The reading structure allow the reader to visualize and understand American History from outside and inside. Wonderful maps, statistical charts, great photos, and a very good section titled: historical question. If you are the type of person in exploring new perspectives of the American History, do not hesitate to look this book.

Opens a world that most people don't even know about. Black slaveowners?  Most people are shocked and amazed to discover that there were black slaveowners. While always an anomaly, there were 10,000 to 12,000 black slaveowners in 1860, though many of them had purchased family members and continued to hold them in slavery because their state of residence did not allow masters to free slaves.

The exact breakdown of black slaveowners by category does not yet exist; for some insights into the life of at least one black master, Johnson and Roark's book provides a fairly detailed examination of what are necessarily incomplete records. William Ellison was born a slave in 1790, and developed a skill as a master craftsman, a cotton gin maker. He bought himself out of slavery, apparently with the active encouragement of his master -- who may well have been his father -- and became, in turn, a slaveowner himself -- and wealthier than 90% of white Southerners. Indeed, he owned more slaves "than all but the richest white planters." [pp. xi-xii]

As it examines the status of William Ellison, his relationships with white masters, and the social milleu of Charleston, this book also paints an interesting portrait of the three race system of South Carolina life. While whites considered free mulattoes (those of mixed white and black race) in the same category as pure blacks, the mulattoes insisted on keeping distinctions, one of their "attempts to shape social reality to their sense of themselves as an intermediate class, to give repeated public demonstrations that their social niche had clear racial boundaries and that their racial niche had equally crisp social limits." [pp. 225-226]

The chapter "Masters or Slaves" wanders far afield from William Ellison and his family, but provides some interesting insights into the manner in which working class free whites regarded free blacks and slaves who directly contracted their labor (sometimes with little or no involvement by their masters) as a threat to their economic status, and vigorously sought laws on the eve of the Civil War to prevent blacks from competing on an equal basis in what was essentially a color-blind, free market economy.

Perhaps the most startling part of the book is the extent to which the Ellison family identified with the slaveowners of the Confederacy. His sons invested heavily in Confederate war bonds, and his grandson John Wilson Buckner was allowed to enlist in the South Carolina Artillery because of "personal associations and a sterling family reputation...." [pp. 305-307] Of course, once the Civil War was over, this identification with their class, not their race, paid bitter rewards. The bonds were defaulted, and the Ellison family slaves freed. Without slaves, and in the subsequent depression, the Ellison family's land became worth far less -- broken as much as many white slaveowners.

Well-written, filled with fascinating and at times astonishing information. Aimed at a well-educated and scholarly audience.

The title of this book should be "Mulatto Masters." Is is dishonest to pretend that these people were "black." Once you recognize the ethnic and racial separation, the actions of mulatto elite slaveholders are not difficult to understand. One of the grandsons of this family even served in the Confederate Army - as WHITE of course (despite officers' knowledge of his mixed ancestry). There were no "black" Confederate soldiers.

A great read. I am a history major and was very pleased with the content of this book. It makes it known that there are exceptions to all popular history. If you like the comfort of being told the generic old history of the South than I do not suggest this work. It is as provocative as it is interesting. It also an enjoyable read following the modern trend of being understandable and fun yet informative at the same time.

This was the first book (aside from narratives by Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass & etc) I read concerning antebellum black and bi-racial history. It was so interesting I have since read a dozen others. As the authors state in the Introduction, this book really focuses on biracial persons of white/black ancestry. However, because, presently, persons who tend to be dark complected often consider themselves (and are considered by others) to be black and because the laws of antebellum South Carolina clearly differentiated between whites and free persons who did not fall into the white category (including pure blacks and biracial persons), the authors used the term BLACK MASTERS in the title.

The book is generally about William "April" Ellison, born a slave but well treated, trained in mechanical skills and then freed as a young man. Because of this, the authors believe him to be the biracial son of the white planter Robert or William Ellison. Once freed, April officially had his name changed to William Ellison and moved to Statsburg, a wealthy suburb away from his previous owner. He slowly amassed a fair amount of wealth; although, unlike many of the more aristocratic planters of South Carolina, William "April" Ellison worked his own fields and, in his role as a mechanic, had to walk a fine line between independence and not overstepping the bounds permitted to a free person of color. His was the only family not considered white by his fellow South Carolinans who was able to sit in the church on the ground floor in the pews reserved for well-off whites and wealthy planters.

William Ellison's family interacted with and married into some of the better off free families of color in Charleston. He became a member of the BROWN FELLOWSHIP and FRIENDLY MORALIST SOCIETIES which was generally limited to biracial persons (in fact, one biracial person was expelled from one of the societies because he maintained close ties to free persons who appear to have been of pure African-American heritage, leading the society to decide he was socially a black rather than a biracial person). FPCs who were apparently of pure African ancestry also had their own societies (and owned slaves) as, of course, did persons considered to be of pure European ancestry.

Much of the book focuses on the curious position of biracial persons in South Carolina: many wealthy whites wanted to re-enslave free blacks (which, in their minds, included anyone of African extraction) while many poor whites wanted to prevent anyone of African ancestry (free or enslaved) from being able to hold any skilled positions (thus effectively opening many areas employment to themselves). In the wake of the slave rebellion led by the well-off free black named Denmark Vessy, these views gained much support and many laws on education and etc were temporarily enforced with enthusiasm, only to be narrowly defeated.

The Ellisons supported the Democratic Party and the Confederacy, even though William's sons were not allowed to enlist in the military. William's grandson, who (according to the authors)had noticable "black" features also attempted to enlist and was accepted even though the officers knew his family and ancestry - apparently the question as to whether or not he was black never came up! During the Civil War, Wisdom Hall and the other dwellings on the Ellison estate barely avoided being destroyed, but the Ellisons began to lose their wealth and as their old white friends died or moved away, the family began to be considered, even by their neighbors, as simply another black family.

This book omits several important events in U. S. History up to 1865. But is sufficient for introductory classes in U. S. History. While it does a sufficient job as a survey source, it is not recommended for an in-depth study of any period in U. S. History. Further, Roark seems to emphasize some events that seem less important to U. S. History.

This book is very well written, quite long, though