Being there . . . . for a short, temporary intermission from our country’s involvement with
World War II to rekindle our vague knowledge and understanding of several annoying issues
discovered within the costs of the South’s defeat in the American Civil War. In particular, one
unexplored progeny has demanded our solicitous attention since both the good people of the
North and South, especially those of South Carolina, refused to have anything to do with it: the
wide and deep extent to which African Americans themselves played a significant role as
masters in slave ownership. For example, most Americans, black and white, ordinary,
hardworking, God and peace loving, almost always kind, gentle, and graciously ready to be
helpful, believed that since slavery was still unconscionably profitable, and that rare excessive
cruelties were still being tolerated, even by black owners, it was critical that what was wrong
with the abhorrent practice for three-quarters of a century in the 11 confederate states that
had seceded from the United States be told, although no one in their families ever embraced it.
After all, it had been a viable economic system, which meant it was likely their white
counterparts organized unfair advantages, NAY, stole by profiting from the unfair labors. Slaves
on farms and businesses would always be needed and welcomed, especially, if they were in
fear. Slave owners right up and through 1864 hoped that their slaves would quietly continue
their work without complaint, and, if the South won, the legacy would continue, becoming
more and more proficient, right up to 1900, the beginning of the 20 th Century. Yet, as we are
reminded from researcher-author Larry Koger’s newly republished 1985 text, “Although
unthinkable, black slaveholding had a benevolent side. Black folk labored for years to purchase
the freedom of family members who were slaves to white masters. Still others bought and
acquired the freedom of beloved friends, although the handed down practice was racist-stark,
absolute unmitigated evil, barely short of murder, without reservation or qualification.”
FRESHLY REPUBLISHED FROM 1985, McFARLAND & COMPANY, INC., PUBLISHERS, HAS
DISINTERRED AND REEXAMINED THE ABOMINABLE SLAVEHOLDING RECORDS, DOCUMENTS,
AND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES, ETC., OF BLACK SLAVEMASTERS WHO WERE DIVERSE IN
BACKGROUND AND CHARACTER. BRAVELY, 40 YEARS AG0, AUTHOR LARRY KOGER
UNLOOSENED HISTORY TO RESOLVE NAGGING, PAINFUL QUESTIONS ABOUT SLAVERY AND
MULATTOE OWNERSHIPS. THEN AND TODAY, HIS RESEARCH IS WIDELY ACKNOWLEDGED,
ACCEPTED, AND ACCEPTED, PARTICULARLY IN SOUTH CAROLINA WHERE LARRY’S RESEARCH
BEGAN. THE NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL REVIEW EXPLAINED ITS PURPOSE BEST, “AN
IMPORTANT AND USEFUL REFERENCE THAT SHOULD STIMULATE FURTHER RESEARCH”.
Reviewed and highly recommended by Don DeNevi
“BLACK SLAVEOWNERS – Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790 – 1860”, by Larry
Koger. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers: 1985, reprinted 2024; 286 pages, 6” x 8 ¾”,
softcover, $25. Visit, wwwmcfarlandpub.com.
Author Larry Koger is the first true historian, as far as this reviewer is aware, to courageously
face the formidable and scattered disarray of the South’s state and local registrars and
registers, trusts and wills, pledges of property to creditors and banks, mortgagee receipts,
advance monetary claims, etc., etc., ad nauseam, to unravel, page by page, whatever crude,
often non-binding, paperwork was needed for one human being to “own” other human beings.
Year after year, Larry diligently and unselfishly worked to meticulously research and organize
a complete manuscript detailing authoritative facts about the slave-master owners. And
wherever he went throughout the Southern states to obtain his data, he was applauded. To
bring home and dissect folders of copied documents was beyond commendable, if such a
common, collective, proper, abstract noun ever existed. A whole lot of historians, including all
the good, empathetic American people, thank him to this day for his intense resolution to
continue gathering and interpreting over the years for what lays before us today. It is unlikely
there will be another Larry Koger who will tread in his footsteps for centuries to come.
After the Civil War, free black masters no longer exploitered the labor of slaves, Larry points
out. “Because of the war, the black slaveowners were required to free their slaves. If they
wanted to use the services of workers, they had to make the transition from slaves to
employees. Slow and difficult for the rural masters, it marked the death of the plantation
system. The war and emancipation of the slaves caused the collapse of the black slave owning
class of rice planters as well as the large cotton planters”. Note: Appendices A, B, and C, and the
final 37 pages of priceless endnotes for all the 10 chapters, will inundate your thinking with
treasures by the tons of information on slaves and slave ownership. Read for yourself how the
superb historian-author Larry Koger is a ton of treasure onto himself for us non-racist Civil War
buffs.
