Common Whites: Class and Culture in Antebellum North CarolinaAt the time of the Civil War, roughly three out of every four southern whites did not own slaves. Most of the rest owned only a few. Until recently, these "common whites" have been largely forgotten. In the past few years, several important studies have examined common whites in individual counties or groups of counties, but they have focused on family life, the economy, or other specific features of the common-white life. Common Whites: Class and Culture in Antebellum North Carolina is the first comprehensive examination of these non-slaveholders and small slaveholders in over forty years. Using North Carolina as a case in point, Bill Cecil-Fronsman has sketched a broad portrait of the world made by this group. Drawing on travelers' accounts, newspapers, folksongs and folktales, quantitative analysis of census reports, and, above all, the common whites' own words, he has woven the individual threads of the culture into an in-depth analysis of their world and their responses to it. This work focuses on the issues of class and culture. Here, Cecil-Fronsman explores why the common whites accepted the slave system even though it worked to their disadvantage. He demonstrates how the market economy of the outside world played a negligible role in their lives and how their unique traditional attitudes toward family and community evolved. Finally, he recounts how, though most common whites supported the Confederate cause during the Civil War, many of the old loyalties broke down during the war years. The common whites, though they outnumbered the slaves and the elites, make up the least studied group in the Old South. This book takes us beyond the stereotypes and misconceptions to a betterunderstanding of a group of people virtually ignored by traditional history. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Common Whites in Their Social Context | 9 |
An Egalitarian Culture in an Unequal World | 31 |
Race Relations | 67 |
Folk Economyfolk Culture | 97 |
Families And Communities | 133 |
Disorder The New Order and the Good Order | 169 |
The Civil War Experience | 203 |
Other editions - View all
Common Whites: Class and Culture in Antebellum North Carolina Bill Cecil-Fronsman Limited preview - 1992 |
Common Whites: Class and Culture in Antebellum North Carolina Bill Cecil-Fronsman Limited preview - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
acres agricultural American Anson Ante-Bellum North antebellum antebellum North Carolina areas asserted backcountry Baptist bushels Carolinians census century Chapel Hill chapter church Civil common whites common-white culture Confederate corn cotton crops Diary economic egalitarian elites Evangelicals family and community farm farmers Frederick Law Olmsted free blacks Genovese Germans governor grew hegemony History individual Jack Tales James John John Osborne Journal labor land lived Louisiana State Univ Methodist NCHR Negro neighborhood neighbors nonslaveholders North Carolina Press Old South Orange County Oxford Univ patterns percent Perquimans County petition Piedmont plantation planter political poor whites population Primitive Baptist racism Raleigh Register Randolph County Regulators religious revolt Rowan County Scotch-Irish slave societies slaveholders slavery small slaveholders social songs Southern tion traditional Union County University of North wealth Wilkes County William women wrote York