HY 103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: White Southerners, Nat Turner, Henry Box Brown
Document Summary
3/28/17- slavery and the south: southern distinctiveness. North and south depended on each other for prosperity. Slavery was the issue that separated them, disappearing in the north and expanding in the south thanks to the cotton revolution. What was once an institution of america, but then became isolated to the south. Slavery was vital to the way that the south worked and served the path to economic success. The south remained less industrialized and urbanized than the north because slavery was profitable. As long as it continued to be profitable then nothing would change. 1/3 of families owned slaves, and most owned 10 or under, but almost all white southerners supported the institution of slavery. Even those who didn"t want to become rich still supported slavery because they didn"t want to see enslaved people free as they could be competition. Non-slave owning whites patrolled large groups of slaves to keep them in check.
