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Line 32: + − DA SOUTH WAS THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. THEN THOSE GODDAMN NIGGERS AND JEWS CAME ALONG AND STARTED MAESSIN' THINGS UP. US AS PROUD SOUTHERNERS CREATED THE KKK BUT ALL THOSE NAZI COMMIES GOT MAD!+ + + + +
Undo revision 804223 by ThesouthistheBEST (Talk)
===Description of the South prior to 1860===
===Description of the South prior to 1860===
The South was largely agrarian. A Southern boast, "Cotton is king!" became very true by the 1850's, as cotton was grown, harvested, and shipped to market in vast quantities. The number of bales in 1849 was 2 million; by 1859 it had jumped to 5.7 million, amounting to more than half of all American exports and seven-eighths of the total amount of cotton in the world. (TL 1, pg 10)
Southern politics was controlled by owners of large [[slavery|slave]] plantations, the small minority of well-to-do planters. They practiced a cultivated chivalry, a code of honor among equals with high levels of dueling. Proud parents, when their son came of age, would present him a handsome set of dueling pistols. The code called for a gallantry towards white women, while it was common to have many children by their black slaves; these children became slaves too.
Cotton was in high demand for textile factories in Europe and profits were high on plantations with 50 or more slaves. Most of the profits went toward purchase of new farmland (because cotton rapidly depletes the fertility of the soil) and more slaves, as well as cheap clothing for the slaves. Relatively little was spent on machinery or on luxury goods. More likely money went to gambling, and racehorses. High prestige occupations included plantation ownership, the law and medicine. Doctors were hired to keep the slaves healthy. There were very few colleges in the region, apart from a few small state schools and military academies. One [[Mississippi]] planter, Jefferson Davis, remarked that only in the South "did a gentlemen go to a military academy who did not intend to follow the profession of arms." (TL 1, pg 12)
But the South had several serious drawbacks. Its population at 1860 was roughly 9 million people, of whom more than 3 million were slaves. There were only 18,000 manufacturing plants of any kind in the South, as opposed to the North's more than 100,000. Of these, only two were capable of producing [[rolled iron]], one which produced [[gunpowder]], and none capable of producing [[firearms]]; there were twenty-seven gun manufacturers in [[Massachusetts]] alone. More than 70% of all [[railroad]] mileage was north of the Ohio River; the South had the remainder.
===[[Slavery]]===
===[[Slavery]]===