, lacking the fertility
of that of the South, required considerable fertilizing, which slave
labor did not have the intelligence to learn. Thus in 1750 the slaves
included three per cent of the population of the New England colonies,
nine per cent of the middle colonies, and twenty-five per cent of
those south of the Potomac River.[1] By the end of the eighteenth
century every State north of Maryland, with the exception of New
Jersey, had provided for the immediate or gradual abolition of
slavery, while the rise of the cotton industry, quickened by the
invention of the cotton gin in 1793, had bound the institution on the
South.

In order to understand the institutions of the South, it is first
necessary to know something about the dominating class of people. The
planters, numbering in 1860 about 384,750 and owning 2,308,518
slaves,[2] were first in the social scale and controlled affairs.
"They included an aristocracy or gentry reflecting distinctions of
colonial government, and expanding under influences that prevented an
amalgamation of widely separated elements."[3]

The home of the planter was usually a large country house of ten or
twelve rooms, situated on an elevation, or river bluff. The house was
surrounded by a large porch, almost as tall as the house itself, the
roofs of which were supported by rows of large white columns. Inside
the house there was a large hall, with a wide stairway leading to
another hall on the second floor. Opening from the hall on the first
floor were the parlors, library and dining room, and, on the second
floor, the living rooms of the family. The ceilings were high, and the
windows tall and wide. The carpets were very plain, but very heavy,
while on the walls were portraits of ancestors, of Washington, or of
Calhoun. The house was surrounded by beautiful lawns with tall
spreading trees and sometimes marble statues.[4] The home of the
planter was indeed picturesque.

The typical planter's family was composed of about twelve sons and
daughters, a "tall, lank, and rather weatherworn gentleman, and a
slender, soft-voiced, weary-looking mother, unless one counts the
inevitable guest or the old-maiden cousin, who, like the furniture or
the servants, always formed part of a planter's household."[5] The
planter, the master of the plantation, was usually well educated,
honorable, and generous. His chief work was managing the plantation.
He planned, ordered, and saw to the performance of th