1860 U.S. Census of Slave and Slavery Percentages

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1860 U.S. Census Percentages of Slaves and Slavery by State

1860 US Slave and Slavery Percentages, US Slave Totals by State, US Total Number of Slaves by States, Total US Slaves, Total Numbers of Slaves, US Slavery Totals by State, US Slavery Total by States

Slave and Slavery Percentages for the United States in the 1860 Census

STATE

TOTAL POPULATION

TOTAL NO. OF SLAVES

NO. OF FAMILIES

TOTAL FREE POPULATION

TOTAL NO. OF SLAVEHOLDERS

PERCENT OF FAMILIES OWNING SLAVES

SLAVES AS PERCENT OF POPULATION

ALABAMA

964,201

435,080

96,603

529,121

33,730

35%

45%

ARKANSAS

435,450

111,115

57,244

324,335

11,481

20%

26%

CALIFORNIA

379,985

0

98,767

379,994

0

0%

0%

CONNECTICUT

460,138

0

94,831

460,147

0

0%

0%

DELAWARE

112,216

1,798

18,966

110,418

587

3%

2%

FLORIDA

140,424

61,745

15,090

78,679

5,152

34%

44%

GEORGIA

1,057,286

462,198

109,919

595,088

41,084

37%

44%

ILLINOIS

1,711,942

0

315,539

1,711,951

0

0%

0%

INDIANA

1,350,419

0

248,664

1,350,428

0

0%

0%

IOWA

674,904

0

124,098

674,913

0

0%

0%

KANSAS

107,206

2

21,912

107,204

2

0%

0%

KENTUCKY

1,155,684

225,483

166,321

930,201

38,645

23%

20%

LOUISIANA

708,002

331,726

74,725

376,276

22,033

29%

47%

MAINE

628,270

0

120,863

628,279

0

0%

0%

MARYLAND

687,049

87,189

110,278

599,860

13,783

12%

13%

MASSACHUSETTS

1,231,057

0

251,287

1,231,066

0

0%

0%

MICHIGAN

749,104

0

144,761

749,113

0

0%

0%

MINNESOTA

172,014

0

37,319

172,023

0

0%

0%

MISSISSIPPI

791,305

436,631

63,015

354,674

30,943

49%

55%

MISSOURI

1,182,012

114,931

192,073

1,067,081

24,320

13%

10%

NEBRASKA

28,841

15

5,931

28,826

6

0%

0%

NEVADA

6,848

0

2,027

6,857

0

0%

0%

NEW HAMPSHIRE

326,064

0

69,018

326,073

0

0%

0%

NEW JERSEY

672,035

0

130,348

672,017

0

0%

0%

NEW YORK

3,880,726

0

758,420

3,880,735

0

0%

0%

NORTH CAROLINA

992,622

331,059

125,090

661,563

34,658

28%

33%

OHIO

2,339,502

0

434,134

2,339,511

0

0%

0%

OREGON

52,456

0

11,063

52,465

0

0%

0%

PENNSYLVANIA

2,906,206

0

524,558

2,906,215

0

0%

0%

RHODE ISLAND

174,611

0

35,209

174,620

0

0%

0%

SOUTH CAROLINA

703,708

402,406

58,642

301,302

26,701

46%

57%

TENNESSEE

1,109,801

275,719

149,335

834,082

36,844

25%

25%

TEXAS

604,215

182,566

76,781

421,649

21,878

28%

30%

VERMONT

315,089

0

63,781

315,098

0

0%

0%

VIRGINIA

1,596,318

490,865

201,523

1,105,453

52,128

26%

31%

WISCONSIN

775,872

0

147,473

775,881

0

0%

0%

Total

31,183,582

3,950,528

5,155,608

27,233,198

393,975

8%

13%

Recommended Reading: Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. Description: Winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, David Brion Davis has long been recognized as the leading authority on slavery in the Western World. Now, in Inhuman Bondage, Davis sums up a lifetime of insight in this definitive account of New World slavery. The heart of the book looks at slavery in the American South, describing black slaveholding planters, rise of the Cotton Kingdom, daily life of ordinary slaves, highly destructive slave trade, sexual exploitation of slaves, emergence of an African-American culture, abolition, abolitionists, antislavery movements, and much more. Continued below…

But though centered on the United States, the book offers a global perspective spanning four continents. It is the only study of American slavery that reaches back to ancient foundations and also traces the long evolution of anti-black racism in European thought. Equally important, it combines the subjects of slavery and abolitionism as very few books do, and it connects the actual life of slaves with the crucial place of slavery in American politics, stressing that slavery was integral to America's success as a nation--not a marginal enterprise. This is the definitive history by a writer deeply immersed in the subject. Inhuman Bondage offers a compelling portrait of the dark side of the American dream.

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Recommended Reading: The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861 (Paperback), by David M. Potter. Review: Professor Potter treats an incredibly complicated and misinterpreted time period with unparalleled objectivity and insight. Potter masterfully explains the climatic events that led to Southern secession – a greatly divided nation – and the Civil War: the social, political and ideological conflicts; culture; American expansionism, sectionalism and popular sovereignty; economic and tariff systems; and slavery. In other words, Potter places under the microscope the root causes and origins of the Civil War. He conveys the subjects in easy to understand language to edify the reader's understanding (it's not like reading some dry old history book). Delving beyond surface meanings and interpretations, this book analyzes not only the history, but the historiography of the time period as well. Continued below…

Professor Potter rejects the historian's tendency to review the period with all the benefits of hindsight. He simply traces the events, allowing the reader a step-by-step walk through time, the various views, and contemplates the interpretations of contemporaries and other historians. Potter then moves forward with his analysis. The Impending Crisis is the absolute gold-standard of historical writing… This simply is the book by which, not only other antebellum era books, but all history books should be judged.

 

Recommended Reading: A House Divided: Sectionalism and Civil War, 1848-1865 (The American Moment). Reviews: "The best short treatment of the sectional conflict and Civil War available... Sewell convincingly demonstrates that the conflict was a revolutionary experience that fundamentally transformed the Republic and its people, and left a racial heritage that still confronts America today. The result is a poignant discussion of the central tragedy of American history and its legacy for the nation." -- William E. Gienapp, Georgia Historical Quarterly. "A provocative starting point for discussion, further study, and independent assessment." -- William H. Pease, History. Continued below…

"Sewell's style is fast moving and very readable... An excellent volume summarizing the stormy period prior to the war as well as a look at the military and home fronts." -- Civil War Book Exchange and Collector's Newsletter. "A well-written, traditional, and brief narrative of the period from the end of the Mexican War to the conclusion of the Civil War... Shows the value of traditional political history which is too often ignored in our rush to reconstruct the social texture of society." -- Thomas D. Morris, Civil War History. "Tailored for adoption in college courses. Students will find that the author has a keen eye for vivid quotations, giving his prose welcome immediacy." -- Daniel W. Crofts, Journal of Southern History.

 

Recommended Reading: CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR: The Political, Cultural, Economic and Territorial Disputes Between the North and South. Description: While South Carolina s preemptive strike on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's subsequent call to arms started the Civil War, South Carolina's secession and Lincoln's military actions were simply the last in a chain of events stretching as far back as 1619. Increasing moral conflicts and political debates over slavery-exacerbated by the inequities inherent between an established agricultural society and a growing industrial one-led to a fierce sectionalism which manifested itself through cultural, economic, political and territorial disputes. This historical study reduces sectionalism to its most fundamental form, examining the underlying source of this antagonistic climate. From protective tariffs to the expansionist agenda, it illustrates the ways in which the foremost issues of the time influenced relations between the North and the South.

 

Recommended Reading: Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates that Defined America (Simon & Schuster) (February 5, 2008) (Hardcover) . Description: In 1858, Abraham Lincoln was known as a successful Illinois lawyer who had achieved some prominence in state politics as a leader in the new Republican Party. Two years later, he was elected president and was on his way to becoming the greatest chief executive in American history. What carried this one-term congressman from obscurity to fame was the campaign he mounted for the United States Senate against the country's most formidable politician, Stephen A. Douglas, in the summer and fall of 1858. Lincoln challenged Douglas directly in one of his greatest speeches -- "A house divided against itself cannot stand" -- and confronted Douglas on the questions of slavery and the inviolability of the Union in seven fierce debates. As this brilliant narrative by the prize-winning Lincoln scholar Allen Guelzo dramatizes, Lincoln would emerge a predominant national figure, the leader of his party, the man who would bear the burden of the national confrontation. Continued below... 

Of course, the great issue between Lincoln and Douglas was slavery. Douglas was the champion of "popular sovereignty," of letting states and territories decide for themselves whether to legalize slavery. Lincoln drew a moral line, arguing that slavery was a violation both of natural law and of the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence. No majority could ever make slavery right, he argued. Lincoln lost that Senate race to Douglas, though he came close to toppling the "Little Giant," whom almost everyone thought was unbeatable. Guelzo's Lincoln and Douglas brings alive their debates and this whole year of campaigns and underscores their centrality in the greatest conflict in American history. The encounters between Lincoln and Douglas engage a key question in American political life: What is democracy's purpose? Is it to satisfy the desires of the majority? Or is it to achieve a just and moral public order? These were the real questions in 1858 that led to the Civil War. They remain questions for Americans today.

 

Recommended Reading: Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President (Library of Religious Biography). Description: Since its original publication in 1999, "Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President" has garnered numerous accolades, including the prestigious 2000 Lincoln Prize. Allen Guelzo's peerless biography of America's most celebrated president is now available for the first time in a fine paperback edition. The first "intellectual biography" of Lincoln, this work explores the role of ideas in Lincoln's life, treating him as a serious thinker deeply involved in the nineteenth-century debates over politics, religion, and culture. Written with passion and dramatic impact, Guelzo's masterful study offers a revealing new perspective on a man whose life was in many ways a paradox. As journalist Richard N. Ostling notes, "Much has been written about Lincoln's belief and disbelief," but Guelzo's extraordinary account "goes deeper."

 

Recommended Reading: The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics. Publishers Weekly: The perennial tension between principle and pragmatism in politics frames this engaging account of two Civil War Era icons. Historian Oakes (Slavery and Freedom) charts the course by which Douglass and Lincoln, initially far apart on the antislavery spectrum, gravitated toward each other. Lincoln began as a moderate who advocated banning slavery in the territories while tolerating it in the South, rejected social equality for blacks and wanted to send freedmen overseas—and wound up abolishing slavery outright and increasingly supporting black voting rights. Conversely, the abolitionist firebrand Douglass moved from an impatient, self-marginalizing moral rectitude to a recognition of compromise, coalition building and incremental goals as necessary steps forward in a democracy. Continued below...

Douglass's views on race were essentially modern; the book is really a study through his eyes of the more complex figure of Lincoln. Oakes lucidly explores how political realities and military necessity influenced Lincoln's tortuous path to emancipation, and asks whether his often bigoted pronouncements represented real conviction or strategic concessions to white racism. As Douglass shifts from denouncing Lincoln's foot-dragging to revering his achievements, Oakes vividly conveys both the immense distance America traveled to arrive at a more enlightened place and the fraught politics that brought it there. AWARDED FIVE STARS by americancivilwarhistory.org

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