North Carolina was a slave state, but compared to other places in the South, slavery did not seem as dominant. During the first half of the nineteenth century, in any given year, about one in four North Carolina families owned slaves.
Slavery in North Carolina
Slaves were found in every North Carolina county. Even mountian counties, were poor soil and remote location hinered any kind of economic growth, had slaves as part of their population.
Year
White
Slave
Total
1830
492,386
245,601
737,987
1840
507,602
245,817
753,419
1850
580,491
288,059
869,039
1860
661,563
331,059
992,622
Life and Labor on a Plantation
Usually a white family with more than twenty slaves opersated a plantation. About one in a hundred North Carolina families owned more than fifty slaves, enough to make them along the richest people in the entire nation.
Slavery in North Carolina
Slaves were found in every North Carolina county. Even mountian counties, were poor soil and remote location hinered any kind of economic growth, had slaves as part of their population.
Usually a white family with more than twenty slaves opersated a plantation. About one in a hundred North Carolina families owned more than fifty slaves, enough to make them along the richest people in the entire nation.