When the original Europeans came to America, slavery had always been a m ajor part of the development and

life of the United States. As time passed, it e ventually contributed greatly to the growth of the country s economy and standards o f living. Even though the north also had slavery, it was the south that slavery was more beneficial to because of how life operated below the Mason and Dixon Li ne. Since the beginning of America when the first people arrived, the southern parts of the United States had always been dominant in farming and growing agricultur al products because of the vast amount of land and climate the New World had to offer. But even by the time when the United States had won its independence from Britain, the area had yet to contain a large part when it came to industry like the New England area had become. The majority of the South s economy revolved around selling and trading of agricultu ral products to many different countries and other parts of the United States. T he slaves were originally brought over from Africa to help the original southern farmers create a potential way of business and life. Because of the farmers and growers needing workers to make more products, it was natural for slavery to qu ickly engulf and change how life was in the south. As America s young economy really began taking off, demand for more slaves increased as the south tried to keep u p with the rest of the United State s growth. With a huge influx of new slaves, the south s economy began to increase to an amount comparable to the north. More product s were produced with the help of their new slaves and more money began to flow i nto the south at a rate that had never been seen before. The southerners and the ir economy had been changed to a way that would be beneficial to the white peopl e of the south. Slaves were essential to the United States economy. Without the imported slaves tha t came into the United States, the south would have had to rely on servants and other forms of labor such as indentured servants. The expenses of these types of labor would not have set off the economic growth as well as that increase that had been initiated by the slaves. Because of the effects and consequences, slave ry had become the dominant reality of the south. The southern economy, way of li fe, and other important characteristics of the south would have grown becoming s omething very different than it was back then. As slavery greatly affected the south s economy, other fields such as social life we re greatly affected both in the north and the south. In the north, government fu nded schools and other educational tools were established widely throughout many states. The north by this time had already banned slavery to the states above t he Mason and Dixon Line also known as the northern states. While these new ideas and changes were occurring in the north, the south had not changed anything sig nificantly when it came to these new ideas. Their original ways of life were hea lthy and they still needed slavery because it was still a major factor in their economy. Because population in the south had a great amount of slaves, education and teac hing were limited to many people. Slavery had restricted education so much that many southern children born from farmers were sent to the north to be educated a nd taught. The southern people believed that an increase in education and new te achings would be a danger to the power that the farmers had over their slaves. T he already instable balance of power between the slaves and their owners would e asily topple if small riots and revolts began to occur more often and in larger quantities. And eventually if a large percentage of slaves were to break out, it could permanently compromise the slave system of the south. Another way that slavery had affect the south socially was the formation of clas ses determined by wealth. The more slaves you had owned, the wealthier you were viewed. There were some people who owned many slaves while others had a few or e ven none. Many plantation owners who owned many slaves were known as the rich, u pper class citizens and eventually became the aristocratic wealthy class. Becaus e of the amount of goods they were capable of producing; it was natural for thos e select people to have a high income. While the rich had a great amount of weal th and power, there were those who had less slaves but still weren t considered poor . There were known as the middle class and had enough money to own a few slaves

accompanying a small or medium family farm. These types of families describe the majority of the population in the south during this time. And on the bottom of the southern formed classes were the poor white men. They did not own any slaves and had little money. They were known as hillbillies because of many living in the hills outside towns from them not owning any land. The social life of the south was much different than the north. One of the few r easons was because of the affects of slavery. The affect of having people as pro perty in the south greatly changed the mindset of southerners in the area. It ha d impacted how the people ran the education and voting system. The social life s howed that slavery was the dominant reality of the south.