Social Life In The South Between 1830 And 1860: A Comparative Analysis

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The social life as it developed in the South between 1830 and 1860, was in stark contrast to the social development of the inhabitants of the North. As it stands, cotton was a guaranteed money crop, and many wealthy southerners fortunes relied upon it. However, just as southerners understood the lucrative value of cotton farming, they also understood the labor force that farming it would demand. Therefore, by utilizing slave labor, southerners secured their economy, and passionately defended their beliefs of racial superiority of the white race. Clearly, the dependence on cotton created two distinct social societies during this time period, Southern White Society and Slave Society.
In contrast to Northern society’s regional class distinctions, Southern society did not distinguish by region because there were little existences of major cities. However, Southern White society was distinguished by wealthy planters and yeoman farmers.
Wealthy planters “viewed themselves as paternalistic aristocrats managing preindustrial fiefdoms” (Schultz, K.M., 2013). Many planters shared this view because Cotton afforded wealthy planters an idyllic lifestyle. While they concerned themselves with involvement in national and international markets, wealthy planters also partook in lengthy vacations …show more content…

Although many yeoman farmers were self-sufficient, they lived with their families on small, less desirable plots of land. Also, unlike their white counterparts, most yeoman farmers did not concern themselves with the markets because of isolation, nor were they able to afford adequate schooling for their children as there were so few public schools available. Therefore, finding themselves uneducated, isolated, and ostracised by the wealthy, most yeoman farmers consumed themselves with the demands of farm living, culture, family region, and