Abstract:
During the Antebellum Period in western North Carolina, most subsistence farmers lacked the money and need to own slaves for manual farm labor. There were a sizeable number of slaves owned by professional men, shopkeepers, and men in office though. These slaves were not crucial to the economic wealth of western North Carolina but enough white residents had sufficiently invested in the engine of slavery that it was a major consideration in the decision to leave or remain in the Union in early 1861.