Planters, Yeoman Farmers, and Slaves in the

Cotton South

1812-1861

Planters (Plantation Owners)

-Elite => more land/slaves

- 1850

73% = 1-9

3% = 50+

24%= 10-49

• Upper South, Chesapeake Bay Colonies= Virginia, Maryland and Delaware; Carolinas.

• "Black Belt"

Paternalistic Notion: Master as the "Father"

Yeoman FarmersPeople

Nancy Leigh Pierson -middle class whites

-didn't own slaves

Yeoman Farmers

South -for planting corn & cotton

Yeoman Farmers

Superiority due to the fact that they were white.

Self Reliant

Slaves in the Cotton South

Frederick Douglass Nat TurnerDenmark Vesey

Slaves in the Cotton South

• upper South (free blacks)

• Black Belt (western Georgia, Alabama, & Mississippi)

Slaves in the Cotton South

• considered property

• no rights

• codes prevented blacks from reading