South
Political, Economic, and Social Aspects
Economic
- tobacco and cotton typically grown on large scale farms
- rice was a popular crop and required easier labor for slaves compared to cotton
- King Cotton referred to the cotton industry experiencing and economic boom where most Southerners relied on a single crop economy and grew cotton on their large scale plantations
- 80% of labor force took place on farms
- “peculiar institution”-another term for slavery with the intent to economically benefit the South
- only 28% of railroad mileage was located in the South
Political
- men were typically supporters of the Democratic Republican party
- John C. Calhoun’s “South Carolina Exposition and Protest” which pushed for states' rights to overthrows a law they thought was unconstitutional
- large amount of “state’s rights” supporters
Social
- Wealthy (typically owned plantations and had hundreds of slaves)
- Middle Class (typically owned smaller scale farms and worked with the few slaves they owned)
- poor (did not have any money to buy slaves, instead they labored intensely to earn their own living)
- slaves (sometimes separated from their family at a slave auction, or just born into a slave family, slaves worked either intense labor in cotton and tobacco fields, or less extensive but still hard labor in rice fields; some women slaves worked in urban areas for their masters as maids around the house)
Plantation
Plantation owners owned hundreds of slaves and hired overseers to tend to the slaves as they worked throughout the day. The master typically didn't even come in contact with the slaves and provided them with two meals a day.
Small Scale Farms
Middle class families typically owned fewer than 10 slaves and most of the time worked with them on the farm. They did not own an extensive amount of land, but enough land for them to purchase few slaves.
Lower Class
The poorer families in the South had no way of affording slaves and had to do all work on their own-children were not sent to school to be educated.
Videos
The South Before the War (The Civil War: Two Views Part 2)