, and they even had a little spending money, but they were still slaves nonetheless.

Interesting comments. Slaves were accountants, shop managers, lived in apartments atop their stores (Implication being that they owned the stores) or lived in hotels? There were a very few exceptions but not nearly as common as you imply.

Anyway, do you have links for those comments?

Last edited by Weichert; 05-25-2014 at 02:04 AM..
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Old 05-25-2014, 02:23 PM
 
Location: Ohio
24,623 posts, read 19,077,671 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Weichert View Post
Interesting comments. Slaves were accountants, shop managers, lived in apartments atop their stores (Implication being that they owned the stores) or lived in hotels?
Oh, no, no no. They were slaves....they did not own anything.

Money is still money. It doesn't take a Big Brain to realize that some people have the gift of gab and sell people anything. You're going to put those people in a position where they can do exactly that, skin color notwithstanding.

Some skills are family-based, meaning that you're a tailor, or black-smith or cobbler, because your father was, because his father was, because his father was. That is true in many cultures regardless of race. If you are a skilled black-smith, I don't need to be there. You can run the shop for me....which frees me up to do something else.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Weichert View Post
There were a very few exceptions but not nearly as common as you imply.
It was never my intent to imply that it was common. It was in fact uncommon. How uncommon? If you want numbers, I don't know, but I would venture to guess less than 5% of the total slave population.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Weichert View Post
Anyway, do you have links for those comments?
It's culled from university history and political science text-books, and Thomas Sowell discusses it in at least two of his books (it's well foot-noted and he goes into detail about riverboat captains who were Black Slaves), and so does Walter Williams.

I do know from one of the text-books, the basis for the research is Decennial Census records.

The impression one gets is that this was a very select-group who probably never spent time on a plantation. From Day One they were performing some domestic service in a city or town. They may have been on a plantation briefly only until it was recognized that the slave has some unique or special talent, and then was traded or sold to someone in town.

In a small town environment, after two or three generations, the towns-folk would become accustomed to them....I suppose maybe the Stockholm Syndrome in action...and they were given more privileges and responsibility. That might be one explanation.

Clarifying....

Mircea
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