February 7, 1861; The New York Herald
The returns of the national census, upon which we commented yesterday, show a very material growth of the slave population during the last decade – a growth, indeed, which may surprise many who supposed that slavery was declining under the pressure of abolition propagandism, virulent denunciation and fanatical raids. In every Southern State, except Delaware, Maryland and Missouri, the increase of the slave population has been nearly in the same ratio as that of the free population, white and colored; and in the aggregate the growth of the slave population in the fifteen Southern States has kept pace with that of the whole population of the United States – that is to say it shows an increase of about thirty per cent in ten years. And very curiously even same ratio as that of the free population white and colored, and in the aggregate the growth of the slave population in the fifteen Southern States has kept pace with that of the whole population of the United States.