Only the wealthier planters could successfully grow rice and sugar, the South’s two other significant staples. Both crops required a large amount of labour which was easily drawn from the dense Black population of lowland South Carolina, Georgia and Southern Louisiana. The size of these plantations was of course unmatched by these of the cotton kingdom of the lower South. As early as 1820, the South’s cotton crop had become more valuable than all its other crops combined. Just before the Civil War(1861- 1865), two thirds of the nation’s export came from cotton.

With a little capital, a small plot of land and a few slaves, a cotton farmer could make a profit, yet with a large labour supp

ly, cotton turned out to be the ideal staple on large plantations spreading over the Southwest. By 1860, slaves were growing more than 93% in the Mississippi crop.

The response to these events was immediate and drastic. Southerners who ha previously claimed that slavery was a necessary evil now turned to propose that it was a positive good. The Bible, the Constitution, political principles, biology and classical requirements for high culture were all in favour of this Institution. Southern writers claimed that slavery hastened the classical form of democracy with all the ancient Greek virtues.

• All men are created equal and free

After 1830, majority of Southerners became more and more attached to the slave plantation system. The attachment differed according to class, region and occupation but slavery as a whole received overwhelming support in the decades preceding the Civil War. In the South, the high concentration of slaves generated fears among the Whites. Southerners declared that anti-slavery Northerner had no idea what it w

Some topics in this essay:
, Civil War1861-, White Northerners, War South, Declaration Independence, Race Slavery, Virginia Legislature, Southern Louisiana, Whites Whites, Civil War, civil war, war south, upper south, south carolina, claimed slavery, declaration independence, civil war south,