1. Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 1
Small Farms
Most white Southerners were small farmers
without slaves or planters with only a handful of
slaves. They couldn’t afford slaves.
Four categories for Southerners:
1. Yeomen, 2. Tenant Farmers, 3. Rural Poor,
or 4. Plantation Owners.
Small Farmers and the Rural Poor
Yeomen = farmers who did not have slaves.
They made up the largest group. Most owned
land. Mostly in the Upper South and in the
hilly (land unsuited for plantations) Deep South.
About 50 to 200 acre farms. Raised crops for
their own use and to sell. Often bartered (traded)
with local merchants for goods and services.
- Lived in homes of wood & plaster w/thatched roofs.

2. Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 2
Tenant Farmers did not own land and some
rented from owners of large estates.
Rural Poor lived in crude cabins in wooded
areas where they cleared trees, planted corn,
and had a cow or two.
Poor People of rural South were very independ-
ent. Wouldn’t do work that was similar to slave
work. They were proud and self-sufficient even
though they were looked down upon by others.
Plantations
Sometimes several thousand acres. Lived in
comfortable but not luxurious farm houses. They
counted the number of slaves they owned as a
measure of their wealth. A small number of
plantation owners held 20 or more slaves in 1860.
Large majority held fewer than 10 slaves.

3. Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 3
Odd as it seems some free African Americans
owned slaves. Metoyer family of Louisiana
owned thousands of acres and more than 400
slaves. Usually they had purchased their own
family members in order to free them.
Plantation Owners
-Plantation owners had fixed costs- expenses
such as housing, feeding workers, and maintaining cotton
gins and other equipment. They remained constant from
year to year.
Cotton prices varied from season to season. Planters
regularly sold their cotton to agents in Mobile, Ala., New
Orleans, Louis., Charleston, and Savannah, GE.
These cotton exchanges were vitally important
to the economy. Agents from the exchanges
gave credit-a form of loan-to the planters & held
the cotton for months until the price improved &
then they sold it.

4. Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 3
Plantation Wives
In charge of watching over slaves who worked
in the home and taking care of them when they
became sick.
They also supervised the plantation’s buildings
and fruit and vegetable gardens.
Some wives kept the plantation’s financial
records.
Wives often spent a lot of time alone as their
husbands were often gone to look for new land
to buy as the country continued to expand
westward.
Work on the Plantation
Different kinds of workers were needed on the
large plantations. Slaves worked in the house
cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, sewing and
serving meals. They were domestic slaves.

5. Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 5
- Others were blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers,
and weavers.
Others worked with stock (horses, cows, sheep,
and pigs).
MOST SLAVES were FIELD HANDS. They
worked from sunrise to sunset planting, cultivating,
and picking cotton & other crops. They were
supervised by an overseer-a plantation manager.
Life Under Slavery
Slaves endured hardship and misery. They
worked hard, received no money, and had little
hope of freedom.
One of their worst fears was to be sold to another
plantation and separated from their families which
they maintained rigidly and they developed a
culture of their own. They resisted slavery through
a number of methods, however.

6. Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 6
Life in the Slave Cabins
Slaves usually only had the bare necessities.
Josiah Henson, an escaped slave describes
their living quarter on page 404.
Family Life
Faced constant uncertainty and danger. Law
in the 1800s did not extend to the slaves.
A wife or husband could be sold at any time or
the death of a slaveholder could breakup the
families of the enslaved as the assets were
divided.
Slave marriages were not recognized by law.
Many slaves did “marry” and often swore to be
faithful to one another “until death or separation
do us part.”
To attain some stability slaves established ex-
tended families so someone would raise kids.

7. Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 7
African American Culture
Slaves extending their own culture, fellowship,
and community in order to endure their hard-
ships.
- Congress outlawed the slave trade in 1808.
Although it was illegal to bring in new slaves
from Africa, in the South slavery grew because
of the children born to slaves in the U.S.
By 1860 almost all slaves had been born here.
They held on to African customs and passed
them on to their children.
Many slaves became Christians, but they also
retained their African roots.
African American Christianity
Christianity became a religion of hope for many
slaves.

8. Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 8
They constantly prayed for the day when they
they would be released from bondage.
Spirituals were African American folk songs
that they sang to give themselves hope.
Also used spirituals to communicate secretly
among themselves.
Slave Codes
The laws in the southern states that controlled
enslaved people.
Between 1830 and 1860 the slave codes
became more severe. They always were
intended to keep the slaves from rebelling.
Prohibited them from assembling in large
groups and leaving master’s property without
a written pass.
Also made it a crime to teach slaves to read or
write.

9. Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 9
Resistance to Slavery
Some slaves did rebel openly.
Nat Turner, a popular religious leader who had
taught himself to read and write. In 1831 Nat
lead a group on a violent rampage in Virginia.
They killed al least 55 whites.
Turner was hanged and slave owners passed
more severe slave codes.
Armed revolts were very rare.
Most rebellions consisted of working slowly or
pretending to be sick.
Sometimes they might set fires or break
equipment.
Resistance helped them endure slavery.
Escaping Slavery
Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas were two
who were born into slavery & escaped to North.

10. Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 10
Slave who succeeded in escaping to the North
used the Underground Railroad-a network of
“safe houses” owned by free blacks and whites
who opposed slavery.
Some slaves ran away only to find missing
relatives.
Most escaped slaves were captured and then
they were returned to their owners.
Discipline was severe-the most common type
of punishment was whipping.
City Life and Education
The south was primarily an agricultural state,
however, there were many large cities by the
mid 1800s.
The 10 largest cities of the South were either
seaports or river ports.

11. Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 11
New Orleans had 168,000 people in 1860.
Due to the railroads, many cities began to
grow. Cities at these RR crossroads were:
Columbia, S.C., Chattanooga, TN, Montgomery,
Alabama, Jackson, Miss., and Atlanta, Georgia.
Populations of these cities included many slaves
white city dwellers, and many freed AAs.
These cities provided AAs the opportunities to
form their own communities.
Free AA founded their own churches and insti-
tutions.
New Orleans formed its own opera company.
Between 1830 and 1860 southern states passed
laws restricting the rights of free AAs.
Couldn’t migrate to other states and they were
denied an equal share with whites in economic
freedoms.

12. Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 12
Education
Rich southerners often sent their kids to private
schools.
Academy of Moses Waddel in Willmington, S.C.
Students attended for 6 days a week.
Bible and classical literature, but also included
math, religion, Greek, Latin, & public speaking.
No statewide public school system existed in
Wilmington.
Very good public school systems DID exist in
Charleston, Louisville, and Mobile.
Education was growing in southern states by
the mid-1800s.
Although public education had grown in the
South, it was sub-par to other parts of the U.S.
- South was last in literacy- reading & writing.

13. Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 13
The South had fewer white people than other
states per sq. mile in Massachusetts, but
only about 15 whites per sq. mile in N. Carolina.
Many Southerners believed education was a
private matter and it was a hardship to send their
kids to school, so they didn’t send them.