Fewer than one in five Southerners actually owned slaves when the American Civil War began.
Of these, most owned one or two slaves.
About 8,000 land owners, fewer than one in a thousand of the people living in slave states, owned 50 or more.

That’s a lot of slaves for personal use.
Related Posts
-
What was the American Civil War and How long did the American Civil War last? The Civil War (also known as the War Between the States and the War of Southern Independence) was a military conflict between the United States of America (the Union) and eleven secessionist Southern…
-
What role did religion play in the lives of former slaves after the American Civil War? Unable to participate in political life and without decent jobs after the Civil War, many blacks turned to religion for comfort. The Civil War also brought about a separation of white and black…
-
Who owned slaves in Colonial America? In the North and South, many slave owners were whites who owned small farms. Usually there were about twenty slaves on these farms. Other southern slave holders owned large plots of land, or…
-
How were African American soldiers treated in the American Civil War? Even after gaining acceptance into military service, black soldiers suffered racist treatment from many of their white officers. They received half the pay of white troops and were given menial duties. The Confederates…
-
What was the civil rights movement and How did the American Civil Rights Movement originate? Civil rights are the rights each citizen has to equal protection under the law and equal opportunity to participate completely in national life, regardless of race, religion, or sex. But during the first…
-
How many Americans died in the Mexican American War and Was the Mexican American War easy to win? The Mexican American War was not easy for the 13,000 Americans who died fighting it, most of them succumbing to disease in unhealthy camp conditions. Over a year's worth of battles were fought,…