Introduction

The complex history and heritage of the Deep South have created a distinctly American culture that is more a state of mind than a place. The lower Mississippi valley was the homeland of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Cherokee before the French, Spanish and British arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries to fight over it.

The Americans finally took it in the 18th century and the defining historical event of the Deep South remains the Civil War, fought from 1861 to 1865. Although the Deep South romanticises antebellum plantation life, built on slavery, it is also the birthplace of the modern Civil Rights movement. Today, there are more African-Americans elected to public office in the South than in any other part of the nation (Olasky, pp. 12).

The different Social Classes

Many people migrated to the Deep South due to the development of a booming economy based on cotton. This created the formation of new social classes. The classes were based not only on wealth but on gender status. There were three different classes that were defined by wealth. The classes were the planter class, the plain folk and the hill people. In all three classes men were considered higher than women.

The highest class was the Planter class. The Planter class was made up of a small number of whites who were competitive capitalists. Members of the Planter class included slave owners, landlords, creditors, and marketers. People of this class focused on values of old Europe such as chivalry, education in the classics, leisure, elegance and social grace. Both men and woman of the Planter class had specific roles of social elegance in southern society.

It was important that a man of the planter class chose a wife based on her beauty, social grace and social status. Having a beautiful submissive wife was essential to the man for power and social status. Women of the south were hostesses to their husbands as well as companions. They were also supposed to care and nurture their children. Women always had to obey their men but if a woman was threatened by her husband she did have a right of protection. Most women had very little access to the public world especially on large plantations where women were busy with managing the home and slaves.

The class under the Planters was the plain folk. People in the plain folk class owned very few slaves and usually worked along with them. They did not own large plantations and grew just enough food for themselves. The lack of quality schools in the south led many of them to be uneducated. Therefore there were very few opportunities open to the plain folk (Rothman, pp. 10).

The poorest class in southern society was known as the hill people. They lived alone in the Appalachian Mountains and didn't have much connection with the commercial society. The hill people supported the confederacy because they felt it would protect their basic rights. This view differed from the planter's view only in reason. Planters pledged their support ...