Increase of Slave Population in Slave-holding States from 1850-1860.—Products of Slave Labor.—Basis of Southern Representation.—Six Seceding States organize a new Government.—Constitution of the Confederate Government.—Speech by Alexander H. Stephens.—Mr. Lincoln in Favor of Gradual Emancipation.—He is Elected President of the United States.—The Issue of the War between the States.
IN 1860 there were, in the fifteen slave-holding States, 12,240,000 souls, of whom 8,039,000 were whites, 251,000 free persons of color, and 3,950,000 were slaves. The gain of the entire population of the slave-holding States, from 1850-1860, was 2,627,000, equal to 27.33 per cent. The slave population had increased 749,931, or 23.44 per cent., not including the slaves in the District of Columbia, where they had lost 502 slaves during the decade. The nineteen non-slave-holding States and the seven territories, including the District of Columbia, contained 19,203,008 souls, of whom 18,920,771 were whites, 237,283 free persons of color, and 41,725 civilized Indians. The actual increase of this population was 5,624,101, or 41.24 per cent. During the same period—1850-1860—the total population of free persons of color in the United States increased from 434,449 to 487,970, or at the rate of 12.33 per cent., annual increase of above 1 per cent. In 1850 the Mulattoes were 11.15 per cent., regarding the United States as one aggregate, and in 1860 were 13.25 per cent., of the entire Colored population.
TOTAL COLORED POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.
| Numbers. | Proportions. | |||
| Colored. | 1850. | 1860. | 1850. | 1860. |
| Blacks | 3,233,057 | 3,853,478 | 88.85 | 86.75 |
| Mulattoes | 405,751 | 588,352 | 11.15 | 13.25 |
| Total Colored | 3,638,808 | 4,441,830 | 100.00 | 100.00 |
So, in ten years, from 1850-1860, the increase of blacks above the current deaths was 620,421, or more than one half of a million, while the corresponding increase of Mulattoes was 182,601. Estimating the deaths to have been 22.4 per cent. during the same period, or one in 40 annually, the total births of Blacks in ten years was about 1,345,000, and the total births of Mulattoes about 273,000. Thus it appears, in the prevailing order, that of every 100 births of Colored, about 17 were Mulattoes, and 83 Blacks, indicating a ratio of nearly 1 to 5.
There were:
| Deaf and dumb slaves | 531 |
| Blind | 1,387 |
| Insane | 327 |
| Idiotic | 1,182 |
| —— | |
| Total | 3,427 |
There were 400,000 slaves in the towns and cities of the South, and 2,804,313 in the country. The products of slave labor in 1850 were as follows:
SLAVE LABOR PRODUCTS IN 1850.