The Setting--Environment and Role

1. An Approach to Southern Distinctiveness--The Plantation Heritage
2. The Physical Environment
   1. Climate
      1. Temperate (Not Tropical), BUT
      2. Warm
         1. Long Growing Seasons
         2. No History of Glaciation
   2. Impact on Agriculture
      1. Inhibited Diversified Agriculture
      2. Encouraged Staple Agriculture
         1. Subtropical Crops Not Grown in Europe
         2. Grown Mainly for Sale, Not Home Consumption
3. The American South's Role in the Emerging Modern World Economy
   1. Origin of the South--a Product of European Expansion
      1. Expansion of European Commerce Into the Non-European World
      2. The Rise of the North Atlantic Nation-State--Portugal, Spain, (Later) England
   2. The South and Europe--A "Peripheral" Economy
      1. Source of Raw Commodities (Sugar, Tobacco, Rice, Indigo, Cotton)
      2. Market for European (Later Northern US) Manufactures
   3. Mode of Production--The Plantation--Characteristics
      1. Extensive Land Area (Land Plentiful in the New World)
      2. Use of Forced Labor (Hired Labor Lacking in the New World)
      3. Sale of "Exotic" Commodities in Transatlantic Markets
      4. High Profits
4. The American South as a Dual Society--A Fundamental Tension
   1. A Slave Society--Part of "Plantation America"--BUT ALSO
   2. A White-Majority, Free-Farming Society--Akin to American North