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It's Claimed that Only 1.6% of US Citizens Owned Slaves In 1860. We Ran the Numbers
Snopes ^ | April 4, 2024 | Alex Kasprak

Posted on 04/05/2024 4:36:06 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?

On April 2, 2024, the claim that "only 1.6% of US citizens owned slaves in 1860" went viral on X (formerly Twitter):

Though the 3.3 million people who viewed this statement (at the time of this reporting) may not be aware, this claim is part of an long-standing genre of online memes that use a misleading statistic to minimize the importance of slavery to antebellum America.

The actual percentage reported in these memes varies, Snopes has observed, from 1.3 percent to the present 1.6 percent. As Snopes reported in August 2019, the statistic to which these memes refer is most accurately conveyed as 1.4 percent.......

The year 1860 was a census year. Officials collected detailed information on slave ownership and distribution in the Southern states, and this data, while far from perfect, is likely the most reliable source of information for the state of slavery directly preceding the Civil War......

Adam Rothman, a historian at Georgetown University and an expert in the history of slavery who spoke to us via email, told us that the percentage of slaveholding families is "the better measure of the extent of slaveholding." One reason this is true, according to historian Adam Goodheart in an interview with Politifact in August 2017, is that a person could be (and often was) a "slave master" but not technically a "slave owner":

"Many non-slaveholding whites in the South rented slaves from wealthier slaveholders ... so it was very common for a white Southerner to be a 'slave master' but not technically a 'slave owner.'"

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Conspiracy; Society
KEYWORDS: slaveowners; slaves; snopes
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To: Sacajaweau
“I would like to know how many were actually abused.”

The importation of slaves was banned in 1808. The owners needed to take care of their slaves as they were only getting new ones in the children the slaves bore.

Meanwhile, in the Caribbean Islands, the slaves died by the millions, lasting maybe a year before they were literally worked to death. Shiploads of fresh slaves to replace them were still coming.

121 posted on 04/05/2024 1:39:10 PM PDT by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful.)
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To: discostu

The country went through all the trouble of making a foundational document that said all men are created equal, and then said “except in some states, where you can be property”.

*************************************

Just yesterday I was telling my daughter about this - that many of the states wanted to get rid of slavery from the very beginning. But then the southern states wouldn’t have joined the nation. So they made compromises.

I know a lawyer that was involved in a huge corporate lawsuit. When he got home after the months-long meetings in D.C. and a solution had been worked out he said “Oh, it was okay I guess. We both agreed on the compromise that was arrived at. But, I don’t know, it seems like such a ....

compromise.”


122 posted on 04/05/2024 1:48:58 PM PDT by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful.)
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To: 21twelve

Some compromises are necessary, certainly in corporate law. Whether or not people can be property... that’s not really a good thing to compromise on. Because really that wasn’t a compromise. That was just flat out discarding an ideal. I don’t really expect corporations to have ideals. People, societies, countries, those are different. And our founders stated one, then chickened out.


123 posted on 04/05/2024 1:59:52 PM PDT by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

Haven’t read the whole thread, and someone else may have posted this info; but the first legal slaveholder in the United States was a black man.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Johnson_(colonist)


124 posted on 04/05/2024 2:27:29 PM PDT by Albion Wilde (Either ‘the Deep State destroys America, or we destroy the Deep State.’ --Donald Trump)
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To: DiogenesLamp

“That is incorrect. I saw this topic discussed a month or so ago, and it turns out there were quite a lot of Republicans who owned slaves.”

What percent is “quite a lot”? Just because Politifact can name a few Republicans that owned slaves doesn’t mean it was common. I don’t think anyone believes the number of Republican slave owners was over a couple of percent.


125 posted on 04/05/2024 2:38:24 PM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (I went to bed on November 3rd 2020 and woke up in 1984.)
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To: Chode
for a total of 389,000 out of the 5,000,000,000 sent to other areas. but slavery is america’s original sin..
126 posted on 04/05/2024 3:57:57 PM PDT by markman46 (engage brain before using keyboard!!!)
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To: DiogenesLamp

Thanks for setting me straight.


127 posted on 04/05/2024 4:08:48 PM PDT by Bull Snipe
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To: BroJoeK

My bad, thanks for the info.


128 posted on 04/05/2024 4:09:25 PM PDT by Bull Snipe
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To: marktwain
Are you counting tariffs to be revenue produced by slaves?

Yup. Cotton made up most of it, (over 50%) but with tobacco, hemp, indigo, sugar and so forth made up 72% of all us trade with Europe.

The federal government was very small at the time, a tiny percent of the gross national product.

GDP was around 4 billion. Federal revenue from the Southern states was 65 million.

That 4 billion included gold from California and Silver from Nevada.

129 posted on 04/05/2024 4:19:34 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Angelino97

You left out the sarcasm tag.


130 posted on 04/05/2024 4:40:04 PM PDT by 1ScrappyArmyMom
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To: mikelets456
WOW!! Tanks and I appreciate this information. I also found this article in more detail saying what you stated. Let me know what you think——Thanks for letting me know as I want to know the truth!

All my life I thought it was, and then about three years ago I got into one of these discussions and after doing research, I learned a lot of what we had been led to believe wasn't actually true.

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/why-the-war-was-not-about-slavery/

A bit wordy, but there were things in there that I hadn't seen before. The part about the national bank was quite interesting.

"What about this bill? Don’t be deceived by the terminology. So-called National Banks were to be the property of favoured groups of private capitalists. They were to have as capital interest-bearing government bonds at a 50% discount. The bank notes that they were to issue were to be the national currency. The banks, not the government, had control of this currency. That is, these favoured capitalists had the immense power and profit of controlling the money and credit of the country. Crony capitalism that has been the main feature of the American regime up to this very moment."

This dovetails with other aspects I have learned from other sources. It fits quite well with my existing mental model of our current governing class.

Corporations having powerful influence on the government and using it to further their own interests at the expense of the citizens is the exact problem we are suffering right now.

The media-liars serve corporate interests and they help to elect liberals because liberals controlling government allows the trillions in government spending to work its way through all the right "connected" pockets.

The liberal party is a parasite of the government and the people and derives much of it's revenue from it's control of the government. Joe Biden is a prime example of someone using government power to enrich himself and his family. He takes bribes and obviously so.

He got a prosecutor who was investigating his son in Ukraine fired by threatening to with hold Federal money to be sent to Ukraine.

Our government is corrupt, and that corruption traces all the way back to the early part of the 19th century.

Interesting link, but there is more out there still. There are a lot more quotes from Northern newspapers showing that the primary concern of the North was the continuation of the collection of money and revenue from the South.

And for what it's worth, I'm not from the South and neither is my family. My Grandfather arrived her in the early 1900s and he did not settle in any of the Southern states. My family had nothing to do with the Civil war.

131 posted on 04/05/2024 4:43:20 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: where's_the_Outrage?
Snopes is for Dopes.
132 posted on 04/05/2024 4:44:05 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Roses are red, Violets are blue, I love being on the government watch list, along with all of you.)
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To: discostu
So what. My family got here between WWs. Nobody is trying to pin anything on you. But it is the REALITY of this country that it was declared with a lot of high minded ideals that never tried to live up to.

The primary idea, the essential essence which was declared, was that people had a right to separate from an existing government and to form one that suited their interests.

It is called the "Declaration of *INDEPENDENCE*", not the Declaration of Equality among men."

"All men are created equal" was just a flowery line that Jefferson inserted into the text, and the people of the colonies saw it as only applying to themselves, and it was only later that they began to think it should be applied to the slaves.

July 4, of 1776, the only thing the Declaration of Independence meant was the States had a right to secede from the Union. (United Kingdom.)

133 posted on 04/05/2024 4:48:43 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: discostu
Some compromises are necessary, certainly in corporate law. Whether or not people can be property... that’s not really a good thing to compromise on. Because really that wasn’t a compromise.

You do realize that on July 4, 1776, every signer of the Declaration of Independence was a representative of a slave state?

There were no "free" states in 1776. None.

So who would they "compromise" with?

It wasn't until the 1780s that any "free" states emerged, and most not until after the 1790s. At the time of the constitutional convention, 1787, the vast majority of the states were still slave states. Again, the only people who needed to "compromise" were the very small number of "free" states. They were a tiny minority of the total.

Had the "free" states rejected slavery, there never would have been a "Union" at all. At least not with any free states in it.

134 posted on 04/05/2024 4:53:40 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Brooklyn Attitude
What percent is “quite a lot”?

From the 0% you mentioned, one is an infinity more than zero.

I've given you two.

Yes, in larger terms, Republican slave owners were few, but not zero.

I don’t think anyone believes the number of Republican slave owners was over a couple of percent.

The numbers of Republican slave owners was likely very small. I think most were members of the Whig party that moved to the Republican party. The "Republican" party was after all founded to oppose slavery, so a "Republican" slave owner is a bit of a contradiction, isn't it? :)

135 posted on 04/05/2024 4:57:20 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Bull Snipe
Thanks for setting me straight.

You are a gracious opponent and I salute you.

You've set me straight more often than I, you.

136 posted on 04/05/2024 4:58:34 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DiogenesLamp

General Grant also owned slaves. (Through his wife.)

Not the case. Dent, Julias father, gave Grant a slave. Grant kept the young man for about a year than gave him his freedom.
Julia, on the other hand, never owned slaves. The four female slaves that attended Julia, the household and children were the property of her father. She never had legal title to them. Dent would never allow the four female slaves to accompany Julia when she left the State of Missouri.


137 posted on 04/05/2024 4:59:59 PM PDT by Bull Snipe
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To: DiogenesLamp

Wrong.

Workers were paid a small pittance for each item they produced. No Mississippi cotton plantation slave was paid a cent for the cotton he produced. In addition, the textile worker had the option of quitting and moving on. Something a Mississippi field slave could only dream of.


138 posted on 04/05/2024 5:08:29 PM PDT by Bull Snipe
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To: markman46

*


139 posted on 04/05/2024 5:14:21 PM PDT by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: DiogenesLamp

“Yes, in larger terms, Republican slave owners were few, but not zero.”

I never said the number of Repub slave owners was zero. I said “nearly all” were DemocRATS. 98-99% is close enough to nearly all unless you are trying to nitpick. Perhaps you would prefer “vast majority”. In either case you seem determined to defend the Party of slavery and the KKK.


140 posted on 04/05/2024 5:46:18 PM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (I went to bed on November 3rd 2020 and woke up in 1984.)
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