North Carolina Total Slaves By County (1790-1860)

Thomas' Legion
American Civil War HOMEPAGE
American Civil War
Causes of the Civil War : What Caused the Civil War
Organization of Union and Confederate Armies: Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery
Civil War Navy: Union Navy and Confederate Navy
American Civil War: The Soldier's Life
Civil War Turning Points
American Civil War: Casualties, Battles and Battlefields
Civil War Casualties, Fatalities & Statistics
Civil War Generals
American Civil War Desertion and Deserters: Union and Confederate
Civil War Prisoner of War: Union and Confederate Prison History
Civil War Reconstruction Era and Aftermath
American Civil War Genealogy and Research
Civil War
American Civil War Pictures - Photographs
African Americans and American Civil War History
American Civil War Store
American Civil War Polls
NORTH CAROLINA HISTORY
North Carolina Civil War History
North Carolina American Civil War Statistics, Battles, History
North Carolina Civil War History and Battles
North Carolina Civil War Regiments and Battles
North Carolina Coast: American Civil War
HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
Western North Carolina and the American Civil War
Western North Carolina: Civil War Troops, Regiments, Units
North Carolina: American Civil War Photos
Cherokee Chief William Holland Thomas
HISTORY OF THE CHEROKEE INDIANS
Cherokee Indian Heritage, History, Culture, Customs, Ceremonies, and Religion
Cherokee Indians: American Civil War
History of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian Nation
Cherokee War Rituals, Culture, Festivals, Government, and Beliefs
Researching your Cherokee Heritage
Civil War Diary, Memoirs, Letters, and Newspapers

North Carolina Slave Totals by County

Total North Carolina Slaves in Each County (1790-1860)*

North Carolina: TOTAL SLAVES
County 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860
ALAMANCE 0 0 0 0 0 0 3,196 3,445
ALEXANDER 0 0 0 0 0 0 543 611
ALLEGHANY 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 206
ANSON 829 1,290 2,325 3,476 4,778 5,304 6,832 6,951
ASHE 0 85 147 250 492 497 595 391
AVERY 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
BEAUFORT 1,622 2,044 2,568 3,655 4,165 4,472 5,249 5,878
BERTIE 5,121 5,512 6,059 5,725 6,797 6,728 7,194 8,185
BLADEN 1,686 2,299 1,985 2,788 3,122 3,413 4,358 5,327
BRUNSWICK 1,511 1,614 2,254 2,334 3,107 2,119 3,302 3,631
BUNCOMBE 0 347 695 1,042 1,666 1,199 1,717 1,933
BURKE 600 826 1,433 1,917 3,626 3,216 2,132 2,371
CABARRUS 0 699 1,234 1,599 2,258 2,179 2,685 3,040
CALDWELL 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,203 1,088
CAMDEN 1,038 1,170 1,411 1,749 2,025 1,661 2,187 2,127
CARTERET 709 918 1,172 1,329 1,593 1,360 1,623 1,969
CASWELL 2,736 2,788 4,299 5,417 6,434 7,024 7,770 9,355
CATAWBA 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,569 1,664
CHATHAM 1,558 2,809 3,635 3,808 5,056 5,316 5,985 6,246
CHEROKEE 0 0 0 0 0 199 337 519
CHOWAN 2,587 2,473 2,789 3,469 3,768 3,665 3,673 3,713
CLAY 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
CLEVELAND 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,747 2,131
COLUMBUS 0 0 703 913 1,079 1,086 1,503 2,463
CRAVEN 3,663 4,161 5,050 5,087 6,129 5,702 5,951 6,189
CUMBERLAND 2,180 2,723 2,796 4,751 5,057 5,392 7,217 5,830
CURRITUCK 1,103 1,530 1,631 1,854 2,188 2,100 2,447 2,523
DARE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
County 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860
DAVIDSON 0 0 0 0 1,918 2,538 2,992 3,076
DAVIE 0 0 0 0 0 1,888 2,171 2,392
DOBBS 2,012 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
DUPLIN 1,386 1,864 2,416 3,599 4,434 4,677 6,007 7,124
DURHAM 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
EDGECOMBE 3,167 3,905 5,107 5,745 7,075 7,439 8,547 10,108
FORSYTH 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,353 1,764
FRANKLIN 2,701 3,698 5,330 4,709 4,960 5,320 5,507 7,076
GASTON 0 0 0 0 0 0 2,112 2,199
GATES 2,217 2,688 2,790 2,685 3,648 3,642 3,871 3,901
GRAHAM 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
GRANVILLE 4,163 6,106 7,746 9,071 9,166 8,707 9,865 11,086
GREENE 0 1,496 1,842 2,174 2,872 2,971 3,244 3,947
GUILFORD 616 905 1,467 1,611 2,594 2,647 3,186 3,625
HALIFAX 6,697 7,239 6,624 9,450 9,790 9,405 8,954 10,349
HARNETT 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2,584
HAYWOOD 0 0 171 274 291 304 418 313
HENDERSON 0 0 0 0 0 466 924 1,382
HERTFORD 2,448 2,864 2,805 3,244 3,710 3,298 3,716 4,445
HOKE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
HYDE 1,143 1,404 1,852 1,580 1,943 2,198 2,627 2,791
IREDELL 868 1,508 2,432 2,988 3,682 3,716 4,142 4,177
JACKSON 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 268
JOHNSTON 1,328 1,763 2,330 3,086 3,639 3,476 4,663 4,916
JONES 1,655 1,949 2,375 2,764 3,075 2,818 2,757 3,413
LEE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
LENOIR 0 1,526 2,440 3,354 3,919 3,683 4,116 5,140
LILLINGTON 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3,228
LINCOLN 855 1,523 2,489 3,329 4,882 5,386 2,055 2,115
MACON 0 0 0 0 458 368 549 519
County 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860
MADISON 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 213
MARTIN 1,829 1,786 2,357 2,850 3,279 2,816 3,367 4,309
MCDOWELL 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,262 1,305
MECKLENBURG 1,608 1,988 3,494 5,181 7,146 6,322 5,473 6,541
MITCHELL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
MONTGOMERY 837 1,373 1,696 1,815 2,295 2,487 1,773 1,823
MOORE 371 608 944 1,296 1,673 1,472 1,976 2,518
NASH 2,008 2,596 2,897 3,445 3,706 3,697 4,056 4,680
NEW HANOVER 3,737 4,058 6,442 5,561 5,616 6,376 8,581 7,103
NORTHAMPTON 4,414 6,209 7,258 7,263 7,242 6,759 6,511 6,804
ONSLOW 1,747 1,814 2,299 2,777 3,144 2,739 3,108 3,499
ORANGE 2,060 3,565 4,701 6,153 7,373 6,954 5,244 5,108
PAMLICO 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
PASQUOTANK 1,600 1,755 2,295 2,616 2,621 2,788 3,105 2,983
PENDER 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
PERQUIMANS 1,883 2,020 2,017 2,465 2,749 2,943 3,252 3,558
PERSON 0 2,082 2,573 3,674 4,432 4,351 4,893 5,195
PITT 2,364 2,885 3,589 4,241 5,365 5,648 6,633 8,473
POLK 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 620
RANDOLPH 460 607 798 1,080 1,462 1,407 1,640 1,645
RICHMOND 583 875 1,301 2,021 3,512 3,880 4,704 5,453
ROBESON 533 998 1,340 2,099 2,499 2,885 4,365 5,455
ROCKINGHAM 1,113 1,633 2,114 2,974 4,296 4,572 5,329 6,318
ROWAN 1,741 2,839 3,757 5,381 6,189 3,365 3,854 3,930
RUTHERFORD 609 1,072 979 3,321 3,388 3,201 2,905 2,391
SAMPSON 1,177 1,712 2,049 2,857 3,884 4,425 5,685 7,028
SCOTLAND 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
STANLY 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,436 1,169
STOKES 778 1,439 1,746 2,204 2,841 2,682 1,793 2,469
SURRY 692 1,005 1,469 1,365 1,945 1,778 2,000 1,246
County 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860
SWAIN 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TRANSYLVANIA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TYRRELL 1,156 859 910 1,261 1,391 1,411 1,702 1,597
UNION 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,982 2,246
VANCE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
WAKE 2,472 424 5,878 7,417 8,109 7,996 9,409 10,733
WARREN 4,713 6,012 6,282 6,754 7,327 8,200 8,867 10,401
WASHINGTON 0 761 1,287 1,667 1,712 1,727 2,215 2,465
WATAUGA 0 0 0 0 0 0 129 104
WAYNE 1,546 1,988 2,756 3,162 3,517 3,673 5,020 5,451
WILKES 553 790 1,194 1,191 1,492 1,430 1,142 1,208
WILSON 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3,496
YADKIN 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,436
YANCEY 0 0 0 0 0 237 346 362

Source: United States Census
 
*Editor's Notes: North Carolina comprised 86 counties in 1860; presently there are 100 counties. Some counties, through the years, have consolidated with neighboring counties.

Recommended Reading: The SLAVE TRADE: THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE: 1440 - 1870. School Library Journal: Thomas concentrates on the economics, social acceptance, and politics of the slave trade. The scope of the book is amazingly broad as the author covers virtually every aspect of the subject from the early days of the 16th century when great commercial houses were set up throughout Europe to the 1713 Peace Treaty of Utrecht, which gave the British the right to import slaves into the Spanish Indies. The account includes the anti-slavery patrols of the 19th century and the final decline and abolition in the early 20th century. Continued below...

Through the skillful weaving of numerous official reports, financial documents, and firsthand accounts, Thomas explains how slavery was socially acceptable and shows that people and governments everywhere were involved in it. This book is a comprehensive study from African kings and Arab slave traders to the Europeans and Americans who bought and transported them to the New World. Despite the volatility of the subject, the author remains emotionally detached in his writing, yet produces a highly readable, informative book. A superb addition and highly recommended.

Site search Web search

Recommended Reading: Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. Description: Winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, David Brion Davis has long been recognized as the leading authority on slavery in the Western World. Now, in Inhuman Bondage, Davis sums up a lifetime of insight in this definitive account of New World slavery. The heart of the book looks at slavery in the American South, describing black slaveholding planters, rise of the Cotton Kingdom, daily life of ordinary slaves, highly destructive slave trade, sexual exploitation of slaves, emergence of an African-American culture, abolition, abolitionists, antislavery movements, and much more. Continued below…

But though centered on the United States, the book offers a global perspective spanning four continents. It is the only study of American slavery that reaches back to ancient foundations and also traces the long evolution of anti-black racism in European thought. Equally important, it combines the subjects of slavery and abolitionism as very few books do, and it connects the actual life of slaves with the crucial place of slavery in American politics, stressing that slavery was integral to America's success as a nation--not a marginal enterprise. This is the definitive history by a writer deeply immersed in the subject. Inhuman Bondage offers a compelling portrait of the dark side of the American dream.

 

Recommended Reading: CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR: The Political, Cultural, Economic and Territorial Disputes Between the North and South. Description: While South Carolina’s preemptive strike on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's subsequent call to arms started the Civil War, South Carolina's secession and Lincoln's military actions were simply the last in a chain of events stretching as far back as 1619. Increasing moral conflicts and political debates over slavery-exacerbated by the inequities inherent between an established agricultural society and a growing industrial one-led to a fierce sectionalism which manifested itself through cultural, economic, political and territorial disputes. This historical study reduces sectionalism to its most fundamental form, examining the underlying source of this antagonistic climate. From protective tariffs to the expansionist agenda, it illustrates the ways in which the foremost issues of the time influenced relations between the North and the South.

 

Recommended Reading: The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861 (Paperback), by David M. Potter. Review: Professor Potter treats an incredibly complicated and misinterpreted time period with unparalleled objectivity and insight. Potter masterfully explains the climatic events that led to Southern secession – a greatly divided nation – and the Civil War: the social, political and ideological conflicts; culture; American expansionism, sectionalism and popular sovereignty; economic and tariff systems; and slavery. In other words, Potter places under the microscope the root causes and origins of the Civil War. He conveys the subjects in easy to understand language to edify the reader's understanding (it's not like reading some dry old history book). Delving beyond surface meanings and interpretations, this book analyzes not only the history, but the historiography of the time period as well. Continued below…

Professor Potter rejects the historian's tendency to review the period with all the benefits of hindsight. He simply traces the events, allowing the reader a step-by-step walk through time, the various views, and contemplates the interpretations of contemporaries and other historians. Potter then moves forward with his analysis. The Impending Crisis is the absolute gold-standard of historical writing… This simply is the book by which, not only other antebellum era books, but all history books should be judged.

 

Recommended Reading: North Carolinians in the Era of the Civil War and Reconstruction (The University of North Carolina Press). Description: Although North Carolina was a "home front" state rather than a battlefield state for most of the Civil War, it was heavily involved in the Confederate war effort and experienced many conflicts as a result. North Carolinians were divided over the issue of secession, and changes in race and gender relations brought new controversy. Blacks fought for freedom, women sought greater independence, and their aspirations for change stimulated fierce resistance from more privileged groups. Republicans and Democrats fought over power during Reconstruction and for decades thereafter disagreed over the meaning of the war and Reconstruction. Continued below...

With contributions by well-known historians as well as talented younger scholars, this volume offers new insights into all the key issues of the Civil War era that played out in pronounced ways in the Tar Heel State. In nine fascinating essays composed specifically for this volume, contributors address themes such as ambivalent whites, freed blacks, the political establishment, racial hopes and fears, postwar ideology, and North Carolina women. These issues of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras were so powerful that they continue to agitate North Carolinians today.

 

Recommended Reading: Encyclopedia of North Carolina (Hardcover: 1328 pages) (The University of North Carolina Press). Description: The first single-volume reference to the events, institutions, and cultural forces that have defined the state, the Encyclopedia of North Carolina is a landmark publication that will serve those who love and live in North Carolina for generations to come. Editor William S. Powell, whom the Raleigh News & Observer described as a "living repository of information on all things North Carolinian," spent fifteen years developing this volume. With contributions by more than 550 volunteer writers—including scholars, librarians, journalists, and many others—it is a true "people's encyclopedia" of North Carolina. Continued below...

The volume includes more than 2,000 entries, presented alphabetically, consisting of longer essays on major subjects, briefer entries, and short summaries and definitions. Most entries include suggestions for further reading. Centered on history and the humanities, topics covered include agriculture; arts and architecture; business and industry; the Civil War; culture and customs; education; geography; geology, mining, and archaeology; government, politics, and law; media; medicine, science, and technology; military history; natural environment; organizations, clubs, and foundations; people, languages, and immigration; places and historic preservation; precolonial and colonial history; recreation and tourism; religion; and transportation. An informative and engaging compendium, the Encyclopedia of North Carolina is abundantly illustrated with 400 photographs and maps. It is both a celebration and a gift—from the citizens of North Carolina, to the citizens of North Carolina. "Truly an exhaustive and exciting view of every aspect of the Old North State!”

 

Recommended Reading: The Tar Heel State: A History of North Carolina (Hardcover). Description: The Tar Heel State: A History of North Carolina constitutes the most comprehensive and inclusive single-volume chronicle of the state’s storied past to date, culminating with an attentive look at recent events that have transformed North Carolina into a southern megastate. Integrating tales of famous pioneers, statesmen, soldiers, farmers, captains of industry, activists, and community leaders with more marginalized voices, including those of Native Americans, African Americans, and women, Milton Ready gives readers a view of North Carolina that encompasses perspectives and personalities from the coast, "tobacco road," the Piedmont, and the mountains in this sweeping history of the Tar Heel State. The first such volume in more than two decades, Ready’s work offers a distinctive view of the state’s history built from myriad stories and episodes. The Tar Heel State is enhanced by one hundred and ninety illustrations and five maps. Continued below...

Ready begins with a study of the state’s geography and then invites readers to revisit dramatic struggles of the American Revolution and Civil War, the early history of Cherokees, the impact of slavery as an institution, the rise of industrial mills, and the changes wrought by modern information-based technologies since 1970. Mixing spirited anecdotes and illustrative statistics, Ready describes the rich Native American culture found by John White in 1585, the chartered chaos of North Carolina’s proprietary settlement, and the chronic distrust of government that grew out of settlement patterns and the colony’s early political economy. He challenges the perception of relaxed intellectualism attributed to the "Rip van Winkle" state, the notion that slavery was a relatively benign institution in North Carolina, and the commonly accepted interpretation of Reconstruction in the state. Ready also discusses how the woman suffrage movement pushed North Carolina into a hesitant twentieth-century progressivism. In perhaps his most significant contribution to North Carolina’s historical record, Ready continues his narrative past the benchmark of World War II and into the twenty-first century. From the civil rights struggle to the building of research triangles, triads, and parks, Ready recounts the events that have fueled North Carolina’s accelerated development in recent years and the many challenges that have accompanied such rapid growth, especially those of population change and environmental degradation.

Return to American Civil War Homepage

Best viewed with Internet Explorer or Google Chrome

google.com, pub-2111954512596717, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0