Final answer:
By 1860, enslaved people made up a significant portion of the Southern U.S. population due to domestic trade and natural increase post the international slave trade ban. Slavery was deeply intertwined with the economy, especially cotton farming, and led to marked wealth inequality. There was also a noteworthy free Black population in the South that exceeded the number in the North.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement suggests that by 1860, nearly half of the population in the Southern United States was made up of enslaved people. This was a period marked by a significant internal migration, where approximately 200,000 individuals were sold and relocated each decade between 1820 and 1860. After the constitutional ban on the international slave trade in 1808, the numbers of slaves increased mainly due to natural increase and domestic trade, particularly with the growth of cotton farming, which significantly raised the demand for slave labor.
By 1850, there were about 3.2 million enslaved individuals, and approximately 3.95 million by 1860, indicating that slavery was not only a social institution but also the cornerstone of the southern economy. The distribution of the enslaved population was not uniform across the South. Areas with a higher reliance on cash crops like cotton had higher concentrations of slaves, which is reflected in the vast wealth inequality and the prevalence of slavery in the region. It is also noted that there was a significant free Black population in the South, which was larger than that of the North.
Despite the presence of a sizeable free black population, the southern society was heavily skewed, with wealth highly concentrated among a few, and the majority of southern white households not owning slaves at all. This concentration of wealth and the reliance on slavery was a testament to the unequal and hierarchical nature of Antebellum Southern society. The fear among white slaveholders of potential slave rebellions was palpable, given the large enslaved population and the history of unrest in other slave-holding regions.