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By 1860 the use of slave labor in West Virginia was about 48% in agriculture, 16% in commerce, 21% in industry and 15% in mixed occupations. [17] Agriculture; Farming in West Virginia produced about twice as much grain and livestock than was needed for subsistence, with one in ten farm workers being a slave. [18]
Despite the efforts of individuals like Booker T. Washington, West Virginia did not become a significant haven for slaves and free Blacks. The state's initial constitution included provisions for the gradual elimination of slavery, but it was not until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865 that slavery was completely abolished in West ...
West Virginia did not abolish slavery in its first proposed constitution of 1861, though it did ban the importation of slaves. [40] In 1863, voters approved the Willey Amendment, which provided for gradual abolition of slavery, with the last enslaved people scheduled to be freed in 1884. [ 41 ]
Views in and Around Martinsburg, Virginia by A. R. Waud (Harper's Weekly, December 3, 1864). The U.S. state of West Virginia was formed out of western Virginia and added to the Union as a direct result of the American Civil War (see History of West Virginia), in which it became the only modern state to have declared its independence from the Confederacy.
[50] [51] West Virginia later completely abolished slavery in February 1865, before the end of the war. [52] The unique conditions attendant to the creation of the state led the Federal government to sometimes regard West Virginia as differing from the other border states in the post-war and Reconstruction Era.
West Virginia is the 10th-smallest state by area and ranks as the 12th-least populous state, with a population of 1,769,979 residents. [5] The capital and most populous city is Charleston with a population of 49,055. West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, and was a key border state during the American Civil War.
However, slaveowners in western Virginia tended to own fewer slaves than their counterparts in eastern Virginia and many did not support Virginia's secession. [10] In Mason County, where small farms were reliant upon slavery, its residents overwhelmingly supported the Union cause. [9]
The Fifth Border State: Slavery, Emancipation, and the Formation of West Virginia, 1829–1872 (West Virginia University Press, 2023) online book review Noe, Kenneth W. "Exterminating Savages: The Union Army and Mountain Guerrillas in Southern West Virginia, 1861–1865."