Recently I read an extremely old book about a Dr. Barrington who was a child in Richmond, VA during the Civil War and later became a docter during Reconstruction. He was the paternal great, great, great grandfather, of my grandson Barrington Higgns (now known as Bear).

He made an interesting comment in the book, that every family in the Richmond area could tell where a slave (and later ex-slave) came from, due to the slaves accent while speaking English. No matter what the location in Africa the slave had been seized, the slaves English always reflected the English accent of his master(s). This was because the only English the slave heard was his owners(s). According to the Docters memoirs, due to the later laws preventing the importation of slaves (think Armistad) these accents became more prominent on each plantation.

Dispite the common perception that the Richmond area has its own Southern accent, it was a fact that the Richmond area at that time was somewhat of a melting pot for the tobacco trade. The slave's English could contain Irish, German, French etc. speaking patterns and the locals could tell if the slave came from the Jones, Murpheys, Storchs, etc.

According to him, this also persisted through the Reconstruction, as carpet-baggers from the North began to take over the businesses and the now freed, but no less indentured Africans, reflected their bosses English.

It was an an interesting observation on dialect, and one that I've never seen in print before.