Life In The Antebellum South

The United States of America had not always been such an easy way of life Americans face today. Life in the post civil war south after America had gained independence they need a workforce that they simply did not have and so they had taken blacks as slaves. Even though this is not the most ethical way to recruit labor it was the cheapest and most efficient. Life in the Antebellum South can be considered a predecessor to the so called ¨social classes” between the whites and other minorities today, shaping history and creating the life that most Americans would recognize today. The first topic to cover would be the amount of whites that had owned slaves. For example, only one fourth of whites even owned slaves and even then less than eighty-eight
percent owned fewer than twenty slaves(PBS.org). Even so, most of the whites in the south supported slavery because they themselves wished to own slaves and join in with the wealthy slaveowners(PBS.org). Due to the whites wishing to be a part of the slave owners “elite”, many of them had been poor farmers and it gave them a goal to strive for and maybe even a sense of worth that they may have never had before(PBS.org). So this made made them feel more powerful ,or less responsibility, because if something went wrong they could say “at least I am not a slave” or even “at least I am not a black” these statements gave the whites a sense of power and control and even a lack of responsibility that allowed them to own slaves even though it is morally corrupt(PBS.org). Not only whites had owned slaves before the war some blacks up to a few thousand had also owned slaves, many of the black slave owners let their slaves free before Lincoln had declared war on the south(Historynet.com). For some of the blacks that had owned slaves it was so they could get away from the whip and back together with their families(Historynet.com). As great as this may sound some of the blacks did not like who they were with and would resell their family members off like they were a simple piece of merchandise(Histroynet.com). Another way a social class was created between human beings is the most obvious and that is segregation. By not allowing the blacks to eat at the same as the whites or the whites going to the water fountain as the blacks do will and has created a divide between the two. Life before the war was made up of mostly slaves living on the plantation, but many blacks had freedom and were able to go where they please at the risk to themselves. Although some blacks may be free they had also bought slaves this could of been family and they were helping them escape life as a slave under the white man, but this was a problem because they did own them and so if they did not want them around or did not like them they would just send them on down the slave trade(Historynet.com). This had happened before a few times one of the cases being where a kid had sold his father because he simply did not like his father now this may even get into segregation of the same race, for example the poor, the middle class, and the rich(docsouth.unc.edu). Just because someone does not have a lot of money does not mean that they can not be intelligent and because someone is rich does not mean that they are important. Due to this segregation in the south many slaves had ran away or at least attempted before they were caught and brought back to the plantation where they would be killed or severely punished for their desperate escape at freedom(Coloradocollege.edu). Some slaves had made it to the north and this was not always the end of their fight a few unlucky slaves that would walk down the street may be kidnapped and sold back into slavery where they would start over again or they would be killed(Coloradocollege.edu) What the antebellum South was and how did it help shape history.
The antebellum south is also sometimes referred as the plantation era where the slave trade became a roaring business after the United States had gained its independence and help America economically up until the civil war when the north had ended slavery and destroyed most of the economic landscape in the south(Historynet.com) The south had become so dependant on the slave trade that once the north had destroyed their crops and freed the slaves the South their economic value plummeted in a downward spiral forcing them to find a new source of income(coralgablescavaliers.org)During this time slaves had lived and worked on plantations, but no all of the slaves were picking crops some of the slaves had been blacksmiths, mechanics, and drivers as well as a few other skilled trades(PBS.org). For the slaves that worked in the houses of the slave masters was not always the easiest because they had little to no privacy and they could be called to assist their masters at any time of the day and night, but they tend to have more complex relationships with the masters due to them working in such confined space with each other(PBS.org). This could be seen mostly in the children because they have not been tainted by the racist views of their elders thus proven that being a racist is not something one is born with but rather enforced onto someone once they are a small child. This was not always the case, though some whites that had grown up with the backs some of the whites had grown up to help the blacks into freedom. Urban slaves had also helped out their brothers in arms by helping getting them to the underground railroad. Urban slaves would also would tend to trade ideas about slavery whist they were in town due to the increased contact of the free slaves within the
town. To reinstate what this paper is actually about, it is about how the Antebellum south had helped divide the social classes between the whites and the blacks, between the rich and the poor, and between everyone as a whole. We as human beings have created a wedge between us which has only slowed us down in the race against our own demise. People often ask what it takes to end racism and the answer to that is simple. Do what Morgan Freeman had said whilst in an interview with Mike Wallace, “Stop talking about it”. If the people of the world would see past skin color and past religion the world as a whole would be a more peaceful place.