I take exception to that, Pea. I quoted you word for word. And I would point out that it is dangerous to take statistics for one state and claim that the same applied throughout the south. But rather than quibble on the statistic would it be fair to say that, regardless of whether they were a small farmer or a small businessman or a professional person, that the average slave owner down south was NOT the stereotypical mint-julip sucking, front porch sitting, wealthy plantation owner that many people visualize? If they were small farmers than I have no doubt that they worked the fields at least in a supervisory role. If they were a professional person or a teacher, like Jackson was, then the slave or slaves worked around the house.
I chose SC because you have named it several times as being among the two highest slave ownership states in the South.
As you can see in the opinions of these posters, many believed that only the wealthy owned slaves, and that reflects the beliefs of people where slavery was not prevalent. Where it was, as in SC, it was known that slaves were owned by many small farmers.
In the SC of 1860, there were only 14 "massive" slave plantations, so it was not only the wealthy in that state.
However, as you know, the larger mass production cotton farms in Louisiana and Mississippi did reflect the stereotype of the Southern Plantation.
The point is that the stereotype did not fit the reality of 1860 in most of the South.