But Grant's wife did own slaves. And she retained ownership of her slaves until slavery became illegal in the state she resided in. I assume that General Grant resided with her when he was home.
Mike, I expect that you know what an "indentured servant" is. We don't have that anymore in the USA as it went out with slavery. It involved an enforceable contract for personal service for a certain period of time. It was often utilized by penniless emigrants as a way to get started in our country back in the 19th century and before. I expect that is what HoJO had in mind a few posts back when he suggested that there were as many white slaves as black in antebellum America.
Indentured servitude was also one of the ways that a slave could be "freed" providing that the owner consented and the price of the indenture was agreeable to the old master and the new 'employer'. The process was that the slave was manumitted so as to be competent to contract on his or her own account and then entered into the indentured servitude contract for a term agreeable between the parties and for a price (either payable in cash or in agreed payments over the term of the servitude) which was payable to the old master as consideration for the loss (sale) of his property.
That appears to have been what took place when U.S.Grant "freed" his slave in 1859. No one knows, but I think it is likely that Grant was paid for his slave all through the civil war.
And that is all I know about the subject of indentured servitude...Geo
