Each person listed here has both notability and a consensus of historical evidence of slave ownership. They are listed in alphabetical order by last name.
A Anthony Johnson (1600–1670), brought to Virginia in 1621 as an indentured servant named "Antonio," gained his freedom, and became a successful tobacco planter and landowner on Virginia's Eastern Shore, one of the earliest free Black property owners in the colonies. He is best known for the 1655 court case in which he won the right to hold John Casor as a servant for life, an outcome often cited as one of the first instances of lifelong slavery being established through a civil (rather than criminal) court ruling in the colonies. Adelicia Acklen (1817–1887), at one time the wealthiest woman in Tennessee, she inherited 750 enslaved people from her husband, Isaac Franklin.James A. Hoobler, Sarah Hunter Marks, Nashville: From the Collection of Carl and Otto Giers, Arcadia Publishing, 2000, p. 36 Green Adams (1812–1884), United States congressman, in a speech in the House of Representatives he described laboring alongside his own slaves while admitting that "much evil attends [the institutions of slavery]". Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis (1712–1770), Maltese linguist, historian and cleric who owned at least one Muslim slave. Stair Agnew (1757–1821), land owner, judge and political figure in New Brunswick, he enslaved people and participated in court cases testing the legality of slavery in the colony. William Aiken (1779–1831), founder and president of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company, enslaved hundreds on his rice plantation. William Aiken Jr. (1806–1887), 61st Governor of South Carolina, state legislator and member of the U.S. House of Representatives, recorded in the 1850 census as enslaving 878 people. Muhammad al-Badr (1926–1996), The last king of Yemen, had 13 slaves. Isaac Allen (1741–1806), New Brunswick judge, he dissented in an unsuccessful 1799 case challenging slavery (R v Jones), freeing his own slaves a short time later. Diego de Almagro (1475–1538), Spanish conquistador active in South America who owned Malgarida before freeing her.Álvarez Gómez, Oriel. Sor Imelda y la primera mujer foránea que vino a Chile Joseph R. Anderson (1813–1892), civil engineer, he enslaved hundreds to operate his Tredegar Iron Works. John Armfield (1797–1871), Virginia co-founder of "the largest slave trading firm" in the United States, and a rapist. David Rice Atchison (1807–1883), U.S. Senator from Missouri, slave owner, prominent pro-slavery activist, and violent opponent of abolitionism.McPherson, James M., Battle Cry of Freedom, Penguin Books, 1990, pp. 145–148 William Atherton (1742–1803), English owner of Jamaican sugar plantations. John James Audubon (1785–1851), American naturalist. He objected to Britain's abolition of slavery in the Caribbean and bought and sold enslaved people himself. Stephen F. Austin, American-born empresario and one of the founders of the Republic of Texas. He owned a few slaves and worked hard to protect and expand slavery in Texas.
B
Jacques Baby (1731–1789), French Canadian fur trader, slaveholder, and father of James Baby. James Baby (1763–1833), prominent landowner, slaveholder, and official in Upper Canada. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (1971–2019), self-proclaimed Caliph of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), he kept several sex slaves. Adriana Bake (1724–1787), wife of the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, her foster children freed her slaves after her death. Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1475–1519), Spanish explorer and conquistador, he enslaved the indigenous people he encountered in Central America. Emanoil Băleanu (–1862), Wallachian politician, he enslaved Romani people on his estates.Elena D. Gheorghe, Gabriel Stegărescu, "Monografia comunei Bolintinul din Deal", in Sud. Revistă Editată de Asociația pentru Cultură și Tradiție Istorică Bolintineanu, Issues 1–2/2013, pp. 29–30 In 1856 he signed a letter protesting the abolition of slavery in Wallachia.Gheorghe Sion, Suvenire contimporane, p. 53. Bucharest: Editura Minerva, 1915. Elizabeth Swain Bannister (–1828), free woman of colour who owned 76 slaves in Berbice. Hayreddin Barbarossa (1478–1546), Ottoman corsair and admiral who enslaved the population of Corfu. William Barksdale (1821–1863), U.S. congressman and white supremacist, he enslaved 36 people by 1860 and vigorously defended the institution of slavery. Alexander Barrow (1801–1846), U.S. senator and Louisiana planter. George Washington Barrow (1807–1866), Congressman and U.S. minister to Portugal, who purchased 112 enslaved people in Louisiana. Robert Ruffin Barrow (1798–1875), American plantation owner who owned more than 450 slaves and a dozen plantations. William Beckford (1709–1770), politician and twice Lord Mayor of London. He inherited about 3,000 enslaved people from his brother Peter. William Thomas Beckford (1760–1844), writer and collector. He inherited about 3,000 enslaved people from his father. Benjamin Belcher (1743–1802), Nova Scotia politician and militia leader, he enslaved at least 7 people. Zabeau Bellanton (), free woman of color and slave trader in Saint Domingue.Stewart R. King: Blue Coat Or Powdered Wig: Free People of Color in Pre-revolutionary Saint Domingue Judah P. Benjamin (1811–1884), Secretary of State for the Confederate States of America, a U.S. Senator from Louisiana, and a vocal supporter of slavery. Charles Bent (1799–1847), American trader and first Territorial Governor of New Mexico during the United States occupation of New Mexico during the Mexican-American War. Bent owned Charlotte and Dick Green. Charles's brother William freed the Greens after Dick fought with the posse that avenged Charles's assassination during the Taos Revolt. Thomas H. Benton (1782–1858), American senator from Missouri. George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher who purchased several enslaved Africans to work on his plantation in Rhode Island. John M. Berrien (1781–1856), U.S. Senator from Georgia who argued that slavery "lay at the foundation of the Constitution" and that slaves "constitute the very foundation of your union".Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction; by Allen C. Guelzo, May 18, 2012, kindle location 935 Antoine Bestel (1766–1852), lawyer from France who migrated to Mauritius where he owned at least 122 slaves. James G. Birney (1792–1857), an attorney and planter who freed his slaves and became an abolitionist. James Blair (–1841), British MP who owned sugar plantations in Demerara. Simón Bolívar (1783–1830), wealthy slave owner who became a Latin American independence leader and eventually an abolitionist. Shadrach Bond (1773–1832), 1st governor of Illinois, he enslaved people on his farm in Monroe County. Joseph Boucher de Niverville (1715–1804), military officer in New France, he enslaved a Cree woman named Marie. James Bowie (–1836), namesake of the Bowie knife, soldier at the Alamo, and slave trader. Benjamin Boyd (1801–1851), Scottish entrepreneur and slave trader thought to be Australia's first "blackbirder". Joseph Brant (1747–1803), Mohawk military and political leader.https://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/slavery/sophia_pooley.aspx "Sophia Burthen Pooley: Part of the Family?", Ontario Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery website William Brattle (1706–1776), American politician and military officer, he was identified as a slave owner in a 2022 Harvard investigation into that university's legacy of slavery. John C. Breckinridge (1821–1875), 14th Vice President of the United States and Confederate Secretary of War. He enslaved people until at least 1857. Simone Brocard (), a "free colored" woman of Saint-Domingue, a slave trader, and one of the wealthiest women of that French colony. Preston Brooks (1819–1857), veteran of the Mexican–American War and U.S. Congressman from South Carolina. A slaveholder, he beat abolitionist senator Charles Sumner nearly to death after the latter spoke against slavery in the Senate. James Brown (1766–1835), U.S. Minister to France, U.S. Senator, and sugarcane planter, some of whose slaves were involved in the 1811 German Coast uprising in what is now Louisiana. Chang and Eng Bunker (1811–1874), Siamese twins who became successful entertainers in the United States. John Burbidge (–1812), Nova Scotia soldier, land owner, judge, and politician, he freed his slaves in 1790. Pierce Butler (1744–1822), U.S. Founding Father and plantation owner. William Orlando Butler (1791–1880), American general and politician, he advocated for gradual emancipation and enslaved people himself.
C
Daniel Cady (1773–1859), US Representative, judge, and father of Elizabeth Cady Stanton enslaved his servant Peter Teabout until emancipation came to New York state in 1827.Ginzberg, Lori D. Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life. Hill and Wang, New York, 2009. , p. 20-21. Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE), Roman dictator, he once sold the entire population of Atuatuci into slavery. He personally owned slaves, some of whom he freed, such as Julius Zoilos. Charles Caldwell (1772–1853), American physician who started what is now the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He defended slavery and even owned house slaves himself. John C. Calhoun (1782–1850), 7th Vice President of the United States, owned slaves and asserted that slavery was a "positive good" rather than a "necessary evil". Meredith Calhoun (1805–1869), Louisiana planter, merchant, slavetrader, and journalist. There have been reports dating to the 19th century that author Harriet Beecher Stowe based the character of Simon Legree in her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) on Calhoun."Reconstructing Reconstruction" by Eric Foner, The Washington Post, March 30, 2008, Page E03. Paul C. Cameron (1808–1891), North Carolina slaveholder and North Carolina Supreme Court justice. By about 1860, he owned 30,000 acres of land and 1,900 slaves. William Capell, 4th Earl of Essex (1732–1799), he enslaved George Edward Doney as a servant. Caravaggio (1571–1610), Italian artist and Hospitaller knight, who while in Malta was gifted slaves by Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt in recognition for his work as a painter. Charles Carroll (1737–1832), signer of Declaration of Independence, enslaved approximately 300 people on his estate in Maryland. Landon Carter (1710–1778), Virginia planter who enslaved as many as 500 people by the end of his life.Bontemps, Alex (2001). The Punished Self: Surviving Slavery in the Colonial South, p. 30. Cornell University Press. . Robert "King" Carter (1663–1732), Virginia landowner and acting governor of Virginia. He left 3000 enslaved people to his heirs. Samuel A. Cartwright (1793–1863), American physician who invented the pseudoscientific diagnosis of drapetomania to explain the desire for freedom among enslaved Africans. Lewis Cass (1782–1866), American politician prominent in Michigan, was known to have owned at least one slave. Girolamo Cassar ( – ), Maltese architect who owned at least two slaves. Cato the Elder (234–149 BCE), Roman statesman. Plutarch reported that he owned many slaves, purchasing the youngest captives of war. Pietru Caxaro (died 1485), Maltese notary, orator, politician, philosopher, and poet, who had at least six slaves in his service. Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (1819–1874), a Cuban revolutionary, he emancipated his own slaves at the beginning of the Ten Years' War, but only advocated for gradual abolition throughout Cuba. Auguste Chouteau (–1829), co-founder of the city of St. Louis, at the time of his death he owned 36 enslaved people.