An Irony of Slavery

Most Americans think slavery was very oppressive but there are a number of freedmen especially in NC who show another side to the institution.

John Carruthers Stanly is a true anomaly as he started life as a slave, earned his freedom and became the largest slave owner in the nation in 1824. He owned over 163 slaves to work his three plantations and his barber shop which was the source of his original wealth. He had bought his wife Kitty and first three children out of slavery.

In some ways he is an embarrassment to both races, white and black, because he overcame his position as a slave and became wealthy. He embarrassed the whites as he became wealthier than they were and an embarrassment to the African- Americans because he proved one can rise above slavery and have success.

Nat Turner

Before Nat Turner's rebellion, North Carolina was quite lenient with slaves. Then Virginia and South Carolina officials really complained and slaves appeared to be more inclines to want their freedom as opposed to more dependency in the past.
Answers.com says, "Nat Turner was a black preacher who led an 1831 uprising in Southampton County, Virginia in which at least 55 whites were killed by a group of about 50 slaves. Turner was a deeply religious man who claimed to have visions and directives from God. On the night of 21 August 1831 he led four other slaves (Henry, Hark, Nelson and Sam) on a murderous spree near the town of Jerusalem, killing men, women and children in their beds. By the next day his mob had grown to at least 40 or 50, but the local militia confronted and captured most of them. Turner escaped, but was eventually captured in October and tried. He was hanged and skinned 11 November 1831. Before he was executed, he described his actions to Thomas R. Gray, and 'The Confessions of Nat Turner' was later widely published in newspapers. Turner's failed rebellion led to hundreds of blacks being murdered by white vigilante mobs, and spurred a new set of strict codes that limited the activities of slaves."

Charles Chesnutt

From Dr. Kelley Griffith of Greensboro, NC: "Many works of fiction are by African Americans. One of them, Charles Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition, is about the race "riot" of 1898 or so. Do you know this work? Although it's a work of fiction, the events really took place. Chesnutt does an excellent job of representing the various groups of people, black and white, involved. I wouldn't claim that this is a great novel, like Moby Dick, but it's engaging and thoughtful. The conflict marked the beginning of heavy-handed Jim Crow in N.C. A place worth visiting--far from you but fairly close to me--is the Booker T. Washington National Monument. It's a small national park in a beautiful rural setting in southern Virginia (near Smith Mountain Lake, on the way to Roanoke), a working farm where Washington lived until he was 6. He writes about it in Up from Slavery."