Enslavement Becomes Imbedded in the Southern Culture (College Board AP® US History)

Summary

While only a small number of Southern White people owned slaves, they held the greatest power in terms of the Southern economy and political legislation. The practice of slavery influenced nearly every aspect of Southern life. Yeoman farmers, who worked their own land but did not own slaves, played a key role in supporting and benefitting from the slavery system. Due to the economic importance of cotton, slavery became more embedded in Southern culture. Despite growing abolition movements in other parts of the world, Southern leaders defended slavery, using economic necessity among their justifications.

Yeoman Farmers & the Business of Slavery

Yeoman Farmers

• Yeoman farmers were Southern farmers who did not own slaves but worked their fields independently 

  • They were small-scale landowners

  • They made up a large proportion of the Southern population

• Although yeoman farmers did not directly participate in slavery, they were heavily influenced by it

  • They would usually support the institute of slavery, but at times would challenge it when it proved to harm their cause

• The key reason for yeoman farmers to support slavery was because they benefitted directly from the system

  • Slave labor produced the cotton that underpinned the Southern economy

  • This affected all people in the region, whether they were slave owners or not

• Yeoman farmers would question slavery when large plantation owners tried to expand slavery into new territories

  • This would reduce the amount of land available for non-slaveholders like yeoman farmers

• As more White men received voting rights, yeoman farmers became more influential in local and state legislation

  • They pushed for policies that favored their economic interests

Business of Slavery

• Cotton was “King” and was the center of the Southern economy

  • It was the main cash crop of the South

• The cotton industry relied heavily on enslaved labor, making slavery integral to the South’s economic system

  • This economic dependence on cotton gave Southern elites significant influence in both state and national politics 

• The Southern produced 75% of the world’s cotton supply by the 1860s

  • Cotton was crucial to textile production

• Uneasiness would arise when slavery was abolished in other nations

  • Great Britain ended slavery in 1834

    • This alarmed Southern slaveholders as it raised the possibility that slavery could be abolished worldwide

  • South American nations abolished slavery during the early 19^th century, for example, Brazil

• The Three-Fifths Compromise (1787) allowed enslaved individuals to be counted as three-fifths of a person in census counts

  • This gave Southern states more political power and representation in Congress

  • Southern states influenced federal legislation and worked to protect slavery against growing abolitionist pressure in the North

• The small number of plantation owners kept slavery alive by using their wealth and political influence to ensure yeoman farmers and others received some benefit from the institution, buying their loyalty

  • They gave jobs to poorer White people in need of employment

  • They made loans available to those in financial need

  • Helped yeoman farmers get their goods to markets, thus helping them make a living

Apologists

• As anti-slavery movements gained momentum in the North, many Southern leaders became vocal in their defense of slavery

• These apologists justified the need for slavery through a variety of arguments:

  • Economic necessity: some claimed slavery was essential for the Southern economy, particularly in the cotton industry. 

    • They claimed that without slavery, the South would not be able to maintain its wealth or global influence

  • Moral and racial justifications: pro-slavery advocates argued slavery was a “positive good” for both enslaved people and Southern society

    • Thomas Dew, a pro-slavery advocate, claimed that enslaved Africans were inferior to Whites and that slavery provided them with care and civilization

    • This argument of “White Supremacy” was rooted in racist ideologies which aimed to justify inhumane treatment of enslaved people