Both. This is a great resource:
Free Negro owners of slaves in the United States in 1830, together with Absentee ownership of slaves in the United States in 1830 : Woodson, Carter Godwin, 1875- : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive
All and all, it depends on what someone defines as being "black."
Most of those who were labeled "Black" in other locations were "mulatto" and children of slaveholders and "passed" and ran their families plantation in other states/counties. They did not see themselves as Black. Some who were listed as Black - were sometimes White.
Some who were called "Black enslavers" - were those who purchased the freedom of their family members and were therefore listed as slaveowners - even though they were not. Or husbands who purchased their wives and did not emancipate their wives and so their children would be listed as slaves. Some free Blacks also purchased the freedom of non-related individuals to help them reach the north and settle/work in free states.
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In the rare instances when the ownership of slaves by free Negroes is acknowledged in the history books, justification centers on the claim that black slave masters were simply individuals who purchased the freedom of a spouse or child from a white slaveholder and had been unable to legally manumit them. Although this did indeed happen at times, it is a misrepresentation of the majority of instances, one which is debunked by records of the period on blacks who owned slaves. These include individuals such as Justus Angel and Mistress L. Horry, of Colleton District, South Carolina, who each owned 84 slaves in 1830. In fact, in 1830 a fourth of the free Negro slave masters in South Carolina owned 10 or more slaves; eight owning 30 or more (2)."
Larry Koger researched and compiled a list of all mulatto and Black slaveowners in South Carolina using court, probate and tax records, collateral records, copies of deeds, the federal and local censuses, and written correspondence dating between the early 1800's and 1859. The result of this research is published in his book,
Black Slaveowners - Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860.
For example, the 1790 thru 1840 Federal census recorded only the free Black head of household and the number of slaves and free persons living in that household. If one relies only on the Federal census records of this period then it does not give an accurate count of free Black slaveowners:
"statistics on the number of free black heads of household owning slaves can be deceiving when compiled from the federal enumerations from 1790 through 1840. The problem stems from the fact that slaves recorded in family dwellings were occasionally held by more than one member of the free household. As a result, the number of slaveowners might have been greater, while the average number of slaves held would have been smaller. Such numerical statistics, then, must be stated with much caution.
"The free black heads of household who were reported with slaves on the 1790 through 1840 censuses should not be referred to as individual slaveowners unless added data has been acquired to suggest ownership of slaves. In several instances, the black heads of household listed as having slaves in their dwellings were not the actual owners, but merely the heads of household, while other free black residents were the legal slaveowners. In 1840, for example, Anthony Weston a free black of Charleston Neck, was reported as the head of a household which included eight slaves; however, the legal owner of the slaves was not Anthony Weston, but his wife, Maria Weston, who recorded six bills of sale for nine slaves between 1833 and 1840. One can see that to infer slaveownership solely from a single census return and without added evidence can be quite misleading."
Black Slaveowners - Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860, Larry Koger, pg. 6.
Koger has listed each of the 453 Black and mulatto slaveowners by name and location in his book's appendix. According to his records there were only 2 Black slaveowners, not 8 as mentioned in the article, in South Carolina who owned more than 30 slaves -- Lydia Burris of Ward 2 in Charleston who owned 41 slaves, and John Garden of St Paul's Parish who owned 52 slaves. Likewise, there were 92 Black slaveowners who owned 10 or more slaves which is 20.3% or just slightly lower than the article's author gives.
The cited example of Justus Angel who owned 84 slaves is addressed by Koger in his endnotes who has determined that many of the Black and mulatto slaveowners were in fact 100% White:
" Woodson,
'Free Negr0 Owners of Slaves', pp. 30-31 (The following persons were reported to be free black slaveholders by Carter G. Woodson but were actually white absentee slaveowners: 1. Frances C. Dalton was a native of England and the wife of Dr. James Dalton. When Mrs. Dalton died in 1846, she was buried in the graveyard of St. Michael's Church, which was a segregated cemetery. — Clara Jervey, ed., Inscriptions of the Tablets and Gravestones in St. Michael's Church and Church yard Charleston, S.C. (Columbia: State Company, 1906), p. 85. 2.
Mistress Lucretia Horry of St. Bartholomews Parish was recorded as white on the 1820 census and listed as a white resident of Charleston City by the local directory. -Fourth Census of the United States, 1820: Schedule I, St. Bartholomews Parish, Colleton County, South Carolina, p. 48; Porcher, Directory for 1831, p. 82. 3. Henry Johnson was listed as a white man in the census of 1810. — Third Census of the United States, 1810: Schedule 1, St. Paul's Parish, Colleton County, South Carolina, p. 606. 4. John D. Legare was reported to be a white citizen by the city directory. —Supplement of Charleston Directory for 1836 (Charleston: Dowling, 1836), p. 52. 5. Ephraim Mikell Seabrook was of English ancestry according to Mabel L. Webber. —Mabel L. Webber, "The Early Generations of the Seabrook Family," South Carolina Historical & Genealogical Magazine vol. 17 (January 1916), pp. 63, 67.
The other white slaveowners classified as free persons of color were Justine Angel, Martha Ann Mathews, Margaret Stock, Charles Tennent, Nicholas Venning, Robert Yenning, and Daniel J. Warring."
Ibid., pg. 237
Another excerpt from the article:
"William Ellison died December 5, 1861. His will stated that his estate should pass into the joint hands of his free daughter and his two surviving sons. He bequeathed $500 to the slave daughter he had sold."
The slave daughter of William Ellison was named Maria whom he had purchased from David Gilliens. The author of this article is misleading. Ellison did not sell Maria, but to protect her freedom he entered into what was called a "deed of trust" between he and a trusted close White friend, William McCreighton, for the sum of one dollar.
Prior to 1820, in South Carolina, state law had allowed slaveowners to manumit their slaves as long as they had a trade and could support themselves. As a result, the free Black population in South Carolina increased between 1800 and 1820 by nearly 50% and this large influx of manumitted slaves alarmed the state legislators who felt they were a threat to the safety of the White population resulting in passage of the Act of 1820. The Act revoked private manumissions beginning in 1820, and required the slaveowner to petition the state legislature for approval to emancipate a slave. Both houses of the legislature would have to agree to grant a certificate of emancipation before the slave could be freed. Between 1822 -- following the Denmark Vessey plot -- and 1838, there were only 15 petitions approved in South Carolina by the legislature and every one was based on a slave having performed a heroic deed for a White.
Slaveowners who were prevented from manumitting a slave due to the Act but wanted to give them de facto freedom, turned to deeds of trust which transferred the title of a slave to a White trustee with stipulations that the slave could enjoy the freedoms of a freedman and could not be seized or sold for debts of the current or past owner. Many deeds included a provision that the slave could not be removed to another city or slave state unless the slave consented. Some of these deed-trusted slaves were listed as free Blacks during the Federal Census.
