By 1860, there were almost four million enslaved African American people in the United States. What is an enslaved person?

 - a person who works for someone else for 4 to 7 years
 - a person who is owned by someone else
 - a person who is a criminal
 - a person who is drafted into the army
An enslaved person is a person who is owned by someone else. Slaveholders in the 1800 s had the power to sell, punish, and work an enslaved person.
By the antebellum period, or the time period leading up to the Civil War, African American people had been enslaved in North America for over 300 years. By 1860, there were almost four million enslaved African American people in the United States.