Among enslaved people, not very popular. But among other people in the South, very popular. Here are a couple of older threads on this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2200dc/if_i_was_an_average_american_citizen_either/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4al3zm/approximately_how_many_americans_owned_at_least/