Answer all the questions thoroughly and make sure to answer everything in each question.
1. The social structure and the hierarchy of the few plantation owning families had an outsized impact on the economic and social fabric of the entire Southern region. What
role did yeomen farmers play in the southern economy, how did they survive and why did
they support the plantation system? Turning to the key to the plantation system, the
slaves, describe the slave community and work life, particularly the gang system and
plantation management. What role did the ideologies of paternalism and racial
superiority play in slavery? How did life differ for slaves on large plantation vs. smaller
plantations? How did plantation owners try to control their slave labor force? How did
slaves react to this treatment and the stereotyping that reinforced this treatment? How did
slaves survive in this mentally and physically violent society?
2. The rise and expansion of the Cotton Kingdom affected both the South and the North.
How did the North respond to the South and slavery? What group led the war against
slavery in the North, and what did they do to wage this war? Discuss how a group of laws
in the 1850s fueled the flames of abolition, such as The Compromise of 1850 and The
Fugitive Slave Act What role did expansion into the western territories play in the
sectional conflict over slavery?
3. What role did slaves play in the Civil War in the North? What happened to plantation
discipline during the Civil War? What was Frederick Douglass’ philosophy towards
slavery and freedom?