Plantation Culture of the "Old South"
Abbeville Institute A slave cabin in Barbour County, Alabama (researchgate.net) In the slave-holding states of North and South Carolina and Virginia, there was a distinct hierarchy in place that was constructed along the lines of property ownership--either that of slaves or of real property. In the South Carolina low country before the Civil War, it was not uncommon for planters to own hundreds of slaves. The more property a planter controlled--real or human--the higher he ranked in society. This social tier controlled much of the economy and politics of the Old South, as most politicians were, in fact, slave owners. The Old South became known as a 'slavocracy,' a system controlled and structured around the exploitation of slave labor. Defendants of the slavocracy in Congress often referred to the economic system of the Old South as 'the peculiar institution,' referring to its uniqueness to the South, and to the South's reliance on slave labor. In fact, ...