Black Masters: A Side-Light on Slavery

By: Calvin Dill Wilson

Narrated by: Rodney Louis Tompkins

The Rev. Calvin Dill Wilson (1857-1946) was an author and Presbyterian minister. In Black Masters of 1904, he discusses the little-known history of the free African-Americans that bought and sold slaves just like Southern white planters. Free colored men and women could own their families and in this way protect them against oppressive local laws. There was also the desire to attain a position of superiority over other blacks, an ambition to rise to the class of the masters and to be on the same level as white men. The earliest documentary evidence of such a transaction dates from 1724, in Boston, Massachusetts while most of the cases discussed here concern the states of Louisiana, Maryland and South Carolina.

Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks

Story

Unveiling of the circumstances surrounding the story. The he author’s ability to tell his story.

Great listen!

I really enjoyed it. It was very informative and awesome inspiring. I knew some Black men owned their families, but not quite in this depth.

Black Masters

a very good book, a classic in my opinion, it definitely broadened my scope about the institution of slavery.

so disappointing

I this book was incredibly disappointing. Chapter after chapter contact conflicting information. One chapter says freed blacks had to leave the state when they were manumitted the next says by law freed blacks could not own blacks and then a whole chapter goes on about how freed blacks never manumitted their slaves. All the while so many passages state that with more research we would have found this information but we didn't look and we assume a conclusion. In essence this is full of assumptions and very little facts. Very annoying when I am expecting facts.