Chapter 12: The Old & South Slavery

  During this chapter, we had a group lecture discussing all the different aspects of slavery. From social roles, to trade, to how plantation sights worked, and how slavery was treated from the South from the North. In the South, people were more focused on plantation and cash crops. The major one export is cotton which brought wealth and more demand for work labor. What I found surprising was that the masters would only have around 20 slaves for their plantations; only 1% would have a plantation of 100 slaves. I refer back to movies like Purple Rain, where there would be hundreds of slaves working the field.
 In the chapter, they also discussed the social groups of the white people in the South. In many ways, their system also ranks by the divisions of their work force. Meaning it would rank from plantation mistresses, to small slaveholders, and to the Yeomen which were the lower class who wandered from place to place. Like everyone else, I automatically assumed that all white people during this time owned a plantation home full of slaves. When the chapter mentioned Yeomen, I was intrigued to know that there were some white people who had it worse than the slaves in most cases. Having to be dealt with as "white trash" of the colony. The whole white class system, starting with the mistresses all have their own faults and in their group. For example, the plantation mistresses couldn't stand was seeing the mulatto(offspring of their husband's infidelity). It was harsh enough they would have to be isolated on their own and having to deal with the loneliness, but to see their children's offspring could be the hardest part because I can only imagine the betrayal and embarrassment they would have to deal with.