Describe the socio-economic condition of the people in the southern states. history chapter 11 question answer of DAV Public School
Answers
Answer:The socio-economic classes of the Old South:
The most numerous group of people in the Old South was the yeoman farm families. Yeomen are farmers who own their own land and do their own work, or if they have hands, they work along side their hands. Many of them were almost poor; some were wealthier than some planters.
The second most numerous group was the slaves; slaves varied in social class according to whether they were household servants or field hands. They also varied in economic level: Some masters paid bonuses for good work while others administered whippings for bad work; some masters furnished good housing while others furnished shacks; some masters allowed slaves to raise and sell garden truck while others did not. Most slaves lived on small plantations or with yeoman farm families. Plantations with hundreds of slaves were rare.
The upper class of the Old South mostly consisted of wealthy planters and wealthy merchants; most planters and most merchants were not wealthy.
The middle class consisted of planters, yeoman farmers, merchants, preachers, lawyers, doctors, and mechanics.
The lower class included poor whites. Most poor whites were either laborers doing the same work as slaves or were tenant farmers. There was a social division amongst this poorest of economic levels–not all poor whites were trashy but some were. Most slaves, especially household servants, considered themselves better than poor whites, and most were.
There were also free blacks. Some in Virginia and Maryland had always been free because the first blacks brought to America were held only as indentured