let's explore the 10 slave owners who owned the most slaves in America number one Joshua John Ward from South Carolina he owned about 2,000 slaves known as the largest American slaveholder in history he was called the king of the rice planters he owned several rice plantations and his wealth came from the labor of enslaved people working in dangerous fields number two Steven Duncan steven Duncan was in the Mississippi area he owned over 2,000 slaves as well he's considered one of the richest men in the South before the Civil War began he owned multiple cotton plantations in both Mississippi and Louisiana he also invested in banks and railroads number two Steven Duncan steven Duncan was in the Mississippi area he owned over 2,000 slaves as well he's considered one of the richest men in the South before the Civil War began he owned multiple cotton plantations in both Mississippi and Louisiana he also invested in banks and railroads steven Duncan's plantation is called the Antabellan Mansion and here is an older picture of the Antabellum Mansion and yes many tours are given here here is an updated version of the antibellum mantrum so you can see that they've maintained it very well and you can't see it in this picture but there are vast lands at this location where the slaves were working very hard number three Wade Hampton wade Hampton was in the South Carolina area he owned about 1,000 slaves considered the father of Confederate general and he owned cotton and rice plantations he's one of the wealthiest slave owners in the US history and this is his plantation the Hampton Preston House and yes tours are given at this location as well to this day if you pause the video you can read some information about the Hampton Preston House and here's a closer up view of the Hampton Preston House number four John Burnside john Burnside was in the Louisiana area he owned over 850 slaves he owned the Humas House which is one of the grandest sugar plantations in Louisiana at the time he got rich from sugarcane and enslaved labor this is the Humas House plantation the Humas House Plantation and yes they still have tours there as well right here is an example of what you could consider a bill of sale of the Humas House location to John Burnside and it's interesting to see because you don't see these very often right here is a sign post in front of the Humalas House location uh plantation and it's just kind of giving you a layout of some information on the history of the plantation itself and a picture of John Burnside there as well here is a picture of some of the slaves and you can see that they are very young their clothes are dirty and worn out they look worn out and tired and you see lots of cotton in the fields behind them so of course that's what their job was in this picture they were picking cotton and they are so young many of them look like they are elementary school age or in this day and time uh the one standing next to the lady looks like she um may have been um preschool age but they are very young this is a pamphlet a brochure some sort of a flyer concerning the Humas House plantation giving you more information i'm certain that they give this to those who are taking tours of the plantation and you see a map there in the lower um left corner of the screen number five Thomas F mccoy i could not find a picture of Thomas F mccoy that I could verify that that that was him so I just um have a picture of the sugar cane he was in the Louisiana area he owned about 600 slaves he operated sugar plantations and relied heavily on slave labor he kept detailed records which historians now use to study daily slave life number six Pierce Butler okay and Pierce Butler was in the Georgia area he owned over 500 slaves he married into more wealth and inherited plantations so he had more than one plantation he had plantations because he married into more wealth to inherit these plantations and so that was typical at the time um in today's time a lot of times the woman marries into wealth and but back then during slavery time it was normal for when the man married a woman that he would automatically take over any property that she inherited because it was often illegal for a woman to own any property so when a man got married if his woman was rich if his wife was rich then he became rich and her money became his money so obviously he married into more wealth so he inherited plantations he was known as being the weeping time he was known for the weeping time which is considered the largest slave auction in the United States history where over 400 slaves were sold in just two days and you can imagine the amount of weeping that took place among the slaves this says weeping time in memory of the largest slave auction in American history this is some art work that uh an artist made depicting slave auctions depicting the weeping time that the slaves experienced when 400 slaves or over 400 slaves were sold in just two days number seven John Thrill he was in the Washington DC area john Thrill owned over 400 slaves his lands were located near what is now Georgetown University and he sold many slaves to pay off his debts georgetown University later apologized for its connection to slavery and here is a picture of modernday Georgetown University and I wonder if the students are aware of Georgetown University's connection to slavery i wonder if some who are unaware if they knew about it would they still continue to attend Georgetown University i wonder if they mention Georgetown University's connection to slavery when they have student orientation but probably not because they don't want to risk students not signing up or would it even matter to some of the students about the university Georgetown University about Georgetown University's connection to slavery does it matter to the students i wonder if you are a Georgetown University student let me know what you think about Georgetown University's connection to slavery in the comment section number eight Bennett H barrow he was in the Louisiana area and Bennett H barrow owned over 400 slaves he owned multiple cotton plantations so here is another slave owner owning multiple locations plantations bennett H barrow kept journals that show how cruel and controlling slave life was bennett H barrow punished his slaves severely for resisting and for running away here is an artist's picture depicting the merciless way that Bennett H barrow punished his slaves for running away so he did not have any mercy on his slaves he enjoyed being cruel he enjoyed being wicked number nine George Washington yes can you believe it the very first president of the United States of America had slaves george Washington was in the Virginia area and he owned over 300 slaves yes the very first president of this country the United States of America owned more than 300 slaves he owned slaves at what is called the Mount Vernon plantation george Washington freed some of his slaves but only after he died and here is an older picture of what is called Mount Vernon the location where many slaves were not free where many slaves had to attend to the every need of George Washington the former first president of the United States of America and this is the precedent the United States set in having slaves not all of them knew freedom while he was alive some did not know freedom until after he died while he enjoyed his life in Mount Vernon in his plantation the slaves were suffering and here's a picture that an artist made one of two pictures that I have of George Washington and it looks like he's having a conversation with um with one of his uh slave drivers I guess you could say or slave managers and um the slaves in the background I see some on a horse with some hay and then some other slaves there are doing some work and this is the second picture of some slaves working hard while George Washington it looks like his wife there as well watching the slaves labor and last but not least and I say last but not least because this is only 10 individuals who own slaves who owned a great deal of slaves but there are many more i'm only listing 10 in this video number 10 is also a former president of the United States of America he is the former fourth president of the United States of America to be exact james Madison and he is the last one on this list for today in the Virginia area James Madison owned about 100 slaves yes the fourth president of the United States owned about 100 slaves james Madison lived in a plantation called Mont Pelier plantation such a fancy name for a place of horror for his slaves while James Madison spoke about freedom and democracy he never freed any of the people he enslaved not even in his will so that is very telling to know that the fourth president of the United States was able to speak about freedom and democracy yet he never freed any of the people he enslaved not even in his will not even after his death he did not see them worthy of being free james Madison enslaved his slaves by having them to cook his food build his home and work in his fields while he helped to write the constitution so James Madison was able to speak about freedom and democracy and able to help write the Constitution and living in the lap of luxury while his slaves were never free while he lived nor while after he died he did not set them free in his will and he had no problem about talking about freedom and democracy while having slaves who would never be free that he owned while he was alive nor when he was dead here's a picture of Mont Pelier estate and yes of course tours are given here too for people to make money off of slavery and this estate has a vast amount of land where those over 100 slaves were working very hard this is a handwritten document by James Madison the former fourth president of the United States and it is an excerpt from James Madison written on September 18th 19 it's a letter to a man named Edward Kohl's in which James Madison suggests that the enslaved people freed by Kohl's lack the instruction the property and the employment of a free man and you can see that in the first few lines of this written document by James Madison the former fourth president of the United States of America and right here this is um a request by James Madison to catch a runaway slave of his he's offering $10 reward to catch the slave i'm going to read some of this it says "Run away the 14th of June." Um it's hard to read that next word from the It looks like that says the word subscriber in Orange County a meatto slave named Anthony about it's hard to read this because the writing is so small i think that says about 13 or 17 years old but well made has very light hair and so it lists a lot of information it's hard to read that because the writing you know uh my screen I can't make my screen bigger but if I could make it bigger then I would be able to read the rest of this more easily but basically it's describing what he has on i see reading further it says he has on a jacket of red planes and uh it's describing a coat that the runaway slave has on and his breaches and so forth and James Madison is offering a $10 reward for the return of this mulatto slave so not only did uh James Madison speak about freedom and democracy and also helped to write the Constitution of the United States of America he did not let any of his slaves free while he lived nor put in the will for them to be freed after his death but if any slaves dare ran away he put out a post uh for these slaves to be returned and offered money for their return as if 100 slaves wasn't enough please help my channel to become monetized a lot of you are watching different channels that um are not helping you to learn and grow and not helping you to learn any knowledge that's worth learning but on this channel this channel is about your history and we don't want to repeat our history do we so please help this channel to become monetized and subscribe to my channel Legends and the Unknown if you haven't already share this video on your social media a lot of you are sharing all kind of pictures and funny videos but let's share something that is very important to us our history so please help this channel to become monetized by liking this video so that YouTube can put it out into the algorithm more so that more people can see this video and subscribe to my channel legends and the Unknown share it on your social media