I don't know as much about the North as I do the South. In the South, the militia was a permanent entity. Many times, the men in a militia district would vote for their officers. It's true that you had to be a land owner. But you didn't need to be a slave owner. Less than a quarter owned even 1.
what? even within enlisted men, 50% came from families with slaves. For officers it was probably 75%. Yes, both sides started out voting for officers in volunteer regiments, but that ended when conscription was in force. I know more about the North. scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcont...
Honestly, I didn't think you were close, but I will give you that you are closer than I thought. I measured one township where my ancestors lived. 144 homes. 62 slave owners. 509 slaves. About 760 whites. My ancestors didn't own slaves. But 3 sons fought. One died.
That was 1860. In earlier decades, slave ownership wasn't as common, based on census records I've seen. One ancestor saved for a decade to buy one slave per preserved letters.
The man in the home that owned the slaves did not live alone. Likely had a wife and 2 or more kids. In your research how many of those 760 whites were from a home that owned slaves?
I looked at the summary numbers at the bottom of the census pages. 144 homes with 760 whites. 62 slave owners in the 144 homes. About 43% of homes had a slave owner so roughly 327 of 760 whites lived in a home with slaves. Just based on math ratio. It's hard to count an exact number.
No one on the Union side owned slaves.
That isn't literally true. Think all of West Virginia, for instance. Lincoln was careful to only emancipate enemy slaves. Not friendlies.
yes I will give you that one. there were "border states." and they all had slaves. Big problem when Gen Fremont liberated them in Missouri. "No not like that!!" I wonder what the same numbers for them were. I guess once we started treating them as contraband that was semi-slavery.
I lived in Kansas for about a decade. There is a big mural of abolitionist John Brown in the state capital. He was executed after the raid on Harper's Ferry.