The Yeomen Farmers

"I desire above all things to be a Farmer.  It is the most honest, upright, and sure way of securing all the comforts of life."

~ Georgian man, 1849

The majority of white southerners were yeomen, or small landowning farmers.  The typical farm in the South averages 100 acres in size.    Many of these farmers saw themselves as the noble  independent workers of the land, the type of people Thomas Jefferson had praised and extolled. They were fiercely independent and preached of the virtues of hard work and self-reliance. 

The yeomen and the plantation class competed for the best farmland in the South.  Since the planters had the most money, the yeomen often found themselves working the land that was the least appealing to the plantation class.  Their land was often rocky or less then ideal fro certain crops.  This would forces many yeomen families to explore new territories in an attempt to seek out better and cheaper land.  It would not be uncommon for a yeomen family to uproot several times before finally settling into one location.  Yeomen farmers from the South, immigrants, and settlers from the North would all contribute to the expansion westward of the United States.

Since a slaves were very costly, many yeomen farmers did not own slaves.  If they could afford a slave, a yeomen would own between one and two slaves.  Yeomen did not have the luxury of having free time so slave and master would work side by side in the fields.  This mingling of the races was looked down upon by the plantation class because it showed a form of equality between the races as well as blurring the line between master and servant.  

Racism ensured that the poor whites, the yeomen, and the blacks could not unite and take away the power and the wealthy from the plantation class.  Since the planters led a much more different life then the yeomen and the poor whites, racism would be essential to have those three groups united. 

Yeomen found ways of combining work and entertainment with large community gatherings.  Log rolling contests, barn raising, and corn husking were ways that yeomen would compete against each other.  These games required great amounts of skill and were physically demanding as well.  Yeomen men would also compete to show who was the strongest through log splitting and wrestling.  Abraham Lincoln was known to be one of the best wrestlers in his county. 

Your homework is one of the following:

1.) create an advertisement for a T.V. show that the Yeomen would have enjoyed or create an advertisement for a product that the Yeomen would want

or

2.) write a song/rap/or poem about the Yeomen based on the reading.