In spite of all the nonsense Lost Cause writers once spun about whites and slaves being friends in the Old South, those whites who formed friendships with Blacks were often considered suspect by white society. In the cases I have read of whites forming apparent social bonds with slaves, the white is often an outsider. Typically the “white friend” was a member of a religious minority or an immigrant. Solomon Northrup’s white friend Samuel Bass in the famous memoir 12 Years a Slave was a Canadian immigrant, for example. In other cases the white person was very very poor and engaged in similar work to the slave.
This short notice from a South Carolina newspaper shows the animosity towards those whites who associated on equal terms with Blacks. The threat against the transgressing white man was that he would be executed.
Anderson Intelligencer
Tuesday, Sep 11, 1860
Anderson, SC
Vol: 1
Page: 5
