- Slavery
- Early
- 1850 and 1860 censuses
- City of Atlanta
- General area only
Slavery in Atlanta and Fulton, 1850 and 1860
Atlanta had 2,572 people in 1850, 493 of them enslaved and 19 free people of color. By 1860 it had 9,554 people, including 1,914 enslaved and 25 free people of color: one resident in five was enslaved.
The record
The 1860 census counted 14,427 people in Fulton County, 2,955 of them enslaved and 31 free people of color. The Atlanta History Center notes that enslaved people could not travel without a white escort or a signed pass, that the city taxed slave sales, and that in the summer of 1851 at least seven enslaved men were arrested in an alleged insurrection plot, after which the council passed stricter ordinances. NGE's Georgia in 1860 article likewise puts Atlanta's enslaved share at one in five.
Today: City-wide statistic; see the Whitehall slave-trading item.