[MNDude]

“Only 1% of whites owned slaves”

Is that true? I’ve heard it was about a third of southern states.

[wideawake]

It was about 1.5% of the population, with about 8% of US families having a slave in the household.

However, about 5,000 people owned 33% of the slaves - by 1860 slavery had become very concentrated.

One guy in South Carolina alone owned 1100 people.

[ChiMark]

Roughly 5% of southern families owned salves.
It wasn’t as prolific as it seems.
Slaves were expensive to purchase. You had to be a person of means to own slaves.