In 1848, most slaves lived in states that had not existed before the adoption of the United States Constitution.⁴⁵

Annual cotton production was estimated at nearly 5 million bales in 1860. This was the highest total output of the entire antebellum era.⁴⁶

The U.S. Constitution as written in 1787 never used the words "slavery" or "slave," adopting instead the euphemism, "all other persons." The first time the word "slavery" appeared in the document was in the Thirteenth Amendment that declared its unconstitutionality in 1865.⁴⁷

The most interesting thing about the 1860 presidential election was the sectional nature of the returns; Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln, who campaigned against the expansion of slavery, carried every northern state, while his primary opponent John Breckinridge carried most of the slave states.

In the 1860 presidential election, Abraham Lincoln earned not a single vote in ten southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.