A Chart Map of Georgia, Showing the Percentage of Slaves in Each County

Woodcut map of Georgia showing how slaves comprise a majority of the population.

This black and white map was published as the title page to the December 14, 1861 edition of Harper’s Weekly magazine. Various shades have been applied to each county to reflect the proportion of slaves within.

Union and Rabun counties in the north (the latter never officially seceded from the Union) were as low as 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively, while the populations of certain coastal counties are as high as 86% slave. Accompanying text on the verso points out, “it will be noticed that the largest slave communities are on the seaboard and route the points to be occupied by our troops.”

As Union forces approached, slaves fled plantations by the thousands to escape to the Federal lines. These “contrabands” were invaluable to the Northern war effort, providing an important source of manual labor, as well as occasional fighting forces.