Breaking the shackels of slavery III

Often we are burdended with the belief of slavery passed on to us most often by white  writers and historians and sometimes mis-educated negros.  For example our belief that Black people owned slaves because they were buying their relatives and friends.  This was passed down to us from the writings of Carter G. Woodson, yet there is ample information to debunk this, and shows how Blacks did in fact own other Black slaves to make a profit in their business.  Also, we've been handed down the belief that free Blacks were simply slaves without masters, due to the harsh Black Code type laws that were in effect.  This comes from a white university professor Ira Berlin.  Of course this fits into our mode of thinking, probably inspired by the tel-i-vision program Roots.  I present to you an excerpt from an essay entitled Borrowed Ground a University of Virginia essay.  Unfortunately, the author's name is not listed on my copy.

From the essay Borrowed Ground... 

Although great disparity existed between white and free African-American positions in Charleston society, it is incorrect to assume, as Ira Berlin does in Slaves Without Masters, that free African Americans had few privileges at all and were barely distinguishable from slaves. Berlin observes:

Throughout the South, free Negroes found their mobility curbed, their economic opportunities limited, and their civil rights all but obliterated. The separation and discrimination inherent in slavery continued into freedom; those free Negroes who measured their liberty against that of whites everywhere found it wanting.

5

Free African Americans could not challenge whites politically and had to establish separate social structures, but to a great extent they could economically challenge the dividing lines between themselves and whites. Many free African Americans obtained substantial wealth as artisans and entrepreneurs. By 1820, many had become richer than most Charleston whites. Some owned real estate and even slaves. Despite facing political, social and economic limits in Charleston's white dominated society, free African Americans were not "slaves without masters," but masters of their own lives

for those who are the descendants of slaves...

Today, the Congress of the United States erected comemorative plaques in honor of the enslaved that built the capitol building in Washington D.C.  Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said "In remembering the slaves who labored here, we give them in death some measure of dignity they were so cruely denied in life."  Thanks Mitch, they needed that.  Finally, the U.S. government has recognized a small portion of the work, put in by enslaved Black people in building this country.  Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, spearheaded the committee that pushed for this recognition and I'm glad he did. But, is this all we were?  Slaves.  What I perceive from these media blasts is simply 'a slave you were, and a slave you will be.'

Where are the documents that states ALL Blacks in the western hemisphere were slaves? Why do so many of us assume that we are all descendants of slaves?  John Locke of Baltimore was a hack owner and owned a  funeral business and was worth $75,000 during the late 1700's.  New Orleans, prior to the Civil War had the largest population of free Black people in the south.  Charleston, South Carolina was by far the most aristocratic city for Black people from the 1700's  up until 1860 when the Civil War began.  Many fled to Haiti to escape the war.  Memphis, Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., were all well known for having a population of middle class to upper class Black denizens, and in New York and Philadelphia were many aristocratic Black Caribbeans that made up the middle class to elites.  When will we see a celebration of free, educated and wealthy Black people during the slavery times?