Life In The Antebellum South

The United States of America had not always been such an easy way of life Americans face today. Life in the post civil war south after America had gained independence they need a workforce that they simply did not have and so they had taken blacks as slaves. Even though this is not the most ethical way to recruit labor it was the cheapest and most efficient. Life in the Antebellum South can be considered a predecessor to the so called ¨social classes” between the whites and other minorities today, shaping history and creating the life that most Americans would recognize today. The first topic to cover would be the amount of whites that had owned slaves. For example, only one fourth of whites even owned slaves and even then less than eighty-eight
The antebellum south is also sometimes referred as the plantation era where the slave trade became a roaring business after the United States had gained its independence and help America economically up until the civil war when the north had ended slavery and destroyed most of the economic landscape in the south(Historynet.com) The south had become so dependant on the slave trade that once the north had destroyed their crops and freed the slaves the South their economic value plummeted in a downward spiral forcing them to find a new source of income(coralgablescavaliers.org)During this time slaves had lived and worked on plantations, but no all of the slaves were picking crops some of the slaves had been blacksmiths, mechanics, and drivers as well as a few other skilled trades(PBS.org). For the slaves that worked in the houses of the slave masters was not always the easiest because they had little to no privacy and they could be called to assist their masters at any time of the day and night, but they tend to have more complex relationships with the masters due to them working in such confined space with each other(PBS.org). This could be seen mostly in the children because they have not been tainted by the racist views of their elders thus proven that being a racist is not something one is born with but rather enforced onto someone once they are a small child. This was not always the case, though some whites that had grown up with the backs some of the whites had grown up to help the blacks into freedom. Urban slaves had also helped out their brothers in arms by helping getting them to the underground railroad. Urban slaves would also would tend to trade ideas about slavery whist they were in town due to the increased contact of the free slaves within the