52 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



The relations of the small landowners with their neighbor, the 

 large planter, were marked by a spirit of kindness, goodwill and 

 esteem. They looked to him as their natural leader. The line 

 of social difference was never crossed, but there was no barrier 

 to the display of the warmest regard in their personal association 

 with him. The society which they formed among themselves was 

 noted for its homely respectability, but was not remarkable for 

 any features of general interest. The simplicity distinguishing 

 the social life of the leading planters took, in the case of that 

 of the lower, the form of extreme plainness. The existence led 

 by this section of the people was one of unusual seclusion ; in- 

 deed, their only places for general meeting were the churchyard, 

 the courthouse, and the store, while the furthest point to which 

 they traveled was the town in which they found a market for 

 the sale of their cotton or tobacco. Their entire withdrawal 

 from the world produced a marked primitiveness of character 

 which was transmitted from generation to generation. 



There were two influences to maintain great pride of spirit in 

 persons of this social rank even when they had to endure extreme 

 poverty. First, they followed the independent life of the plan- 

 tation; it is true that their estates were small, but they were 

 absolute masters of their own property. Secondly, the presence 

 of the slave, a standing object of social degradation, inspired the 

 plainest white man with a sense of his superiority of race, a con- 

 viction tending to strengthen his self-esteem as an individual. 

 These influences gave a prouder tone to the whole social life of 

 the common people of the South than would otherwise have 

 distinguished it. On the other hand, the absence of educational 

 advantages had a considerable effect in sinking this social life 

 below the point which has been reached by the same grade of 

 population elsewhere. Illiteracy, as we have already pointed 

 out, was very prevalent ; it was one of the unfortunate results of 

 the old plantation system that it curtailed* all educational facili- 

 ties, by its tendency to reduce the number of inhabitants occupy- 

 ing a given area of country. 



Taken as a whole, the common people of the Southern States, 

 during the existence of slavery, were an unusually intelligent, 

 conservative, and sturdy population. The rank and file of the 

 armies of the Confederacy in the War of Secession were chiefly 



