The History and Effects of Slavery on the South Essay

You would think that a society which takes up an institution as immoral and barbaric as slavery would benefit from it on the whole, but that is not the case with the American South. The only people who benefited from slavery were the top 3% of Southern society. For the rest of the people the institution of slavery would prevent them from gaining an education, proper literacy, wealth, and movement up the social ladder. If viewed as an independent nation the South was a socially stagnant aristocracy, extremely dependant on foreign trade , had fairly weak industry, and finally had a small population compared to the North. Perhaps the greatest tragedy was that all those confederate soldiers died for a cause that kept them poor. This is not†¦show more content†¦This cant be explained away with population differences due to the North only having 2 times as many white people in it than the South.(helper 144) . In conclusion education was much worse in the South than in the North. Of the 6,184,477 whites in the South in 1859(Helper 144) there are about 186,551 slave holders (according to De Bow) which equates to a aristocratic elite of the top 3% of Southern Society.(Helper 148) This aristocracy could pay for the best schools, had their own private libraries, and extravagant houses: all possible from the sweat of their slaves, and the backs of the poor whites who were tenants of the slaveocrats and social outcasts as much as the slaves were(Hinton 151); yet because of slavery ,and its accompanying racial superiority, these poor whites still felt they were better than the blacks and thus did not rise up in rebellion. In truth Many of the poorer whites were hardly better off economically than the slaves. (Bailey 366) The South severely lacked in industrial capacity and innovation/invention. During the year of 1856 256 inventions were patented in the South as opposed to the Norths 1,929.(Helper,294) In 1850 the value of all manufactured products in the South was $165,413,027 in contrast to the Norths $842,586,058. (Helper 284) Even if the South had a strong industrial base it only had 6,859 miles of railroad track, and this was built byShow MoreRelatedThe South : America With A Difference1697 Words   |  7 PagesScholars have referred to the South as â€Å"America with a difference†. This difference has tried to be defined by different historians, and it has produced various strains of the American South history. Therefore, the south has drawn various historians, novelists, and poets in the quest to define the central theme of the southern history. 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