Andrew Durnford
Andrew Durnford was an American born owner of a successful sugar plantaion, in Louisiana.[1] He represents a rare instance of a black plantation owner who, himself, employed black slaves.
He was the son of Thomas Durnford, an Englishman who first came to America in 1762 to serve as the secretary to his cousin Elias Durnford, a military officer.
In 1835 he travelled from his plantation, near New Orleans, to Virginia, to purchase additional slaves.[1] During this excursion he wrote a series of letters to his friend and business partner Thomas MacDonough, and those letters have been analyzed for what they reveal about the slave trade in general, and to how it was practiced by black owners.
According to David O. Whitten, a scholar who studied Durnford'd record, he did allow his slaves to earn money for extra work.[1] Slaves who wanted to earn their freedom were incentivized to seek this extra work. Whitten also studied the instances where Durnford's correspondence revealed the deaths of slaves, through disease, or work-related accidents.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 David O. Whitten (summer 1970). "Slave Buying in 1835 Virginia as Revealed by Letters of a Louisiana Negro Sugar Planter". Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association 11 (3): pp. 231-244. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4231132.pdf?casa_token=lvAI2iYVyc8AAAAA:4-3dKjokIoqrmQ_O-EhQ7DyMbdWo2WRwsIafr_a5La-P21YsGhgKVUsV_-WDX8gmzOqNU5lSimKV2aA-ZdgwJGNu1T761ecolNq6plQ3U4OAlmzfomhv. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
