Of thisnumber, 10,689 lived in New Orleans. The country's leading African American historian, Duke University professor John Hope Franklin, records that in New Orleans over 3,000 free Negroes owned slaves, or 28 percent of the free Negroes in that city. So according to census data, in 1860 there were 160,007 free people of all races in Orleans Parish and a total of 4,169 slave holders. So you expect us to believe that free blacks, who made up 6.6% of the total population of New Orleans and its Parish, also comprised over 72% of all slave holders? Really?
So according to census data, in 1860 there were 160,007 free people of all races in Orleans Parish and a total of 4,169 slave holders. So you expect us to believe that free blacks, who made up 6.6% of the total population of New Orleans and its Parish, also comprised over 72% of all slave holders? Really? It appears you failed to grasp the part about this being the numbers taken from the existing records.
What you are arguing is that whoever wrote down the records must have been lying. That's a pretty pathetic argument.