Social class in the United States

Typical Yeomen farmer: - Owned few slaves, worked and lived more closely w/ than larger planters ? Focus on subsistence farming ? Generally not enough production out of debt or expansion - Greatly limited education system in South ? Only upper class had better education and access ? South had over half the nation's total of illiterate whites "Hill People: - Lived in "hill country"/"backcountry" areas (Ex: Appalachian ranges) - Simple subsistence agriculture ? No slaves, unconnected to cotton economy - Animosity to planter aristocracy (only population to do so) ? Only area in South to reject 1860s secession Non slaveowning Whites: - Depended on local plantation aristocracy for access to cotton gins, markets and credit