Background Information on Slavery in the U.S.
These tables and statistics give basic facts about the growth and spread of slavery in the United States and some tables of statistics about slave populations.
1) Total Slave Population, United States
Year Total Slaves
1790 697,621
1820 1,538,022
1840 2,487,355
1860 3,953,760
2) Slave population in the United States, unlike almost the entire rest of the hemisphere grew by reproduction.
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11 million slaves brought to Western Hemisphere
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roughly 450,000 to United States
3) American plantations relatively small
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Most slaveowners (72% in 1860) owned 1-9 slaves
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Most slaves (3/4) on plantations with fewer than 50 slaves
4) Second Middle Passage drives 1 million slaves to “West”
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1790-1860, one million slaves moved from coast to Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Missouri
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U.S. government bans the importation of slaves in 1808
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United States expands into the Louisiana Territory
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Cotton cultivation expands after the invention of the cotton gin in 1793
5) Slavery largely but not exclusively Southern
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Most northern slaves in New York and New Jersey
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Emancipation in North started in the 1770s
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Gradual emancipation laws in the early 1800s
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Most northern slaves freed by the 1840s
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A few northern slaves not free until 1865
Creator | American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
Rights | Copyright American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Item Type | Article/Essay
Cite This document | American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, “Background Information on Slavery in the U.S.,” SHEC: Resources for Teachers, accessed March 28, 2024, https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/533.