SECTION

2 Southern Society
TEKS 7B, 7C, 10B If YOU were there...
Your family owns a small farm in Georgia in the 1840s. Sometimes you
What You Will Learn… work in the fields, but more often you tend the vegetable garden
Main Ideas and peach orchard. Since you have no close neighbors, you look
1. Southern society and culture forward to Sundays. Going to church gives you a chance to socialize
consisted of four main with other young people. Sometimes you wonder what it would be
groups.
2. Free African Americans in like to live in a city like Savannah.
the South faced a great deal
of discrimination. How would life be different if you
left the farm for the city?
The Big Idea
Southern society centered
around agriculture.
Building Background Although the South had some industry,
Key Term agriculture was the heart of the southern economy. Cotton was king.
yeomen, p. 422 As a result, wealthy plantation families were the most prominent
social class in southern society. Small farmers, however, made up
the largest part of the population.

Use the graphic organizer online to

take notes on the different segments
of southern society.
Southern Society and Culture
Popular fiction often made it seem that all white southerners had
many slaves and lived on large plantations. Many fiction writers
wrote about wealthy southern families who had frequent, grand
parties. The ideal image of the Antebellum (before the war) South
included hospitality and well-treated slaves on beautiful planta-
tions that almost ran themselves.
This romantic view was far from the reality. During the first
half of the 1800s, only about one-third of white southern fami-
lies had slaves. Fewer families had plantations. Despite their small
numbers, these planters had a powerful influence over the South.
The economy of the South was dependent on agriculture, and
most of the agricultural production relied on slave plantations.
Many plantation owners served as political leaders. They led a
society made up of many different kinds of people, including yeo-
men farmers, poor whites, slaves, and free African Americans. Each
of these segments of society contributed to the economic suc-
cess of the South.

420 Chapter 13
Planters social duties of the family. For example,
As the wealthiest members of southern soci- many southern leaders discussed political
ety, planters also greatly influenced the econ- issues at the dances and dinners hosted by
omy. Some showed off their wealth by living their wives.
in beautiful mansions. Many others chose to Planters often arranged their children’s
live more simply. A visitor described wealthy marriages based on business interests. Lucy
planter Alexander Stephens’s estate as “an Breckinridge, the daughter of a wealthy Vir-
old wooden house” surrounded by weeds. ginia planter, was married by arrangement in
Some planters saved all of their money to 1865. Three years earlier, she had described
buy more land and slaves. in her journal how she dreaded the very
Male planters were primarily concerned thought of marriage. “A woman’s life after
with raising crops and supervising slave she is married, unless there is an immense
laborers. They left the running of the planta- amount of love, is nothing but suffering
tion household to their wives. The planter’s and hard work.” How Breckinridge’s life in
wife oversaw the raising of the children and her own arranged marriage would have
supervised the work of all slaves within the turned out cannot be known. She died
household. Slave women typically cooked, of typhoid fever just months after her
cleaned, and helped care for the planter’s wedding.
children. Wives also took on the important
Slave Cabins
Slaves lived crowded together
in small cabins. Cabins are
History Close-up
crude, wooden structures
with dirt floors.
A Southern Plantation Fields
A typical plantation had fields as well as many
buildings where different work was done. Barn
This picture shows some of the more
important buildings that were a
part of the plantation system. Warehouse

Smokehouse
Cotton-Ginning Shed
This sizable plantation
had several large cotton
Overseer’s House gins. The vital machines
were housed in a shed
to protect them from
the weather.
Plantation House
The planter and his family
lived in the plantation
house. The planter’s wife
was in charge of running
the household. Stable

ANALYSIS
skill Analyzing Visuals
How can you tell that the owner
Fields of this plantation was wealthy?

The south 421

Free African Americans

New York
Collection of The American Numismatic Society,
in the South

In 1860 about 1 out of 50 African

Americans in the South was free.
Many worked in skilled trades,
like this barber in Richmond,
­Virginia. In Charleston, South
Carolina, a system of badges was
set up to distinguish between
free African Americans and
slaves.
How would the work of the free
African American in this picture be
different from that of slaves in the
South?

Yeomen and Poor Whites slavery. They argued that God created some
Most white southerners were yeomen, people, like themselves, to rule others. This
owners of small farms. Yeomen owned few belief opposed many northern Christians’
slaves or none at all. The typical farm aver- belief that God was against slavery.
aged 100 acres. Yeomen took great pride in
their work. In 1849 a young Georgia man Urban Life
wrote, “I desire above all things to be a Many of the largest and most important
‘Farmer.’ It is the most honest, upright, and cities in the South were strung along the
sure way of securing all the comforts of life.” Atlantic coast and had begun as shipping
Yeoman families, including women and centers. Although fewer in number, the
children, typically worked long days at a vari- southern cities were similar to northern cit-
ety of tasks. Some yeomen held a few slaves ies. City governments built public water sys-
but worked alongside them. tems and provided well-maintained streets.
The poorest of white southerners lived Public education was available in a few
on land that could not grow cash crops. They places. Wealthy residents occasionally gave
survived by hunting, fishing, raising small large sums of money to charities, such as
gardens, and doing odd jobs for money. orphanages and public libraries. Southern
urban leaders wanted their cities to appear as
Religion and Society modern as possible.
Most white southerners shared similar As on plantations, slaves did much of
religious beliefs. Because of the long distances the work in southern cities. Slaves worked as
between farms, families often saw their neigh- domestic servants, in mills, in shipyards, and at
bors only at church events, such as revivals or skilled jobs. Many business leaders held slaves
socials. Rural women often played volunteer or hired them from nearby plantations.
roles in their churches. Wealthy white south-
R eading C heck Summarizing What different
erners thought that their religion justified
groups made up southern society?
their position in society and the institution of

422 Chapter 13
Free African Americans and governments passed laws limiting the rights
of free African Americans. Most free African
Discrimination Americans could not vote, travel freely, or
Although the vast majority of African Ameri- hold certain jobs. In some places, free African
cans in the South were enslaved, more than Americans had to have a white person repre-
250,000 free African Americans lived in the sent them in any business transaction. In oth-
region by 1860. Some were descendants of ers, laws restricted where they were allowed to
slaves who were freed after the American live or conduct business.
Revolution. Others were descendants of Many white southerners argued that free
refugees from Toussaint L’Ouverture’s Hai- African Americans did not have the ability to
tian Revolution in the late 1790s. Still others take care of themselves, and they used this
were former slaves who had run away, been belief to justify the institution of slavery. “The
freed by their slaveholder, or earned enough status of slavery is the only one for which the
money to buy their freedom. African is adapted,” wrote one white Missis-
Free African Americans lived in both rural sippian. To many white southerners, the very
and urban areas. Most lived in the country- existence of free African Americans threat-
side and worked as paid laborers on planta- ened the institution of slavery.
tions or farms. Free African Americans in
R eading C heck Finding Main Ideas What
cities often worked a variety of jobs, mostly
challenges did free African Americans face in
as skilled artisans. Some, like barber William
the South?
Johnson of Natchez, Mississippi, became quite
successful in their businesses. Frequently, free
African Americans, especially those in the SUMMARY AND PREVIEW Southern soci-
cities, formed social and economic ties with ety was led by rich planters but included
one another. Churches often served as the groups of small farmers, slaves, and free
center of their social lives. African Americans as well. These groups
Free African Americans faced constant each had their own culture. In the next sec-
discrimination from white southerners. Many tion you will read about life under slavery.

Section 2 Assessment ONLINE QUIZ

Reviewing Ideas, Terms, and People Critical Thinking

1. a. Identify What was the largest social group in 3. Comparing and Contrasting Review your notes
the South? How did its members make a living? on the different kinds of people who lived in the
b. Compare In what ways were southern cities South. Then use a graphic organizer like the one
similar to northern cities? below to identify the similarities and differences
c. Elaborate How did cotton and the practice of of the lives of planters, yeomen, and free African
slavery support Southern society? Americans.
Similarities
2. a. Describe What jobs were available to free
African Americans in the South? Why were these
jobs the only ones available? Planters Free African Americans Yeomen
b. Analyze Why did many white southerners fear
free African Americans?
c. Elaborate Why do you think that discrimination Focus on Writing
against free African Americans was harsher in the
4. Describing the Life of Cotton Farmers In your
South than in the North?
notebook, describe the different roles played by
d. Compare How were the effects of social, politi-
male planters and their wives. What challenges
cal, and economic factors different for slaves and
would female planters have faced? When would the
free blacks?
planters have had a chance to socialize?
The south 423