Less than 5% of the Whites in American owned slaves in the
United States in 1860. Some have said it was as low as 1.4%.
Despite this, and despite slavery being relegated to the
southern states, and most of the industrialized America in
the northern states, it is still run up the flag pole that
slaves built this nation.
Slaves did not build this nation.
In the interest of being open about the slave owner
percentage, some people with an axe to grind state it was
20% or over. They achieved his by not only counting the
owner and his wife as slave owners, but any other family
members on the plantation. Any other paid workers that
may have been there to supervise, were also counted as
slave owners, even though they weren’t.
These are known as the family, and household, categories
and they blew out the numbers counted as ‘owners.’
Another ploy these folks used was to limit the counting
to only southern states. Why is this important.
Today every White is held in contempt as the descendant
of slave owners. That is patently false. Every White
today is not related to a slave owner.
There were 30 million Whites in the nation in 1860.
There are 204 million today.
It’s a fantasy that all Whites are guilty. Based on
the between 2% and 5% ownership back in the day, it’s
very wrong to label every White a descendant of slave
owners.
If memory serves, over 300,000 Whites died in the Civil
War, which resulted in freedom for slaves. It should
be noted that some freed African slaves also fought in
that war against the south, and some of them fought
and died as well.
It is also noted that around 3,000 freed African Slaves
owned around 20,000 slaves in 1860.
Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_demographics_of_the_United_States
Next is a factual presentation of slavery, but there are
parts of it that I ponder as to accuracy.
For instance, in this presentation the writer suggests that
25% of the homes in the south had slaves. This would assume that 25% of the population was wealthy enough to purchase
a slave. Maybe I’m being a but stubborn, but it seems to
me that back in the day, being able to pay upwards of
$1,000 to $1,200 for a slave, would have been a real stretch. Those were the top dollar slaves though, and perhaps
they could afford slaves selling for less.
My point isn’t to short-change the truth or facts of
slavery, but I don’t want the White populace to be trashed
on a level that isn’t accurate either.
Some states are credited with close to 50% of the populace
as being slave owners. To me that seems nearly impossible.
I believe that the family and household techniques, and
only counting in the south, really skews the numbers and
percentages. I think these methods are used to skew the
numbers.
Let’s remember, none of the activists look at any White
today and thinks, oh their family lived in the north. For
that reason, I believe all the nation should be included
in the counting and assessment.
Remember also, that there is a lot more power behind
claiming that close to 25% or even up to 50% of the
population at large, or only in one state were slave
owners.
The writer of the materials at this link also talks
about the U. S. only having taken 4.5% or so of the
slaves globally, back in the day.
I think the presentation has value, and I chose to
link it.
https://theconversation.com/american-slavery-separating-fact-from-myth-79620
I provided these links because they were pertinent to
the subject matter.
I don’t believe every factoid I addressed is covered at
these two links.
I read other materials yesterday, and I couldn’t find the
same link today.
I am sure there are some things around today built by slaves......but not much. Most of America as we know it was built within the last 120 years......maybe much less and not by anyone enslaved.
This isn’t at all meant to disregard the enormity of slavery in the US.
Other than a few cars, nothing I own is more than 10 years old, other than my home which is less than 30 years old.
There is a good chance some of the stuff I own which was made in China could have been made by slaves.......