Facts about Slavery in the South

Slavery has been around since biblical times and was common to all 13 original colonies. By 1700, 42% of all New York households had slaves. As late as 1770, there were twice as many slaves in the New York colony as in Georgia.

Massachusetts and Rhode Island were the primary slave trading states, especially Rhode Island.

The North was not friendly to black people. For example, four Northern states: Indiana, Iowa, Illinois (the 'land of Lincoln'), and Oregon outright barred free black Americans from their territory.

The majority of slaves were bought by slave traders from Africans who had been selling fellow Africans as slaves for centuries.

The Emancipation Proclamation freed no slaves. Link to the actual text of the Emancipation Proclamation to find out more.

According to the 1860 United States census (the last taken before the War for Southern Independence started in 1861):

20% of Southern slaveholders only owned 1 slave.

Only 3% of slaveholders owned more than 50 slaves.

Only 15 slaveholders in the entire South owned more than 500 slaves.

Only 26% of Southern households owned slaves.

74% of Southern households did not own slaves.

The top 5 states with the highest percentage of free black Americans were Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Louisiana - four of them Southern states (below the Mason Dixon Line and classified as slave states in 1860).

About 10% of slaveholders were female.

According to multiple United States censuses, thousands of free black Americans owned slaves themselves.

Conclusion: slaveholders in the South were far fewer and had far less slaves than we have been led to believe.

Sources:
1860 Census of the United States
Myths & Realities of American Slavery, by John C. Perry
Myths of American Slavery, by Walter D. Kennedy