"Negroes Owned Plantations Before War, Book Declares" (Milton Scott, ANP), reporting Carter G. Woodson's Free Negro Heads of Families in the United States in 1830…

SUMMARY"Negroes Owned Plantations Before War, Book Declares" (Milton Scott, ANP), reporting Carter G. Woodson's Free Negro Heads of Families in the United States in 1830 (1925) and Free Negro Owners of Slaves (1924): about one in seven was free in 1830; large landholders such as Marie Metoyer of Natchitoches (2,000 acres). Record. Woodson himself wrote that most such owners held relatives or friends to protect them. Hijack warning: used to say "Black people owned slaves too" to dismiss the system. Lens: a free, landholding class of color across the South before 1860.