CarolC,

"And in the south, the "average" person who had been alive during slavery would have been a slave in their early life, since there were more slaves than free people in that part of the country. "

Not true. see 1850 census- ONLY Miss and S. Carolina had larger slave than free populations, and not by that many. Same in the 1860 census.


http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/