In 1850, 350,000 whites in the South out of 6 million owned slaves.
In 1860, it was 380,000 out of 8 million.
Misleading since family's were large, still only one quarter of families owned slaves
Only a small number of those owned lots of slaves.
The Planter Class
The large plantation owners were very powerful.
Determined social and political life for their region.
Some were rich enough to have many homes and would spend months living in the cities.
Others traveled to Europe.
Hosted opulent parties and lived very social lives
Many southerners like to compare these planters to aristocracy.
However, most planters were new to wealth and power.
As late as 1850, most great landowners were first generation settlers
Large parts of the "Old South" had been cultivated for less than two decades at the time of the Civil War
Planter's lives were not as leisurely as myth suggests
Planters supervised operations carefully
Planting was a very competitive industry
Many of the planter class lived modestly
Invested so heavily in land that little money was left for personal comfort
Many Planters moved frequently to new land
Perhaps newness of the planter way of life is what made planters struggle to seems aristocratic
Non-planter whites avoided "coarse" jobs, like trade and commerce
Gravitated to military.
Military suited "chevalier" image
"Honor"
White males abided by an elaborate cod of chivalry
They were obligated to defend their "honor"
Dueling survived much longer in the North than in the South
Anything that challenged a man's honor or manhood would be occasion for a duel (or occasionaly a public rebuke)
Senator Charles Sumner made a speech which insulted Senator Preston Brooks
Brooks marched into Sumner's office and beat him with a cane
Brooks acted to defend Southern honor
North saw him as a savage
Defending the honor of women was the most important obligation of a southern gentlemen.
The "Southern Lady"
Upper-class women in the South centered their lives around matters of the home
Served as wives and hostesses
Similar to the lives of middle-class women in the North
Few genteel Southern women worked
Southern women did live different lives than Northern women
Society founded around men defending women's honor
In practice, this made women much less powerful
George Fitzhugh wrote: "Women, like children, have but one right, and that is the right to protection. The right to protection involves the obligation to obey."
Most women lived on farms, relatively isolated, and thus had few opportunities to advance beyond the role of wife and mother.
Southern families were extremely patriarchal.
Women did have say in economic life of their farm
Wove and spun and generally helped with production.
However, on some of the larger plantations, even these roles were considered unsuitable and they served as the "plantation mistress".
Plantation mistresses were mostly ornaments for their husbands
There was less education for Southern women
Before the Civil War, a quarter of all Southern women were illiterate.
In the South, the birth rate was 20 percent higher, and the infant mortality rate was also high
Almost half of the children born in the South in 1860 died before they reached the age of five.
Slave labor kept women from needing to do many hard tasks, but it also threatened their relationships with their husbands.
Many white men would have affairs with female slaves
Their children became slaves.
Several women rebelled against the South's roles for women
Some became abolitionists and moved to the North
The Plain Folk
Typical white southerners were not planters, but modest farmers
Known as plain folk
Some owned a few slaves, but they lived and worked much more closely with their slaves than plantation owners.
Some plain folk were subsistence farmers, while others unsuccessfully grew cotton.
It was rare for poor farmers to get rich.
Southern education system made advancement difficult
Universities only for the upper class
Elementary and secondary schools were fewer and worse than those in the North.
Only a small number of plain folk opposed the planter class.
Mostly only the "hill people", who lived in the Ozark and Appalachian mountains.
These were the most isolated Southerners.
Completely secluded.
They disliked slavery because it threatened their independence.
The hill people were the only Southerners to resist the trend of secession in the Civil War and some even fought on the side of the confederacy.
Many plain folk depended on planter class
Access to cotton gins, loans, etc.
Many plain folk were related to members of the planter class.
These mutual ties prevented class tensions
South was a more democratic society than the North
Many people voted and attended campaign meetings
Most officeholders were upperclass
Plain folk families were even more paternalistic than planter families
Every family member needed to do there job for a family succeed
Many were convinced that destroying slavery would also destroy patriarchy
Even southerners who didn't share in the plantation economy valued Southern virtues
"Crackers", extremely low class whites, otherwise known as "poor white trash"
Lived in swamps and red hills in small cabins
Owned no land and lived off foraging or hunting
Some worked as laborers, but slave system made this work hard to find
There plight was even worse than that of the slaves
Crackers had no objection to slavery or the plantation system however.
Racism united the South
