Acknowledgments; Prologue. The Symbolism of National Unity: The New England Society of Charleston; Introduction; PART ONE: Cradle of the Southern Middle Class: Cultural Connections between the Antebellum North and South; PART TWO: The Making of the Southern Middle Class; PART THREE: The American Middle Classes and the Crisis of the Union; Conclusion. The New South and the Triumph of the Southern Middle Class; Epilogue. The New England Society and the New South Creed; Appendix. Commercial and Professional Occupations Based on the 1850 and 1860 U.S. Census Categories; Notes
Summary
Jonathan Daniel Wells contests the popular idea that the Old South was a region of essentially two classes (planters and slaves) until after the Civil War. He argues that, in fact, the region had a burgeoning white middle class that had a profound impact on southern culture, the debate over slavery, and the coming of the Civil War
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-298) and index
