Civil War and Slavery

The major social divisions that divided the South were that of four groups of people: planters, small slaveholders, yeomen, and the people of the pine barrens.

The slave population of the United States in 1860 was about 3,957,760.

A range of social, political, and economic factors led to the unity of the Lower and Upper South. Firstly, many settlers in the Lower South had come from the Upper South. Next, all white southerners benefited from the three-fifths clause, enabling them to count slaves as a basis for congressional representation. Also, all southerners were in the same boat when criticized about slavery, in that they were chided equally as much. The profitability of cotton and sugar increased the value of slaves throughout the entirety of the South. Lastly, the sale of slaves exchanged people for money from the Upper to the Lower South, bettering economics in both areas.

In the antebellum South, honor was defined as an extraordinary sensitivity to one’s reputation, and a belief that one’s self-esteem depends on the judgment of others. Violence, primarily duels, became a means by which gentlemen dealt with affronts to their honor. There was random violence in the lower classes, but gentlemen viewed dueling as a refined alternative to this barbaric combating. Essentially, violence was a means by which men in the South defended their honor.