If the South had slave labor, how did regular people who didn't own slaves get work or make a living?

Question

Why hire someone if you have slaves to do the job? Even white people in the South still need money to get by.

Answer 1

Well gang agricultural labor in the South became the more or less exclusive province of slaves because whites saw that kind of labor as degrading. So there wasn't a lot of overlap in terms of competition between what whites were doing and what African-Americans were doing. Most slaves were employed in agricultural labor on large plantations and that was simply not work that whites were going for. Whites could find other jobs on large plantations, as drivers and overseers and as skilled laborers, but they weren't looking to get jobs picking cotton.



The other thing which kept work available for whites is that slaves were expensive. While the price went up and down over time, they were generally a major purchase like buying a relatively high end car would be today. While most slaves lived on large plantations, most slave owners could only afford a few slaves, IIRC, less than five. So while a slave would pay for himself with the labor of twenty or more years, in the short run they were an expensive proposition. So if you were a small time farmer or shopkeeper or something it might be more economical to hire white labor than to invest the large amount of capital needed to purchase a slave. Hiring free laborers would also make sense if you only needed labor part of the time. The big cotton and rice and tobacco plantations needed relatively steady labor all year round and so slaves made sense as a labor force. But by the mid 19th century slavery was actually in relative decline in the northern part of the South and in the center of 18th century slavery in the Chesapeake. This was due to a variety of factors, but one major one was that these regions were shifting over to grain farming from tobacco, and this different farming regime had different labor requirements. They needed a lot of labor at harvest and planting time but little or no labor in between. Given that fact slavery didn't make as much sense because you'd have to pay the upkeep for your slaves while they sat around and did nothing. It made much more sense for them to employ free laborers who they could hire for the busy season and then fire in the slack season.



Part of the opposition that working class Southern whites had to emancipation was a fear that they would be forced to compete with the newly freed African-Americans for jobs. These new workers would, in their minds, be willing to undercut the wages of white laborers and thus would force a race to the bottom in wages for Southern laborers.

Answer 2

Most most people in the south during that time worked various agriculture jobs. There were few industries to provide employment. Slaves were typically owned by wealthy land owners. The "average Joe" probably couldnt afford to have a slave. So for the most part, the rich people had slaves to do the work. While poor people had small farms, often rented from larger land holders. They worked the land themselves. There were also a few job opportunities in occupations where slaves were deemed untrustworthy. Transportation of good is one example. If someone told a slave to take goods to the market, what are the chances that the slave would come back?

Answer 3

You don't have to have a huge farm to feed yourself. Work hard and you can feed yourself and a family on 50 or 60 acres of land. You might eat a lot of corn, or a lot of Okra, but if you have 30 or 40 acres that you are willing to work hard, you will have a full belly most of the time. When you plant corn, deer will come to visit. You can shoot them by the light of the moon about 5 days a month. They did not have poaching laws, deer were a nuisance. How did people in the North get by? You ever hear the term trading? People used to go to market with a couple chicken and a small pig, and trade for flour from the mill or sugar. Next time you pay attention, look how many streets are named somethingorother Mill Road, or Somethingorother Gin House road. These were family names who owned a grinding mill or a gin still, they took goods in trade for what they needed to live. A blacksmith didn't always work for cash, he would shoe your mule for a chicken and a peck of corn. People used to have a dozen kids or so, Cotton and Tobacco were cash crops. You get 6 or 10 kids old enough to harvest, and the older kids got new shoes that winter, the younger ones wore the older ones hand me downs. Nobody thought anything of it, every family was going through the same thing. I doubt many families in the south owned slaves. If you just think about the cost, and ignore the humanity (I know that is hard). Slaves were owned by rich family's. They were never owned by 95% of the population. They were always owned by the minority, and as much as you do not want to hear it, They were owned by rich liberals more often than not. Don't trust me and don't trust your politicians, go to the history books. The big money in the south voted democrat for 190 years.

If you want the real truth, and are not afraid of the real truth, read the history books. Do it yourself, don't believe what you hear.

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Answer 4

Now it is true that the south had slavery but not everyone in the south had slaves or even believed in slavery. there where a lot of farmers in the south that would hire people to come work with them and for them on farms. they soled crops to people and stores. That is how they made a living. also note that towards the end of the American Civil War and slavery was abolished some of the slaves chose to stay on the slave owners farms to work for money and even a place to live. some actually stayed because they didn't know anything else but farming and slavery work.

Answer 5

A lot of people were small farmers, they grew enough food for themselves and sold their surplus. They were partly self sufficient. there were also skilled artisans, like blacksmiths, carpenters, builders etc. And shopkeepers. then there would be people like clerical workers, bank clerks etc.



About half the slaves in the south belonged to small farmers, but small farmers would only be able to afford one or two slaves, and would still need to do a lot of the farm work themselves.

Answer 6

They worked in the slave industry, which itself created many jobs. These might have included overseers such as Mr. Ames on Roots, the guys who sailed the seas and captured them, the ones who hunted down runaways, the ones who conducted the auctions, ect.

Answer 7

Economics.



Slavery was too expensive.



If you own a slave you have to house feed and clothe that person every day of the year.



And if you want good slaves you have to educate them, more cost.



None slaves usually had some education (if only being able to read and add and subtract small sums) and so could be hired to do more cost effective jobs.



Industrialisation made slavery uneconomic.



Would you have a slave to fix your PC?

Expensive way to do it, just hire someone for a couple of hours.



Same principle, and why the North in the American Civil War, was going to win, it had industrial might and a more highly educated population, so was more Efficient.



Efficiency pays wages.

Answer 8

Slaves worked on plantations primarily.