What is the percentage of slave owners in the south in 1800?
Without being politically biased and sticking only to the facts
less than 5% of whites in the south were slaveholders prior to the
war. Also as slaveholders were the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw,
Chickasaw, and Seminoles holding around ten thousand. Also as
slaveholders were free blacks who owned slaves at a higher
percentage of their population than the whites.
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According to the book "A Chronological History of The Negro'
(1968), out of a total southern white population of apprx 7
million, 2 million owned slaves. Or about 2.8% of white people
owned slaves in the southern states. Additionally, 7% of all white
people in southern states owned 75% of all slaves.
The total number of white people in America (North & South)
in 1860 who were slave owners was about 3.1%.
As for free Negroes in the southern states, about 10% of them
owned slaves. So that means that free blacks were 3 times more
likely to own slaves than free whites in the southern states.