I only did a quick search engine look at this question before making the original post, and didn't find anything that indicated the federal government itself ever owned slaves. However, I presume that Mac the Wolf did find something to confirm that. If the government owned slaves, I think it could ...

Somebody I mentioned this to, observed that slavery was legal in about half the states, up to the time of the Civil War, all of them had a governor and presumably a governor's mansion, and the staff in those mansions were probably slaves, something which would be cheaper than hiring servants. And ...

First, I might comment that it is something of a rigamarole to register for this forum. I realize that it concerns a subject that most people think is for screwballs, and for that reason you want to be careful who joins. But I registered only to ask one question which is not a frequently asked one ...