The differences between the North and the South during the Market Revolution were extremely divergent, and the continual growth of cotton as a staple crop caused societal changes that created a larger divide between the two (Schultz, 2014). Whereas, the North depended on commercialized farming and industrialization, the South remain predominately agricultural with few cities, and depended on the export of cotton. The money gained by the growth of cotton led to a societal hierarchy that placed Plantation owners at the top, then small farmers, white farm laborers without property, and finally slaves (Schultz, 2009). This hierarchical order deeply impacted the society of the south with deep divisions, but one true commonality that was a belief in slavery. The plantation owners owned the majority of the slaves in the South even though they were a diminutive percentage of the population (Schultz, 2009). Moreover, they were pretentious observing the market from afar, traveling abroad, sending their offspring away for education, and controlled politics quashing any evolution that threatened their way of life (Schultz, 2014). The second classification was the Yeoman farmer who generally …show more content…
For the plantation owners it was simple, slaves were free labor to plant and reap their crops so that they could maintain their lavish lifestyle. Whereas, the potential to own slaves allowed the possibility that they might one day become rich via the same process as the planters. Furthermore, the slaves were one level of separation between the white laborers and the bottom level of society (Schultz, 2014). With every push for the abolition of slavery from the North, and every slave revolt the South fought harder to restrict slave rights and to hold onto what they deemed as their ticket to economic success, and