The Changing Social Stratification of the South

The analysis is subdivided into 3 periods of time: (1) the yrs of recovery from the Civil War & of southern backwardness, (2) the depression of 1929 & the New Deal, & (3) the period of rapid industrialization & prosperity which began in 1940. Discussion centers mainly on quantitative changes within a given kind of stratification system. 3 types of social strata are distinguished: castes, estates, & SC's. Southern plantations were from the beginning capitalistic enterprises. Whether in America or elsewhere in the world, wherever this kind of large-scale agri'al enterprise developed, a class of landless agric'al workers will be found. Thus, in contrast to other regions of the US, southern society has been from the beginning definitely & conspicuously stratified. Planters held highest prestige. Southern society at this time would have been a typical capitalistic class society had there not been the large pop of Negroes & mixed breeds who had a diff legal status. Southern planters began as entrepreneurs but under the force of circumstances developed traits of an aristocratic way of life & mentality. Emancipation transformed most Negroes into a class of wage earners, the peers & competitors of the white wage laborers. After a brief period of pol'al equality, Negroes were reduced again to a subordinate soc position, but not within a true caste system. Regarding changes in the stratification of the white pop after the Civil War: (1) the planter class, which reconsolidated itself, seems to have been remarkably stable with but little circulation among the postwar elite: (2) Out of the poorer yeoman farmer class developed a white tenant & share-cropper class; (3) In cities & towns there arose a new & growing class of supply merchants & bankers with considerable econ power;(4) In the major cities & in favorably located communities there came into existence a broader class of industrial entrepreneurs; & (5) workers in the skilled jobs were predominantly white, whereas Negroes were employed mainly in unskilled, dirty jobs. Changes in the soc stratification of the South during the past 25 yrs are a continuation of previous trends: (a) The quantitative significance of the planter class has declined; (b) Share-tenants are being replaced by wage laborers, & the once rigid class distinction between planter & poor white is being levelled off; (d) a new econ SC of top executives & managers is growing; (e) white collar workers are increasing considerably; & (6) the new type of