Subject: RE: BS: Pessimist vs Optimist
From: CarolC - PM
Date: 27 Jun 05 - 04:20 PM

But the my whole point really was for the purpose of addressing who could defined as being "average" in terms of what sort of experiences people were having. In the deep south, slaves were "the average person" prior to the civil war.

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Subject: RE: BS: Pessimist vs Optimist
From: CarolC - PM
Date: 27 Jun 05 - 03:47 PM

Were the slaves in the census at that time being counted each as one full human, or did 1 slave = 3/4 (or whatever fraction they used) of a full human?

From your link, beardedbruce, 1860 census, counting only the states that can pretty indesputedly be counted as "the South"...

Free -
Slave -

Alabama - 529,121
Alabama - 435,080

Florida - 78,679
Florida - 61,745

Georgia - 595,088
Georgia - 462,198

Louisiana - 376,276
Louisiana - 331,726

Mississippi - 354,674
Mississippi - 436,631

North Carolina - 661,563
North Carolina - 331,059

South Carolina - 301,302
South Caronina - 402,406

Virginia - 1,105,453
Virginia - 490,865

If we assume that in this census 1 slave = 1 full human being, then you are correct on the numbers. But the 1860 census shows that out of a total population of 7,568,454 in the states listed above, 3,566,298 were slaves. That means that the slaves numberd only 217,929 less than half of the total population. I think, considering the numbers, we can say that the slaves in the south could very definitely be put in the category of "average" in terms of how many people were having what kinds of experiences during that time period. And of course, if they were not each being counted as a full human, it's very possible that the number of slaves did indeed exceed the numbers of free people.

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3:47 PM is now AFTER 4:20PM?