slaves

//** Yeomen Farmers **// // Farmers who worked the land they or some family member owned were Yeomen Farmers. They organized their lives around three things: their families, the seasons, and their neighborhoods. Marriage was the starting point for making a family and a farm. Weddings were simple and almost always held at the home of the bridge. All wore their best clothes. The couples took no honeymoon and they either lived with parents or immediately went to their own house. All the couples had the daunting task of making a farm work. All fields had to be fenced in, so the animals didnt run wild. A single farmer was seldom a jack-of-all-trades, since equipment was too expensive. Every family had a spinning wheel, since everyone had horses as well a blacksmith was needed to make shoes for the animals and repair iron tools.The neighborhood was as important as the family. // //** Slaves **// // Slaves were found in every North Carolina county. These counties had two advantages that promoted the growth of slavery. First, the soil just above the level of swamps was some of the best in the state. Second, the good lands were located close enough to ports to make marketing cost very little. Although most slave-owning North Carolinians owned only one or two slaves, a significant number of slaves lived on pantations. Fewer than one in ten farmers in the state ever owned a plantation. Those who did, however, reaped the rewards of slavery. // media type="custom" key="8164518"
 * // North Carolina Population, //**
 * // 1830-1860 //**
 * // Year // || // White // || // Slave // || // Total // ||
 * // 1830 // || // 492,386 // || // 245,601 // || // 737,987 // ||
 * // 1840 // || // 507,602 // || // 245,817 // || // 753,419 // ||
 * // 1850 // || // 580,491 // || // 288,548 // || // 869,039 // ||
 * // 1860 // || // 661,563 // || // 331,059 // || // 992,622 // ||