Slaveholders Were Less Than 1.5% Of The Free Population In 1860

The 1860 United States Census indicates that Slaveholders were a very small part of the United States population at the start of the Civil War. The number of Slaveholders in the United States was 393,975, and the Total Free Population of the United States was 27,233,198.

The following Chart presents the full 1860 United States Census Data, including the Total Population, the Total Free Population, the Total Number of Slaves, the Number of Families and the Total Number of Slaveholders.

The 1860 United States Census also documents that the Slaveholdings of the 393,967 Southern Slaveowners were distributed as follows: 216,269 Slaveowners held 1-5 Slaves, 175,335 Slaveowners held 6-99 Slaves, 2,341 Slaveowners held 100-499 Slaves and 22 Slaveowners held 500+ Slaves.

This means that 55% of the Southern Slaveholders in 1860 owned 1-5 Slaves, 44.5% owned 6-99 Slaves, .6% owned 100-499 Slaves, and .006% owned 500 or more Slaves.

This demonstrates that the majority of Southern Slaveowners were not Wealthy Plantation Owners, but probably Middle Class Factory owners, Tradesmen, Small Shipowners, or Small Companies that provided Services to other Companies or Organizations.

The Chart below shows the growth in the Southern Population in terms of the Whites, the Free Nonwhites and the Slaves from 1790 to 1860.

The number of Free Nonwhites increased at a greater rate than the number of Slaves. The number of Slaves was, of course, much greater than the number of Free Nonwhites. There were Twenty times as many Slaves in 1790 as there were Free Nonwhites, and there were more than Fifteen times as many Slaves in 1860 as there were Free Nonwhites.

The Original Thirteen Colonies population growth from 1750 to 1860 did not mirror the population growth of the South. The Northern Colonies/States White Population Growth offset the growth in the number of Slaves in the Southern Colonies/States.

The following Chart displays the White, Free Nonwhite and Slave Populations of the Original Thirteen Colonies in select years.

This does not Justify or attempt to Rationalize the Enslavement of Africans, or any other Race, Ethnicity or Class of People. This is just a presentation of the Data that was gathered at that time.

The claims that ALL White people were responsible for the 250 years of Slavery in what is now the United States is absolutely False! Slavery deprived Hundreds of Thousands, if not Millions, of Poor Southerners a Job! They did not own Slaves, they were undoubtedly Anti-Slavery for basic Economic, and Survival, reasons.

They did not look at Slaves the same way that the Slave Holders did. They were afraid that the Slaves being sold today would take their job tommorrow. The harder they made it for the Slaves, the less qork that the Slaves could get done, and the more the Slaves would try to escape. If you are being jeered, and spit on, and treated in public as though you are less than Human, you will have an extra incentive to try and escape to a place that is not as cruel, and potentially deadly.