Slavery relationships in the South
The term slavery holds about as much meaning today as it did when it was still in use. Slavery established a division in our country, our society, and even put up a wall of segregation that is still visible today. In the south, where slavery took hold, lives were turned around and differences established between whites and blacks and even the whites themselves. ... In those regions of the south where plantation agriculture predominated, they were a ruling class in every sense. ... Planters owned more than half of the slaves in the south and set standards for treatment and management. The relationships between a slave and his/her owner all depended upon the actions of the owner. The testimony of slaves themselves and of white overseers suggests that the masters of large plantations did not have close and intimate relationships with the large groups of field slaves. ... Here, it was often said, you could find the best and the worst of slavery could be found on these farms. ... These were non-slaveholders who were placed at the bottom of the social ladder in the south. ... Most yeomen and other non-slaveholders tolerated slavery and were fiercely opposed to abolition. ... But when it came down to standing up against what really gave them their power and wealth, slavery, they would back down and be quiet. One reason was that most of them wanted to get ahead in the world, and in the south that meant acquiring slaves of their own.