Sally Thomas: A Better Advantage Than Most Black Slave

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A laundress, by name of Sally Thomas had a better advantage than most black slaves in her time. She gave birth to John H. Rapier Sr., Henry K. Thomas, and James P. Thomas, three mulatto boys, meaning they were mixed with African and white descent. She was well-respected by the whites and had many connections them which would pay off for her and her sons. After Sally Thomas’s slave owner, Charles L. Thomas died she and her sons were left no choice, but to move to from their home in Virginia to another Thomas family owned plantation in Tennessee. Though, she worried that like other slave children they would be sold because as handsome and vigorous they were they would be an excellent price. Sally and her family went through many trials and tribulations …show more content…

Though she had many white customers who paid her to clean and wash their apparel. She also persuaded her second-eldest son, Henry to run away. Sally and Henry both knew the consequences for runaway slaves, they would be beaten, hanged or even loose a limb (Virtual freedom pg.15).
Sally was influenced. She always made sure James did not get into any trouble nor does anything could get them kidnapped and sold to a sugar plantation. (A life in Bondage pg.27)
Sally Thomas was considered a quasi-free slave; she was free to go here and there. On the other hand, most slaves could not leave their plantations. She was known well for being an independent (From Slavery to Freedom pg.46-54).
Many slave owners feared that slaves were plotting to revolt against them. They were trying to pass an act to remove the freed slaves away from the slave states. They believed that the freed slaves were trying to help free those who were in bondage, which most were doing even though it could cost them their freedom (Virtual freedom pg.15). The white southerners also felt that the slaves who look at those who were freed and try to escape or even ask to be