re: What was the actual percentage of white slave owners in 1860

Thanks for sharing the link. LA had close to 50% slaves. The list of professions was interesting. Most of those professions would not have supported slave ownership. Did note close to 6500 planters. That’s about 1.8% of the white population. That profession likely owned the vast %’age of slaves. If the average planter owned 50 slaves that pretty well accounts for all of them. It would be interesting to get more data on this. I still say most folks in no way could afford a slave.