The effect of short-staple cotton's rise on the economic development of the South, and the impact this enthroning of "King Cotton" had on subsequent Southern social and political development
The class and gender dynamics of Southern white society, in both myth and reality
The character of the different varieties of the South's "peculiar institution," and African-Americans' various forms of resistance to it
The separate culture of African-American slavery, and how it manifested itself in religion, music, language, and family life
A thorough study of Chapter Eleven should enable the student to understand the following:
The expansion of short-staple cotton throughout the South, and the role it played in shaping the "Southern way of life"
The workings of trade and industry under the Southern agricultural system
The structure and founding myths of Southern plantation society, and the role enslaved people played in that society
The cultural and political practices and beliefs of the non-elite, non-slaveholding white population
The forms of active and passive resistance African-Americans engaged in to combat slavery in the South
The culture of African-American slavery, as expressed through religion, music, language, and family life
The continuing historical debate over the South, its "peculiar institution," and the effects of enslavement on the blacks
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