How Did America’s Slave Population Rise From 390,000 Imported Slaves to 4 Million?
The Last 3.1 Million Were Added Between 1790 and 1860
Most of America’s slave population did not arrive via the Middle Passage from Africa. A grand total of 390,000 slaves were either part of the International Slave Trade or smuggled in after the practice was outlawed in 1808. All the rest were born here, products of unions between female slaves and several other sources, including slaves, indentured servants of any color, and white men, often their owners.
In 1619, by one count, twenty Africans arrived by boat at Fort Comfort, Virginia. There is some dispute as to whether they were indentured servants or enslaved. This count doesn’t consider the enslaved people that arrived earlier in St. Augustine, Florida. For now, we’ll ignore their absence from the data in these statistics.
Reading and analyzing the data can be dizzying, but not nearly as much as the conclusion reached explaining the rapid growth in enslaved people in America.
“Although researchers have been unable to demonstrate causal relationships, the increases observed in slave fertility are consistent with the emergence of American-born majority slave populations, more balanced slave sex ratios, improvements in slave health, increases…
