As you know, history is the servant of those in power. But even if the historian is completely sincere in trying to be objective, he still distorts the real history. Well, it's like studying the area on a map: on paper - a green lowland, but in fact - bumps and holes.
The best illustration is the history of slavery in the United States. Today's African Americans talk a lot about how they were oppressed, demanding compensation, etc. But paradoxically, the first slave owner to legalize slavery in America was the Negro Anthony Johnson.
However, in 1619, when he arrived in Jamestown, his name was Antonio from Angola. He was brought by a certain Dane along with a group of slaves and sold as a servant to the colonist Nathaniel Littleton. The colony needed workers, and the inhabitants willingly acquired slaves and convicts from Europe.
But in those days there was neither lifelong bondage, nor slavery in our understanding. Such servants received payment for their labor and, having worked for 7-10 years, became free people. This happened with Antonio from Angola. In 1635, the owner released him.
By that time, the former slave had changed his name to English and became Anthony Johnson. He got married and had a son, Willie (the first black born on American soil). He seemed to be doing well because in 1651, the colonial government of Virginia, following its law to expand arable land, endowed him with 250 acres of farmland - 50 acres for each new servant (servant). That is, by that time Anthony was able to buy himself slaves, convicts and debtors, black and white. So the former slave from Angola became the owner (but not the owner) of five "enslaved servants". By the way, his relatives, John and Richard Johnson, settled nearby. John had 11 servants and 550 acres of land, Richard had 2 indentured servants and 100 acres …
The next stage in the development of the black planter Anthony Johnson is discovered in 1654, when he filed a lawsuit against a white neighbor, to whom his indentured servant, the Negro, John Caseor, deserted. Caseor, a young black man, claimed that the old black man (as Anthony was officially called in court) had detained him for seven years longer than it should be under state law. In those days, this was the usual charge that slaves brought against their masters in court. And, as a rule, the court took the side of the servants.
Realizing that he would have to pay substantial compensation for the delay of the servant in bondage, the old Negro filed a lawsuit against the white planter Robert Parker, who sheltered the fugitive Negro, claiming that he was a free man. Negro Johnson managed to prove in court that the negro Kazor belongs to him for life, as property. It was he who became the ancestor of plantation slavery in North America …
Of course, the role of Anthony Johnson in the establishment of slavery should not be exaggerated: in the 17th century, blacks did not matter much in the economy of the colony - according to the 1649 census, there were 300 blacks and 18,500 whites in Virginia. It was possible to demonstrate freedom from prejudice. The situation changed when a flood of slaves poured out of Africa and slave labor on cotton and sugar plantations became the basis of the South's economy. Here ideologists and lawyers had to work hard to legalize slavery, to make it almost a godly deed. The name of one of the slave ships, which arrived in 1793 from Boston in Sierra Leone for slaves, - "Zealous Quaker" …
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It should be recognized that the basis of slavery was still profit, and racial theories grew later, with the intensification of the struggle for freedom. And even after the abolition of slavery, when the struggle for equal rights began.
That is why there were many blacks among the slave owners. Especially mulattoes and women, especially in New Orleans. A common story: the planter chose the most beautiful among the slaves and made children with them. He became attached, and before his death appointed heirs of plantations and slaves. And property is sacred …
According to the 1830 census, negroes in South Carolina, Louisiana, Virginia, and Maryland collectively owned more than 10,000 slaves. At the beginning of 1860, the wealthiest slaveholders in Iberville County, Louisiana were two Negroes - August Dubuclet (1,200 acres and 94 slaves) and Antoine Decur (1,000 acres and 112 slaves).
Interesting fact: the share of slave owners among whites, according to historians, ranged from 5 to 7%, and among blacks - up to 20-30%.
Well, and slavery - it corrupts. There were times when blacks became the owners of their relatives. One of them, Jacob Gasken from South Carolina, sold his old father to the South - he was tired of his lectures …
Of course, this is not about black being worse than white. It's just that they are people too, and nothing human, unfortunately, as it turned out, is also not alien to them. So, ordinary people are within the normal range …
Ivan Khvorostinin