General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I'm surprised how many DU'ers think aknowledging white male privilege is somehow bigoted [View all]billh58
(6,635 posts)Most plantations had direct employees: blacksmiths, slave and livestock handlers, field overseers, etc. Almost all of these live-in employees had their own houses on the plantation, AND their own slaves. The fact remains, owning land was not a prerequisite for owning slaves, anymore than it was for owning a cow, or a pig, or a plow.
It appears that you, and not me, would like to embellish history to make antebellum Southern non-land holder whites appear as pure as the driven snow. As I stated earlier, all white people during this period had the "privilege" to order slaves around, to abuse them, and to ridicule them at will. In that sense, all whites "owned" slaves -- with, or without the receipt of purchase.
I am not trying to "deflect blame from slave owners," but to extend the blame to the entire mindset and culture which allowed slavery to flourish in the first place. Stating categorically that only rich white land owners "owned" slaves is at best apologetic of the culture, and at worst a total denial of this horrible blight on the history of the USA.