Non-slaveholding family farmers
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Most white men in the antebellum South could best be described as landowners who owned slaves and wielded significant social and economic power within their communities. They were part of the dominant class that enforced racial hierarchies and benefited from the institution of slavery.
The majority of White families in the antebellum South owned enslaved African Americans. This system of slavery was a key foundation of the Southern economy, with enslaved individuals forced to provide labor on plantations and in households.
The American sociologist who made this statement was W. E. B. Du Bois. He described the period of American colonial slavery as a time when the entire white South became heavily armed to enforce slavery and suppress Black resistance. Du Bois was known for his groundbreaking work on race relations and African American history.
No, a large majority of the southern population did not own slaves. In fact, only a small percentage of white families in the southern states owned slaves during the antebellum period.
During the "Apartheid" era until 1994, white South Africans owned approximately 80% of the country while only being 15-20% of the total population. South Africa is still today, the leading producer of food in Africa and is also the only country in Africa which can feed itself.
W.E.B. Du Bois was the American sociologist who studied race relations in the post-Civil War South and characterized the entire white South as an armed camp to keep Negroes in slavery and to kill the black rebels.