Final answer:
The claim that 75% of white southerners owned slaves in the 1850s is false; the majority did not own slaves, and slave ownership was concentrated within a small elite. Slaveholding was more prevalent in the Deep South, and the domestic slave trade involved large-scale forced relocation.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that during the 1850s, about 75% of the 8 million white people living in the South owned slaves is false. In reality, the wealth and slaves in the South were extremely unequally distributed. By 1860, only 3 percent of White people enslaved more than fifty individuals, and two-thirds of White households in the South did not enslave any people at all. This demonstrates that the majority of white southerners did not own slaves, and a small elite group held most of the enslaved people.
Slave holding was more entrenched in the Deep South compared to the Upper South or the border states. Enslaved people endured the hardships of slavery by creating their own cultures and looking for hope in the Christian message of redemption. Despite aspirations, the reality was that most White southerners could not attain the wealth or status of elite slaveholders.
In addition, the domestic slave trade was a major force in the South, leading to one of the largest forced internal migrations in the United States. Between 1820 and 1860, about 200,000 people were sold and relocated every decade. This tragic aspect of slavery contributed to the fear and instability within the African American enslaved population.