Question

document a
slave statistics, 1860
seceding slave states\tslave population\t% of population in slavery\t% of white families that owned slaves
south carolina\t402,406\t57\t47
florida\t61,745\t41\t35
alabama\t435,080\t45\t35
mississippi\t436,631\t55\t49
georgia\t462,198\t48\t38
louisiana\t131,726\t47\t31
texas\t182,566\t30\t29
arkansas\t490,865\t31\t27
north carolina\t111,115\t28\t20
tennessee\t131,059\t33\t29
\t275,719\t25\t25
growth of slave population in texas
1836\t5,000\t1850\t58,161\t1860\t182,566
prices in texas, 1860:
one acre of farm land\t$6.00
one healthy male field slave\t$1,200.00
document analysis

1. what was the slave population of texas in 1860?
2. what percentage of the texas population were slaves in 1860?
3. what percentage of white texas families owned slaves in 1860? what percentage did not?
4. what economic fears might have led slave - owning texans to fight for the south?
5. do these statistics suggest why non - slave - owning texans would want to fight for the south? explain.

Explanation:

1. Pulled directly from the "Slave Statistics, 1860" table for Texas.
2. Pulled directly from the "% of Population In Slavery" column for Texas in the 1860 table.
3. Calculated by subtracting the percentage of white Texas families that owned slaves from 100%.
4. Slave-owning Texans feared losing their extremely valuable enslaved people (who were worth far more than farm land) and the economic system built on enslaved labor, which would collapse if slavery was abolished.
5. The statistics show most white Texas families did not own slaves, but they may have aspired to own enslaved people (a symbol of wealth/status in the South), or they held white supremacist views that aligned with the Confederacy's ideology, even without owning enslaved people themselves.

Answer:

1. 182,566
2. 30%
3. 71% (29% owned slaves, so $100\% - 29\% = 71\%$ did not)
4. Economic fears included losing the enormous financial investment in enslaved people (who were far more valuable than farm land) and the collapse of the labor system that supported their agricultural economy. 71% of white Texas families did not own slaves.
5. Yes. Even though most white Texas families did not own slaves, enslaved people were a marker of wealth and social status in the South, so non-slave-owning whites may have aspired to own enslaved people someday. Additionally, white supremacist beliefs were pervasive in the region, leading many non-slave-owning whites to align with the Confederacy's goal of maintaining white dominance.