South, the: Seventeenth Century to the Civil War

The basic agricultural economy of the Old South, which was abetted by the climate and the soil, led to the introduction (1617) of Africans as a source of cheap labor under the twin institutions of the plantation and slavery. Slavery might well have expired had not the invention of the cotton gin (1793) given it a firmer hold, but even so there would have remained the problem of racial tension. Issues of race have been central to the history of the South. Slavery was known as the “peculiar institution” of the South and was protected by the Constitution of the United States.

The Missouri Compromise (1820–21) marked the rise of Southern sectionalism, rooted in the political doctrine of states' rights, with John C. Calhoun as its greatest advocate. When differences with the North, especially over the issue of the extension of slavery into the federal territories, ultimately appeared insoluble, the South turned (1860–61) the doctrine of states' rights into secession (or independence), which in turn led inevitably to the Civil War. Most of the major battles and campaigns of the war were fought in the South, and by the end of the war, with slavery abolished and most of the area in ruins, the Old South had died.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The Contemporary South
• Reconstruction to World War II
• Seventeenth Century to the Civil War
• Geography, Economy, and Other Features
• Bibliography

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