For example, were there companies that would buy a large amount of slaves with the sole purpose of loaning them out to entrepreneurs? Perhaps on a short term basis for large projects a company might have?
What I'm thinking is a company buys maybe 20 slaves. But they don't own a plantation or anything of the sort. Instead they make agreements with land owners to "loan 10 slaves to John smith on a 6-month agreement for 30% of profits and a $500 early termination fee."
Did these enterprises exist, and if so, were they profitable?
In the Slave Narratives compiled in the 30s by the Federal Writers' Project, there are many instances of slaves being "hired out" by their owners. Owners who had excess slaves, or those who owned slaves but didn't have plantations, would hire their slaves out by the year to people needing extra labor. From these accounts, it would seem that the established custom was to hire a slave out from one Christmas to another, or one New Years' Day to another, with slaves returning to their "home" plantations each year to be hired out again when their terms of hire expired. The owners of the hired slaves were paid a set sum for each slave's labor, and the people who hired the slaves were expected to feed and clothe them. Some slaves ran away from the plantations where they were hired to work, and went back to their home plantations due to bad treatment, and if their owner was compassionate they didn't have to go back and their hire was cancelled.
Other slaves who were trained for particular skilled professions such as carpentry or blacksmithing, were often hired out by their masters to do jobs for other people, and were sometimes allowed to keep some of the money that they earned, after their owners were paid a set amount.