In the years leading up to the Civil War, many of the southern states passed laws that newly freed slaves had to leave the state within 30 days. Previous slaves were grandfathered and were not subject to these new laws. The result was an interesting twist of history. Newly freed slaves - their freedom paid for by other family members or given their freedom by their former masters, were actually "sold" to other family members. In this way, they remained as slaves on paper but lived free lives with their free family members and not subject to deportation. For this reason, we can see thousands of black slave owners in the southern states, a fact often twisted for political reasons to show that blacks too were slave owners.
