I'm writing an essay for college about the Antebellum Era. My book I'm reading is called "The House Devided" by Louise Mayo 3rd Edition- as a reference.
The questions I'm going to use for the bases of my essay:
In what ways was America--in the antebellum era--a society of equality?
In what ways was it a society of inequality?
On the balance, do you believe it was a society of equality or inequality?
Why?
I'm having a hard time on the equality portion in terms of substance and "Meat" of the topic. In the Antebellum Era, at least according to the text, there wasn't much equality at all. In general it seems to be heavily dominated by the "White Male" and not much else. Even white women had a hard time progressing in this era.
Can anyone give me some more insight about the "Equality" that did actually occur?
You might want to take a look at things you covered in class about the North in general--more industrialization leading to greater equality among the working classes, higher literacy, etc. Or, if you're stuck focusing on the South, then look at the notions of egalitarianism that permeated the white landholding class--the idea that no (white) man was inherently better than any other.
Part of good historical research is not applying the mores of the present to the past in too strong a fashion--look at how the people AT THE TIME viewed themselves as "equal", especially if you can't come up with something that fits the modern definition. For instance, the South was horribly undemocratic when viewed by today's standards--over half the population couldn't vote--yet the people who could vote would drone on for hours about democracy and how great it was, and how the North wanted to "enslave" them and violate the honor of their women.