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CreekDog

(46,192 posts)
Thu Nov 7, 2013, 02:54 PM Nov 2013

What was the slave population in the South just before the Civil War?

The exact question is, what was the percentage of the population that was enslaved in 1860, in the States that became the Confederacy during the Civil War?

(According to your knowledge or estimation)

(States are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia)


2 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
5%
0 (0%)
10%
0 (0%)
20%
0 (0%)
30%
0 (0%)
40%
2 (100%)
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What was the slave population in the South just before the Civil War? (Original Post) CreekDog Nov 2013 OP
My recollection from Am History class... HooptieWagon Nov 2013 #1
yes and yes CreekDog Nov 2013 #7
12.7% of the US population, but I don't know how that works out as percentage of the population... JVS Nov 2013 #2
Fewer than the number of blacks in American prisons today. Scuba Nov 2013 #3
No, the proportion of slave population to the total is not less than those imprisoned today CreekDog Nov 2013 #5
around 40% of the southern population La Lioness Priyanka Nov 2013 #4
that's the number I got too CreekDog Nov 2013 #6
A bit of a tangent, but related to slavery. HooptieWagon Nov 2013 #8
 

HooptieWagon

(17,064 posts)
1. My recollection from Am History class...
Thu Nov 7, 2013, 03:27 PM
Nov 2013

is that slaves were a little under 40% of the South's population....but nearer to 60% in a few states (SC? AL? MISS?). Most families did not own slaves, and of those that did most only owned a handfull. The numbers were distorted by the plantations that owned many. Land was wealth then, and wealth was (still is) political power. Thus the political power of the South was held by a fairly small number of large landowners who had many slaves.
It should be noted that the slave trade (the actual capturing and shipping of slaves from Africa to the Carribbean and US) was largely controlled by the English, Dutch, and Americans from the Northeast. Many of the wealthy New England families got their money from slave-trading, so there is no "holier than thou" status to crow about.

CreekDog

(46,192 posts)
5. No, the proportion of slave population to the total is not less than those imprisoned today
Thu Nov 7, 2013, 03:50 PM
Nov 2013

I asked the percentage or proportion, not raw numbers.

 

HooptieWagon

(17,064 posts)
8. A bit of a tangent, but related to slavery.
Thu Nov 7, 2013, 06:03 PM
Nov 2013

In Africa, there is a tribe called the Jola who live around the Gambia River...southern border of Mali. The Jola were experts at growing rice and cotton, so they were in high demand as slaves for the skills and experience they had. Additionally, the Jola were skilled musicians, especially on an instrument unique to them, the Akonting. The Akonting was a stringed instrument, round body shape, with a skin head upon which the bridge was located. The neck passed through the body, and formed a tail where the strings were anchored. One string was a drone, played with the thumb, and two or more strings were played with the fingers. The appearance, construction, and playing style of the Akonting are virtually identical to the banjo. Many scholars have concluded that captured Jola slaves brought knowledge of the Akonting to the New World, thus establishing the banjo here.

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