History of North America

How many slaves where in the United States?

The 1860 United States Census counted roughly 4 million, or 13% of the U.S. population, enslaved people in the United States of America prior to ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment (which outlawed slavery) that went into effect on December 6, 1865.[note 1] The overwhelming majority were of African ancestry, though a very small minority were also Native American slaves in Oklahoma and several Indian territories.[1] Enslaved people were located primarily in slave states, predominantly in the South.