Antebellum Classes

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AntebellumClasses
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Key Vocabulary

• Antebellum
• Elite
• Social Class
• Aristocracy
• Merchant

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Elite

• wealthy, planter upper class, land rich (lots of
  land)
• owned 20 or more slaves
• gained wealth from the growth and sales of cotton
  and rice
• lived primarily along the coast of South Carolina
  until the 1800s when they began to move into the
  midlands and upstate.
• children were often educated by private tutors or
  in private schools in South Carolina or overseas.
  
• had greater power in politics and influence in
  the state because of their wealth. The elite
  made laws that protected their interests,
  especially there interests in slavery.

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Middle Class

• Tradesmen (skilled worker), merchants,
  shopkeepers, physicians (doctors), and attorneys.
• They could easily earn a living during good
  economic times.
• most likely to live in cities and towns
• had some political influence in their
  neighborhoods
• may have owned a few slaves to do household
  chores
• Children were taught to read and write and could
  follow in their footsteps of their father.

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Lower Class

• unskilled, uneducated, and often landless
• few job opportunities
• People who could afford to hire the lower class
  to work preferred using slave labor because it
  was cheaper.
• Often the lower class lived on a piece of land
  they did not own and farmed the land for the food
  they needed to survive.
• Children were uneducated because there was no
  public school and the parents needed to children
  to work.
• had no political influence.

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Independent Farmers

• owned small farms and worked for themselves with
  the help of their family
• could own a few slaves but the farmers worked
  side by side with them in the fields
• Children might be educated at home.
• The majority of farming in the state, and
  especially in the upstate, was done by these
  farmers.
• As they became more successful in growing cash
  crops (cotton and rice), they could move up in
  social standing. Some even became members of the
  elite.

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Free African Americans

• usually had a specific skill, such as carpentry,
  or a talent, such as music making-these skills
  led them to be hired out by masters. Some who
  were hired out were allowed to keep a portion of
  their money they earned which they saved to buy
  their freedom.
• Others were given their freedom for some special
  deed or service. This became less likely after
  the slave rebellions in the 1830s.
• Their skills or talents allowed them to earn a
  living in the South. Many stayed in the South
  because they had family members who were still
  enslaved.
• They worked to earn money to buy the freedom of
  wives and children.
• Children might be taught to read and write at
  home but there were no public schools.
• Free African Americans in the South had more
  chances to make money than the free African
  Americans in the North because of the specific
  skills.
• Free African Americans had to pay a special tax
  and carry their freedom papers wherever they
  went.
• lived in fear of being returned to slavery

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Enslaved African Americans

• unpaid labor source who were bought and sold and
  considered the property of their master.
• had to carry a pass to travel from one plantation
  to another
• Many were born and died on the same plantation
  where they lived in one-room slave cabins under
  strict watch of their masters. Others were sold
  at the death of the master, when they were
  disobedient, or when the master needed money.
  Families could be divided by these sales.
• worked from sun-up to sun-down in the fields or
  in the masters house without pay but were given
  a few clothes and limited amounts of food
• illegal for slaves and their children to learn to
  read and write. This was because the master
  thought the knowledge could allow them to escape.
• Slaves who disobeyed the rules or tried to escape
  were punished.

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Compare the Elite, Middle, and Lower Classes
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Review Questions

1. What would you fear if you were a free African
   American?
2. As a lower class white person, were you any
   better off than a free African American?
3. What do you think would be the worst part of
   being a slave?
4. Do you think being an independent farmer would be
   so bad? Why or Why not?
5. Why do middle class citizens tend to live in the
   city during the Antebellum period?

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Journal

• Choose one society class, and describe what your
  life would be like if you were living in the
  Antebellum period as a person in that class.
• Example If you choose, independent farmer, you
  would describe what you think your life would be
  like as an independent farmer.