I was always under the impression that african americans with slaves were few and far between. However, in my American history course this fall the professor asserted that black slave owners were almost as prevalent as white slave owners. How accurate is this?
Your professor should be ashamed of himself. His information is not completely untrue but is at best grossly misleading.
The vast majority of black slave owners owned only a single slave which was usually their spouse or child. The southern states, fearing an uprising by free blacks made it incredibly difficult to free slaves. In North Carolina for instance the state legislature had to approve each instance of manumission and the freed slave was required to leave North Carolina within a month. So supposing that you as a free black man work very hard and purchase freedom for your wife you have no way to actually set her free. The best you can do is hold her as your slave. Of course free blacks in the south owned many slaves it was nearly the only way to have a family.
Many people will also point to statistics that say only 6% of southern whites owned slaves. This is again misleading Nearly 1/3 of all southern households had slaves. In some states over half of all households owned a slave. The 6% figure can only be achieved if you somehow justify that the person cleaning your house cooking your food and working in your fields actually belongs only to the father and not to the household.
A previous answer has some excellent points also.
Your professor is participating in perpetuating a hateful lie. People who spout this kind of nonsense are no better than holocaust deniers. I hope you approach your professor and ask him to reconsider the manner in which he is teaching the subject.
As others have said, black slave owners were not very common, and, many of those free blacks who owned slaves had bought family members who they were unable to free (for various reasons, one example being that in Virginia after 1806 (I think that's the right date) slave owners could still manumit slaves, but the freed slaves had to leave Virginia within a year.)
Still, surprisingly enough, there were free blacks who owned large numbers of slaves, even if there were not many of them.
Here are some examples:
In 1830, in South Carolina, eight free blacks owned more than 30 slaves each.
In 1860, there were 10,689 free blacks living in New Orleans, and over 3000 of them were said to have owned slaves.
http://americancivilwar.com/authors/black_slaveowners.htm
In 1860 there were at least six free blacks in Louisiana who owned more than 65 slaves, the widow C. Richards, and her son P.C. Richards were the largest free black slave owners in Louisiana, owning 152 slaves, most of whom presumably worked on the sugar plantation which they owned.
In 1860, William Ellison was South Carolina's largest free black slave owner. He was born a slave, but was manumitted at age 26. By 1860, he owned one of the largest cotton gin manufacturing companies in the South, owned 900 acres of land, and 63 slaves. He was also said to have made money by breeding and selling slaves.
So, although African Americans with slaves (especially with many slaves) were few and far between, they did exist.
Completely false. Black salve ownership occurred in a few places and was performed by a small minority of people. Charleston, sc had black salve owners and Natchez, Mississippi did as well but it's not as though most space owners were black. In fact, if you read up on the topic, you'll find that many black 'slaveowners' were actually purchasing members of their family in order to free them or transport them to freedom.