Table of Contents
1. Only a third of white southern families had slaves; fewer families had plantations. Other social groups included yeoman farmers, poor whites, slaves, and free African Americans.
What were the three white social classes in the South?
The South became known as a “slave society” because slavery affected all aspects of southern life. The South had three main social classes: The planter elites, the yeomen farmers and the poorfree men.
What were the four main groups of southern society?
Terms in this set (9)
- Four main groups. Planters, yeomen, farmers, poor whites, slaves & free African Americans 1/3 of southern families had slaves fewer owned plantations.
- Planters.
- Southern Plantation.
- Yeomen.
- Poor Whites.
- Religion & Society.
- Urban Life.
- Slaves.
What group was at the top of southern society?
planter elite
At the top of southern white society stood the planter elite, which comprised two groups. In the Upper South, an aristocratic gentry, generation upon generation of whom had grown up with slavery, held a privileged place. In the Deep South, an elite group of slaveholders gained new wealth from cotton.
What was Southern society?
Most southerners were in the Middle Class and were considered yeoman farmers, holding only a few acres and living in modest homes and cabins, raising hogs and chickens, and growing corn and cotton. Few yeoman farmers had any slaves and if they did own slaves, it was only one or two.
What were the major social groups within Southern white society Why did each group support the expansion of slavery?
According to America: A Narrative History, the major social groups within Southern society were the elite plantation owners and poor white people. The plantation owners supported the maintenance and expansion of slavery because their economic livelihoods depended on it.
What groups made up Southern society?
The cottonocracy (planters), yeomen, and poor whites were the three main groups of the white southern society. Free African Americans and slaves made up the rest of society.
What were the major social groups within Southern white society and why did each group support the expansion of slavery?
What was the largest social group in the South?
The largest social group in the South was the yeomans. They made their living by working long days at various tasks.
What divided and united white Southern society?
Most whites owned few or no slaves, but a political system of “white man’s democracy” and the ideology of white supremacy united them with large slaveholders. What divided and united white southern society? Slavery in the United States was shaped by the need for cheap labor to work on plantations in the South.