Social Inequality In The Antebellum

Social inequality is an uncivilized ranking scale which was created by simple minded people who held the fear being surpassed. The argument made by Harper Lee in her work To Kill a Mockingbird is that social inequality is a hierarchy that is complex and affects everyone. More specifically, the author argues that the racial boundaries put between the black and white during the 1930’s caused great stress. This is proven in the novel multiple times. The people of Maycomb judge one another based on the background and wealth of their families. Not only do they judge each other within the community, they discriminate against anyone different than them. Social inequality does not only exist in the form of racism, there are many forms; some of the major ones appear in this book. Social inequality based purely on family background, social inequality based on the wealth of the individual and family, and racism. These are three of the major forms of social inequality that appear numerous times in the book.

The question I chose to cover this week is, “Why did so few Southern whites own slaves?, and also, “Why did the non slaveholding whites not oppose the institution of slavery?” In general you could imagine that the Southern slavery would be pictures as large plantations with hundreds of slaves. In all reality, in such situations it was actually very rare for them to have a lot of slaves. Almost 3/4 of Southern whites did not even own slaves; but of those who did, 88% owned about twenty or less. Whites who did not own slaves were primarily yeoman farmers. Generally speaking, the institution of slavery did not help these people. And yet most non-slaveholding white Southerners identified with and defended the institution of slavery. Though many

Traditional views of the Antebellum South oftentimes ignore class divides within the American South. African-Americans and Whites are oftentimes viewed as being divided by race with all Whites and African-Americans being equal. However these ideals ignore the seventy-five percent of southerners which did not own slaves and the steep divides between African-American slaves with different roles. Primary sources from authors who experienced the Antebellum South, the American Civil War, and, or Reconstruction alert their audiences to societal divides which existed within each perceived race. Following the abolishment of slavery, economic class divides among whites were mitigated and whites view of African-Americans became standardized. Whites began to only recognize African-American as a rival to their power in all capacities, and as such vilified all African-Americans.

Southern slavery was based on paternalism to justify the brutal reality of slavery, in which slaveholding gentlemen took personal responsibility for the physical and moral well being of their dependents – women, children, and slaves. The slave owner demanded unquestioning obedience from their dependents and intended to make them perfectly dependent to the white man. Most planters lived on their plantation with compelling strict order. Without the owner’s permission, slaves

The antebellum period occurred after the War of 1812 and before the Civil War. This was a time where America was still trying unify the people of the states and become a stronger country. With America still settling into its new form of a country, the people tried to find ways to make it feel normal again. People began to strike an interest about marriage, children, and family relations. Everyone had many different stances on whether or not having a child and starting a family was right for them or not. Along with these major responsibilities, marriage was a huge factor to be considered. The people of the United States had many different views on marriage, child birth, and ways to shape their families during the antebellum period.

Women’s roles in the United States had an apparent change in the antebellum time period. More women were able to receive an education, find work, and gender equality. Women schooling were widely set up so they could improve and strengthen, mostly their literacy skill. The most popular job for women to have in this time period was being a teacher since schools could get away with paying them less than men. Women also began to make an effort to get political, social and economic equality.

The Antebellum Period was the time after the War of 1812 and just before the Civil War (Lapsansky-Werner). With the growing cotton plantation in the south, more slaves were needed and more slaves needed to escape ("Antebellum Period."). While the Antebellum Period brought the Second Great Awakening and Westward Expansion, it is also known for the uprising of abolition and anti versus pro slavery arguments ("Antebellum Period."). The antebellum period was overall a pivotal point in slavery and slave laws with laws like the fugitive slave act of 1851 and the Compromise of 1850 or rebellions like the Underground Railroad. Fredrick Douglass was also very influential in this time because he is a true example of a black abolitionist and his speech changed lives. Another important event in the Antebellum Period was the Abolitionist movement.

During the 1800’s, the United States had gone through many social, political, and religious changes, by which was called the Antebellum Reform Period. The social reforms that had been made during the Antebellum Reform period was the changes to education and prison treatment. Also during the Antebellum period, there were political changes in the United States because of women’s suffrage movement and abolitionism. Finally during the Antebellum period, there were changes in religious morals because of Second Great Awakening. In the Antebellum period, reforms such as education, prison treatment, women’s rights, slavery, and people’s morals were made because of many movements and historical figures.

In the time just before the Civil War, the United States was one of the most successful nations in the world. The United States had become the world’s leading cotton producing country and had developed industry, which would in the future, surpass that of Great Britain. Also, the United States possessed an advanced railroad and transportation system. However, despite its successes, the United States was becoming increasingly divided. The North and the South had many distinct differences in terms of their social, cultural, and economic characteristics that brought about sectionalism and, eventually, the Civil War.

The period before the Civil War in 1861, and after the War of 1812, was known as the antebellum period. During this period of time, the economy, the population, and the interest in politics rose to a substantial amount. Religion also served as a strong survival tactic for slaves, as they adopted and adapted to Christianity. Not only Tennessee, but the south in its entirety made up a nice portion of the economy because of the businesses it had going on.

The Antebellum Era during the mid 1800s was a time in which the United States began to strengthen itself as a nation through a number of economic and social reforms. With the creation of the New York Stock Exchange, New York City quickly became the center of finance around the world and allowed the United States to become the world’s first emerging market; as a result investors from all over the world were pouring money into the nation’s economy as everyone wanted to buy stocks and invest in cities all over the US.; With its high financial status, New York became the most appealing city in the country to invest in and one such man who invested a lot of his wealth into the city and more specifically, the borough of Brooklyn was William S. Packer.

Over the course of the period of 1776-1852, the concept of the growing opposition of slavery in the United States correlated with inequality. The majority of slaves in the South were seen

Antebellum South Carolina was a period considered to be between 1790 and the American civil war in 1861. In 1786 the cotton gin was created causing the cotton industry to increase its labor demand due to the increased harvest size on the plantations. Not only was the cotton industry in high demand but also so was rice harvesting causing South Carolina to become a heavily slave populated state. Image A and B both represent two periods of slavery during the antebellum South Carolina. Image A shows an advertisement for a slave sale in Charles Town South Carolina on the Ashley Ferry river, while image B shows an illustration of elderly domestic house servants looking after both white and black children. Image A was taken before the start of

The Antebellum period was the time in America starting from the 1800’s to the Civil War. During this time slavery was at an all time high in the South. Many more slaves were traded domestically and internationally with a whole social class revolving around them. In the North, industrialization began and factories were created with a new Northern labor force. Many workers were immigrants or male Americans, but more recently women began to join the workforce. Conditions for both working parties, North and South, were diminishing to say the least. Escaped slaves went to the North and tried to rally people to go against the horrors of slavery and slowly they began to amass a following and eventually lead to the Civil War. The views of the Southern

Men valued honor above everything else. Men were surpassed to be strong since they were the defenders in the community. A man who was not a farmer was a politician, lawyer or a soldier. Women were only supposed to speak out in anger while defending their children or husbands. Their duties were home based, that is, supervising home staff and entertaining guests. However, only a few rich people lived this way, and are the ones who controlled politics and all policies of the entire society. Torget (2015) explains that majority of the Southerners in fact owned not even one slave while the rich owned not less than six. The middle class owned one or two slaves and worked alongside them in the fields and sold their little surplus locally. The poor lived in the unproductive land in poverty, equally to the slaves although they were free. Slaves had no way to protest any harsh treatment from their masters legally. Black people had no right of testifying before the court against whites who committed crimes to them. Slave-to-Slave crimes they would face trial in a separate slave court which had the authority to rule and sentence with the jury. Slaves lived in inadequate housing. Their masters allowed them to intermarry because it was advantageous in that the children of the slaves meant an addition of wealth to the masters. No slave, no matter the age or gender was exemplary to hard work from sunrise to sunset. Many slaves ended up seeking refuge in