Fredrick Law Olmstead was a northerner who travelled around the South for many months recording hundreds of observations. “Cotton Kingdom” is a fantastic book that describes the culture from an outsider’s perspective.

In summary...

He described the poor whites as being dirt poor, uneducated and lazy. In many examples, he showed how each of those three traits were the direct result of slavery. He contrasted how better off northern poor whites were.

He wrote the didn’t have much opportunity to compete against wealthier whites. They were kept by the upper class in their place by high costs where basically the only way to get on top was to inherit slaves. (I.e. from your upper class relatives)

There was no public education. Very poor infrastructure. Social rules also discouraged mobility. So, the State governments certainly were not trying to pick them up.

They lived in shacks with hardly any furnishings at all and very few luxuries. Around half were illiterate. Few had access to books.

The only path up in society was to acquire slaves. But when slaves were $800 each and a poor white is paid $100 per year and living hand to mouth, that was no easy task.

The poor whites were taught that slavery was good for them in that they didn’t have to do hard work like a black man. If a ditch needed to be dug or wood chopped, black people would do that work and the poor white could remain idle. So, that mentality made them very unproductive.