| Description |
1 online resource. |
|
text file |
| Series |
Cambridge studies on the American South
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Cambridge studies on the American South.
|
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Introduction: The second degree of slavery -- 1. The Southern origins of the Homestead Act -- 2. The demoralization of labor -- 3. Masterless (and militant) white workers -- 4. Everyday life : material realities -- 5. Literacy, education, and disfranchisement -- 6. Vagrancy, alcohol, and crime -- 7. Poverty and punishment -- 8. Race, Republicans, and vigilante violence -- 9. Class crisis and the Civil War -- Conclusion: A duel emancipation -- Appendix: Numbers, percentages, and the census. |
| Summary |
"Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Keri Leigh Merritt reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton--and thus, slaves--in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete--for jobs or living wages--with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. Merritt examines how these 'masterless' men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Poor white people -- Southern States -- Social conditions -- 19th century.
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Poor white people. |
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Southern States. |
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Social conditions. |
| Chronological Term |
19th century |
| Subject |
Poor white people -- Southern States -- Economic conditions -- 19th century.
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Economic conditions. |
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Slavery -- Social aspects -- Southern States -- History -- 19th century.
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Slavery -- Social aspects. |
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History. |
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Slavery. |
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Slavery -- Economic aspects -- Southern States -- History -- 19th century.
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Labor -- Southern States -- History -- 19th century.
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Slavery -- Economic aspects. |
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Land tenure -- Southern States -- History -- 19th century.
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Labor. |
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Social conflict -- Southern States -- History -- 19th century.
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Land tenure. |
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Southern States -- Social conditions -- 19th century.
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Southern States -- Economic conditions -- 19th century.
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Southern States -- Race relations -- History -- 19th century.
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Race relations. |
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Social conflict. |
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HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV) |
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Economic history. |
| Chronological Term |
1800-1899 |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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Electronic books.
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History.
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| Other Form: |
Print version: 9781107184244 110718424X (DLC) 2017003313 (OCoLC)980599951 |
| ISBN |
1316881652 (electronic book) |
|
9781316881651 (electronic book) |
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9781316882023 (electronic book) |
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1316882020 (electronic book) |
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1316635430 |
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9781316635438 |
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9781316881651 |
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110718424X |
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9781316875568 |
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1316875563 |
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9781107184244 |
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9781316635438 (paperback) |
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