By the mid nineteenth century, the south had developed into an aristocracy, with wealthy plantation owners at the top of the social ladder. In 1850, only a small minority—approximately 1,750 families—owned more than 100 slaves each. This small group of people carried significant political and social power.

Southern aristocrats used their wealth to send their children to the finest schools, which were often in the north or overseas. Many of their young men returned home feeling called to public service, and the south produced a high proportion of statesmen. Southern women ran the households, including managing female slaves who cooked, cleaned, and performed nearly all the household chores. Although there were abolitionist rumblings among white men at this time, virtually none of their wives supported the abolition effort.

While democracy was the goal throughout the entire United States, the aristocracy of the south weakened the foundation of a democratic society. Since wealth bought southern aristocrats the opportunities for education at private institutions, efforts for state-supported public education were hindered. The gap between the rich and the poor continued to widen.

Even as the rich were controlling the south, it was the smaller plantation owner who truly represented the southern lifestyle. Only one-fourth of white Southerners owned slaves, and of that number, many had small cotton farms and most owned fewer than ten slaves each. In fact, over six million residents in the south owned no slaves at all.

In addition to the large and small plantation owners, residents in the south included poor white families. These families were often called “white trash” by other Southerners, who believed they were lazy. Rather, most poor whites were unable to work efficiently due to malnutrition and parasitic illness caused by a poor understanding of safe and healthy food preparation.

Poor whites were classified by location. The term “lowland whites” identified mechanics, tradesmen, and small cotton farmers who lived among the southern population. Hoping to someday achieve the American Dream of prosperity, they staunchly supported the slave system. Many lowland whites worked their entire lives with the hope of one day owning at least one slave—someone to whom they could feel superior.

Due to their interaction with the public, lowland whites were more civilized than their mountain brethren. Mountain whites also suffered from poverty and malnutrition, but their location in the semi-isolated backcountry and Appalachian Mountains from western Virginia to northern Georgia and Alabama meant they often went unnoticed by other Southerners. Their isolation required the mountain whites to be subsistence farmers, raising their own corn and hogs for survival.

Another class of people competed with the underprivileged whites on the social ladder—the free blacks. By 1860, approximately 250,000 free black men and women lived in the south. Many had been freed during the Revolution, while others were emancipated mulattoes, the offspring of white planters and their black slave mistresses. Although they had their freedom, most states had laws limiting blacks’ rights. In some cases, free blacks were captured by unscrupulous slave traders and resold into slavery, so emancipation was no guarantee of a prosperous life.

Another 250,000 free blacks lived in the north, where they were also denied basic rights, including the right to vote and, in some cases, the right to a public education. Irish immigrants often threatened or caused harm to free blacks out of resentment, since the two groups often competed for the same menial jobs.

The bottom rung of the southern aristocracy was not surprisingly held by slaves. By 1860, nearly four million slaves inhabited the southern region of the United States. Although slave importation had been deemed illegal from 1808 on, many slave traders continued to smuggle slaves in and were rarely prosecuted for these violations.

Abolitionists were gearing up for battles which they hoped would result in freedom for all slaves, but at the same time arguments were being made for maintaining the slave system. Supporters of slavery argued that the U.S. slave system provided slaves with a much better lifestyle than they would have in other countries. They pointed to the self-sustaining slave population as evidence, using the argument that slaves were voluntarily cohabitating and reproducing with one another, a luxury not afforded slaves in other countries. Proslavery rhetoric also argued that the typical slave was better off than the typical northern worker and that slavery civilized blacks and allowed them to learn about Christianity.

However, the primary argument for slavery was always economical. Slaves were no doubt an economic necessity for both the north and the south. Slave owners lived in fear of a slave revolt, which could destroy their profitability, but they saw the risk as a necessary evil to maintain the prosperity brought by King Cotton.

Copyright 2006 The Regents of the University of California and Monterey Institute for Technology and Education