The Southern Backcountry

Chapter 4 in general, and the section entitled “The Southern Backcountry” in particular, speaks to the diversity of the southern American colonies.  The section offers up the story of those southerners, particularly the white colonists, who made up the population that lived in the backcountry, away from the large coastal cities.  Most whites in the South at this time, in fact for all of the history of the antebellum South, did not in fact own slaves. The majority of the inhabitants of the backcountry were simply small farmers who struggled to get by with the crops they grew. The people of the backcountry would grow food for their families, and then try to grow a cash crop for a family income.

The whites who made up this region came from places such as the Scottish highlands and Germany, and were able to eventually assume some sort of political control in the region. Unlike in the coastal areas and places that had already been settled, the backcountry was without a true aristocracy built on slavery. Therefore, most of the people who lived in this region built a society that was based mostly on equality, and was different from what was occurring elsewhere in the South. The lack of slavery also prevented the creation of an aristocracy, which elsewhere in the region was built on the back of slave labor.

            Overall, it is clear that the South was not a monolithic region. Some parts of the South were heavily influenced by the slave-based economy. Other parts, such as the backcountry, were a bit more democratic, and depended a lot less on an aristocracy to control it.