The Southern Seclusion of Slavery and the Civil War

The question of the percentage of the Southern population owning slaves at the start of the American Civil War is less significant than the broader issue of how deeply slavery had seeped into Southern society. It didn’t matter whether a small or large percentage owned slaves; the institution itself was ingrained in the social, economic, and legal fabric of the South.

During the pre-Civil War era, the US government and individual states upheld the principles of buying and selling human beings as chattel, which were enshrined in their statutes. Simultaneously, those same laws made it a crime to assist an enslaved person in gaining freedom or learning to read, thus perpetuating the brutal cycle of oppression.

The Constitutional Order of Slavery

Moreover, the Southern states were willing to break up the nation and engage in a civil war to uphold these “rights.” They argued that the right to treat people as merchandise was a part of the constitutional order they had agreed to, some 87 years prior. The power of this argument was bolstered further by a Supreme Court ruling.

In the Dred Scott v. Sandford case, the Supreme Court deemed that Black people were not citizens and could not sue in federal court. The court opined that Black people had long been considered a race inferior to the white race and wholly unfit for social and political relations with them. The court further justified this by stating that Black people had ‘no rights which the white man was bound to respect.’

The Widespread Use of Enslaved People

While it is often cited that one and a half percent of the population owned slaves, the reality is much grimmer. In fact, a significant proportion of Southerners' social and economic structures relied on the institution of slavery. A closer look at the percentages reveals a picture of pervasive enslavement in many Southern states:

South Carolina: 57.2% Mississippi: 55.2% Louisiana: 46.9% Alabama: 45.1% Florida: 44.0% Georgia: 43.7% North Carolina: 33.4% Virginia: 30.7% Texas: 30.2%

Despite widespread reliance on slavery, many Southerners had never seen a slave in person. This disconnect could be attributed to the rural and agricultural nature of much of the South, where slavery was more common in rural areas. Yet, the power and wealth generated by the slave trade ensured that the institution was deeply embedded in Southern society.

Why Were They Willing to Fight?

The question remains: why were Southerners willing to fight a war to maintain their economic system? For many, it was about upholding their cultural and social norms, which intertwined with the laws and traditions of their states. Slavery provided a legal and societal framework that defined their identities and economic structures.

Moreover, the stakes were high economically. Slaves were a significant asset in the agricultural and industrial economies of the Southern states. Freeing slaves would have devastated these economies, which revolved around plantation agriculture and other industries that relied on cheap labor. The desire to protect these economic interests was a powerful motivator for the Southerners to fight for secession.

Conclusion

The institution of slavery was not confined to a small percentage of the Southern population but was pervasive and interwoven into the fabric of Southern society. The willingness to fight for the right to own slaves and the constitutional order that upheld it was a reflection of the deep-seated beliefs and economic realities that dominated the region in the lead-up to the Civil War.

While the historical record clearly shows how deeply ingrained slavery was in the South, the significance of this issue continues to reverberate in the ongoing national conversation about race and justice in the United States today.