On the schedules 1,467 slaves are returned in 1850 as emancipated in the slaveholding states during the previous year. The number of slaves who had absconded during the year 1849-50, and had not been heard from, was 1,011 by the reports.
Proportion of Fugitive Slaves | one in 3,200 |
Proportion of Manumitted Slaves | one in 2,200 |
In Maryland there was one fugitive in 320 slaves; in Virginia there was one in 5,695; in Missouri, one in 1,450; in Kentucky, one in 2,100; in Georgia, one in 2,700; and in Louisiana, one in 4,000.
Deaf and Dumb Slaves | 531 |
Blind | 1,387 |
Insane | 327 |
Idiotic | 1,182 |
Total | 3,427 |
Occupations of Slaves.
Residents of Towns | 400,000 |
Rural | 2,804,313 |
Of the latter class 2,500,000 are directly employed in agriculture, including males and females, and persons of all ages. Slaves under 10 and over 60 years of age are seldom employed industrially. These 2,500,000 are distributed between the great staples of the south in something like the following proportions, bearing in mind that large quantities of breadstuffs are produced in addition:
Hemp | 60,000 |
Rice | 125,000 |
Sugar | 150,000 |
Tobacco | 350,000 |
Cotton, &c. | 1,815,000 |
Number of Slave Holders.
Alabama | 29,295 | Maryland | 16,040 | |
Arkansas | 5,999 | Mississippi | 23,116 | |
District of Columbia | 1,477 | Missouri | 19,185 | |
Delaware | 809 | North Carolina | 28,303 | |
Florida | 3,520 | South Carolina | 25,596 | |
Georgia | 38,456 | Tennessee | 33,864 | |
Kentucky | 38,385 | Texas | 7,747 | |
Louisiana | 20,670 | Virginia | 55,063 | |
Total347,525 |