On 23 Sep 2011, at 02:15, Michael Cass wrote:

>  appreciate the jiu-jitsu of reversing one's master's name.So many U.S. slaves took their masters' names after emancipation, and many others chose patriotic names like Washington and Lincoln. But I've not heard of any U.S. slaves taking reversed spelling names.

In the French Caribbean, slaves did not take their master's names upon emancipation. 

This may have something to do with sexual mores being more relaxed in Catholic countries where wives would not complain when their husbands gave the family name to the illegitimate children had by slave women. Thus a mixed race Dupont would actually have blood kinship with the white master Dupont.

Many (black) family names are in fact girl's Christian names. This implies that the illegitimate offspring had with Marie then acquired the surname Marie - and freedom.

One final point. The United States was the only place where the slave population actually increased. It is reckoned that the sugar island of Martinique imported more African slaves than British North America/USA. 

T