Slavery in the 1800s
Subject:
US History [1]
Tags:
When many modern Americans look back upon the 1800s, much of the detail of the time is misconstrued. Although it is often imagined that the South was filled with plantation owners that had over 30 slaves each, reality proved to be quite different. Only about one-fifth of the Southern white population owned slaves, and of these, eighty-eight percent of them owned twenty slaves or less. The reputation of the South does not necessarily withhold when compared to legitimate facts. Despite the misconceptions surrounding southern non-slave owners, many of them still supported slavery around them for two complex reasons: owning slaves was both essential to the Southern economy and their prejudiced Southern mindset.