Showing results by author "Calvin Dill Wilson" in All Categories

The Rev. Calvin Dill Wilson (1857-1946) was a Presbyterian minister and author. His book Black Masters, first published in 1904, explores the history of wealthy free African Americans who became slave-owners. According to Wilson’s research, there were around 6,200 Black slave-holders in the years before the Civil War who owned some 18,000 slaves. By owning their families, free colored men and women could protect them against oppressive local laws.

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.