History of the United States I / Unit 12 USH1 1698 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
What Held It Together
The idea
Non-slaveholding and slaveholding White people shared a belief in White supremacy, and racism bound them together. Slavery diffused class tension, because even the poorest White southerner shared a race with the plantation owner. Non-slaveholders accepted planter rule as defenders of a racial hierarchy they benefited from, and all Whites were bound by the constant, prevailing fear of slave uprisings. Non-slaveholders also staffed the neighbourhood patrols.
In practice
A society in which two-thirds of White households owned nobody and nearly all of them defended the institution.
Where people slip
This is the answer to the question students ask most often about the Civil War, which is why men who enslaved no one fought to preserve slavery. The anchor's answer is that slavery's perpetuation was a source of commonality among different economic and social tiers, and that its abolition threatened the only social floor the poorest White southerners had. Do not present this as false consciousness. It was a correct assessment of where they stood.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for History of the United States I