Question

Each of the following is true of slaveholding in the South except that .

the majority of Southerners owned no slaves

less than two percent of slaveholding families owned fifty or more slaves

non-slaveholding Southerners thought that slavery was harmful to the Southern economy

the majority of slaveholders owned fewer than five slaves

Answer 1

Non-slaveholding Southerners thought that slavery was harmful to the Southern economy.

This is incorrect. Most non-slaveholding whites did not view slavery as harmful; they generally defended it as beneficial to the Southern economy and social order (and many aspired to become slaveholders). The other three statements are true: most Southerners owned no slaves; only a very small percentage held 50+ slaves; and the majority of slaveholders owned fewer than five.