The largest Southern social group was the Yeomen. They were owners of small farms who worked long days at a variety of tasks. If they owned slaves, they worked right along side them.
What was the largest social group in the South?
The largest social group in the South was the yeomans. They made their living by working long days at various tasks.
Who makes up the majority of Southern society?
The great planters, as families that owned more than 100 people were known, dominated southern society and politics, even though they were few in number. Only about 2,000 families across the entire South belonged to that class. The vast majority of slaveholders owned fewer than five people.
What were the major social groups within Southern white society Why was each group committed to the continuation and expansion of slavery?
Why was each group committed to the continuation and expansion of slavery? The major groups within the southern white society were plantation owners, middle class farmers, and the poor white class. … The middle class were committed because they only had a few slaves so they wanted to advance.
What was the Southern society?
At the top of southern white society stood the planter elite, which comprised two groups. In the Upper South, an aristocratic gentry, generation upon generation of whom had grown up with slavery, held a privileged place. In the Deep South, an elite group of slaveholders gained new wealth from cotton.
Which Southern social class had the most difficult life?
Which southern social class do you think had the most difficult life? Why? Free African Americans had the most difficult life because they were responsible for taking care of themselves, but their opportunities were severely limited. They could not vote, travel freely or hold certain jobs.
What three groups made up white Southern society?
The cottonocracy (planters), yeomen, and poor whites were the three main groups of the white southern society. Free African Americans and slaves made up the rest of society. They were similar, because both groups were free, and they could both get jobs.
Why did Southern states want to keep slaves?
Defenders of slavery argued that the sudden end to the slave economy would have had a profound and killing economic impact in the South where reliance on slave labor was the foundation of their economy. … The cotton economy would collapse. The tobacco crop would dry in the fields.
What social classes in the South supported slavery and why?
Traditional Aristocrats of the Old South
The South became known as a “slave society” because slavery affected all aspects of southern life. The South had three main social classes: The planter elites, the yeomen farmers and the poorfree men.
How did slavery shape the Southern economy and society?
Slavery was so profitable, it sprouted more millionaires per capita in the Mississippi River valley than anywhere in the nation. With cash crops of tobacco, cotton and sugar cane, America’s southern states became the economic engine of the burgeoning nation.
How rich was the South before the Civil War?
Rather, though inequality of wealth was somewhat more prevalent in the South than in the North, the Southern states were far wealthier on a per capita basis—on an order of two to one. The wealth of the average Northerner in 1860 was $546.24; of the average free Southerner, $1,042.74.
How did slavery support the class structure in the South?
Slavery helped out the class structure in the South by helping people become more dependent and more supportive of what they need.
What divided and united white Southern society?
What divided and united white southern society? … Slavery in the United States was shaped by the need for cheap labor to work on plantations in the South. Southern crops, such as cotton, tobacco, rice, and sugar, required a large labor source.
What were the different levels of the social classes of Southern society?
The Southern Society was divided into the White Society and the Black Society. A White Society was further divided into the Planters, Middle Class and the Poor Whites. A Black Society was divided into the free persons of Colours, Mulattoes and the Slaves.
How did the South defended slavery?
At the same time, southern intellectuals began to defend slavery as a positive factor. After 1830, white Southerners stopped referring to slavery as a necessary evil. Instead, they argued that it was a beneficial institution that created a hierarchical society superior to the leveling democracy of the North.
What did most rich Southern planters do with their wealth?
Slaves represented Southern planters’ most significant investment—and the bulk of their wealth.