Poor Whites of the Antebellum South: Tenants and Laborers in Central North Carolina and Northeast Mississippi

272 Pages·1993·18.007 MB·English

by  Charles C. Bolton

Poor Whites of the Antebellum South

Poor Whites of
the Antebellum South
Tenants and Laborers in
Central North Carolina and
Northeast Mississippi
by CHARLES c. BOLTON
Duke University Press Durham and London 1994
© 1994 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on
acid-free paper
00
Typeset in Joanna by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
appear on the last printed page of this book.
Contents
List of Tables and Figures vii
Preface ix
A Window into the World of Antebellum Poor Whites:
The Story of Edward Isham
2 "A Third Class of White People": Poor Whites in North
Carolina's Central Piedmont I I
3 A Troubling Presence: White Poverty in a Slave Society 42
4 Poverty Moves West: The Migration of Poor Whites to
the Old Southwest 66
5 Poor Whites in the Cotton South: Northeast Mississippi 84
6 Electoral Politics and the Popular Presence: The
Political World of the Antebellum South 113
7 Electoral Politics versus the Popular Presence: The
Secession Crisis in North Carolina 139
8 Electoral Politics versus the Popular Presence: The
Secession Crisis in Mississippi 161
Epilogue: Poor Whites and the "New South" 181
vi Contents
Appendix: A Note on the Use of the Federal Manuscript
Census 187
Notes 191
Bibliography 235
Index 251
List of Tables and Figures
Tables
r Free Households in the Agricultural Population of the Central Pied
mont, North Carolina, r850 and r860 r3
2 Geographic and Economic Mobility ofP oor White Household Heads
in Davidson and Randolph Counties, r840-r860 r4
3 Average Bushels of Com and Wheat Produced by Central Piedmont
Households, by Type of Farm, r850 and r860 20
4 Percentage of Central Piedmont Farmers ProdUCing roo Bushels of
Wheat or More, by Type of Farm, r850 and r860 2r
5 Percentage of Central Piedmont Farmers Producing Cotton, Tobacco,
or Rice, by Type of Farm, r850 and r860 22
6 Average Value of Farm Equipment and Number of Livestock Owned
by Nonslaveholding Farms in Davidson and Randolph Counties,
r850 29
7 Average Value of Personal Property Owned by Nonslaveholding House
holds in Davidson and Randolph Counties, r 860 34
8 Free Households in the Agricultural Population of Northeast Mis
sissippi, r850 and r860 85
9 Percentage of Slaveowners Owning More Than Ten Slaves in North
Carolina's Central Piedmont and Northeast Mississippi, r860 88
ro Percentage of Farms Producing Cotton in Northeast Mississippi, by
Type of Farm, r850 and r860 89
viii Tables and Figures
I I Average Bales ofC otton Produced in Northeast Mississippi, by Type of
Farm, 18so and 1860 90
I2 Percentage of Farms in Northeast Mississippi with Com Surpluses, by
Type of Farm, 18so and 1860 91
13 Geographic and Economic Mobility ofP oor White Household Heads
in Pontotoc and Tishomingo Counties, 18so-1860 92
14 Average Value of Farm Equipment, Bushels of Com Produced, and
Number of Livestock Owned by Tenant and Nonslaveholding Yeo
man Farms in Pontotoc and Tishomingo Counties, 1860 9S
IS Comparison of the Number of Votes Cast in the 18S4 Gubernatorial
Election and the 18S7 Free Suffrage Election, Davidson County, North
Carolina 134
16 Voter Turnout for the December 1860 Secession Convention Election
in Mississippi 168
Figures
I Slave Population of North Carolina's Central Piedmont, 1860 I2
2 Cession of Chickasaw Lands, 1830S 73
3 Township 8, Range 4E, Pontotoc County, 1846 79
4 Township 4, Range 7E, Tishomingo County, 1846 80
S Nonslaveholding Population of Mississippi, 1860 86
6 George Caleb Bingham, The County Election (18SI/S2) 124
Preface
This book is about landless white tenants and laborers in antebellum
North Carolina and Mississippi-the poor whites of the Old South. Al
though they constituted a sizable portion of the antebellum South's popu
lation, poor whites have essentially been characterized rather than studied;
in fact, they remain the most historically obscure social group of the Old
South. Unflattering labels abound to describe them: "redneck," "cracker,"
"sandhiller," and, of course, "poor white trash." It is not surprising that, by
evoking the strongest possible negative images, such characterizations
have done little to reveal the social compleXity surrounding the lives of
antebellum poor whites. In order to grasp more fully the essential nature
of the economic, social, and political structure of the Old South, however,
it seems necessary to move beyond the vague characterizations of poor
whites that have long prevailed. The following pages represent such an
attempt.
During the years I worked on this project, I have incurred a number of
debts, most of which I regret I can never repay beyond the acknowledg
ments I offer here. The initial research for and writing of this book-which
began as a doctoral dissertation-could never have been completed with
out the financial assistance I received from my parents, D. 1. Bolton and
Jeane Hair, from Duke UniverSity, and from the Forest History Society,
which awarded me a fellowship in 1987-88 that allowed me to undertake
much of the research on which this work is based.
My task as a researcher was made easier because of the expertise and the
help provided by the staffs of the Duke Manuscript Collection and Perkins
Library, Duke University; the North Carolina Collection and Southern