“Eight million whites lived in the South, but of these, fewer than 325,000 owned slaves.”
“In glaring contrast, in this same year, there were 4.5 million blacks living in America, and 500,000 blacks in the South. Over half of these—261,988—were freed men.”
Am I missing something? If 325K whites in the South owned slaves and only half of 500K blacks in the South were slaves, there would be fewer than 1 black person for each white person who supposedly owned a slave.
Are they counting married couples who owned a slave? Or was there some sort of slave co-op whereby multiple families shared a slave?
Did the white people own Indians as slaves? Other whites as slaves? Are they counting indentured servants as slaves?
Something seems to be wrong or missing.
Something seems to be wrong or missing.
Both I think. Not sure if he is reading the same 1860 census I have read:
Total free population Northern/border states:21,907,357, slave: 432,632.
Total free population 11 seceding states: 5,582,222. slave: 3,521,110
In both cases the free population numbers included free blacks.
Total # slave owners Northern/border states: 99,435
Total # slave owners 11 seceding states: 286,781
Total free population of the United States:27,489,579
Total slave population of the United states: 3,953,742