Feb 11, 2011: Map of US slavery

Shown here is the percentage of the population that were slaves in the 1860 census. The darkest (!) counties shown are above 80% slaves.

It's even more impressive shown here as a huge image that you can zoom around on.

Interesting how slavery follows the Mississippi river and is centered around the cities in a lot of places. I suppose only the wealthy could afford to own slaves, and the wealth was near the cities.

I always thought of slavery as being centered around rural agriculture, but this map shows that was not necessarily always the case.

Land in the Mississippi Delta was cheap (Gov't wanted people to settle there after it had been purchased from the French) and proved to be incredibly fertile. They needed a lot of labor to clear the land and make it profitable.

Interesting that by 1850 it is estimated that 100,000 slaves (cite) had escaped via the Underground Railroad. My town was a noted stop...I know of one house in town that people say was a stop.

Old maps are so cool. I look at my parent's old globe and everything has changed. There isn't a huge area called U.S.S.R. anymore, for instance.

UR map:

Thanks for the link UT! Very interesting.

glatt;710964 wrote:

Interesting how slavery follows the Mississippi river and is centered around the cities in a lot of places. I suppose only the wealthy could afford to own slaves, and the wealth was near the cities....

Looking at the big map, I'm not sure that I would agree about the city part. In Orleans parish Louisiana, where New Orleans is located, the rate is much lower compared to further upstream. Likewise Baton Rouge, Vicksburg, Memphis, and Washington are lower rates that the counties around them. Atlanta is kind of neutral, and Talahasee is the only city I see with a high rate.

Along the river is flat land that is usually good for farming. With ready transportation by barge it would be ideal commercial farming of rice and cotton.

I was thinking the same thing hampor.