Slavery in the Antebellum SouthExpansion of a Cotton Economy  Cultivation moves westward  Stable European and Northeast markets  Slavery provides stable labor force  Slaves sold south from mid-Atlantic statesDemographic Characteristics of 11 Seceding States  Few manufacturing goods  Small free population (one-third of U.S.)  Slaves and land as capital  Rampant illiteracy (60% in 1860)Southern Social Stratification  Planters (12% of slaveholders)  Small slaveholders  Yeoman farmers • Non-slaveholders • Subsistence agriculture • inhabitants of uplands regions  Poor Whites • Wage workers • Seasonal laborers • Slave drivers, soldiers  Free Blacks -Urban artisan work -Restrictions on movement, education -Between 4% and 6% of the 1860 populationEndurance of Slave Regime  Small slaveholders desire upward mobility  Poor whites fear economic competition from freedmen  Paternalism, racism, and fear of cultural