History of the United States I / Unit 12 USH1 1669 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The South Was Not Independent
The idea
The anchor states that the South depended on other regions despite its wealth. Much of the corn and pork that enslaved people consumed came from farms in the West. Cheap clothing, called slops, and the shoes worn by enslaved people were manufactured in the North. Carpets, lamps, dinnerware, upholstered furniture, books and musical instruments came from the North or from Europe. Southern planters borrowed money from banks in northern cities, and summered at resorts in Saratoga, Litchfield and Newport.
In practice
A region producing two-thirds of the world's cotton and buying its shoes.
Where people slip
Attribute this claim to the anchor rather than stating it as settled, because the witnesses do not corroborate it. Digital History does not address the question, and The American Yawp emphasises the opposite, describing daily and weekly shipping lines from southern ports direct to Liverpool, Manchester, Le Havre and Lisbon, and casting northern merchants in southern cities as intermediaries rather than suppliers. The anchor's dependence claim is uncorroborated, and the course says so.
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