The majority of white Southerners during the antebellum period were small farmers, commonly known as yeomen farmers or smallholding farmers. These farmers owned smaller plots of land and primarily engaged in subsistence farming, growing crops for their own consumption rather than for commercial purposes. They constituted the largest group within the white population in the South. Planters, on the other hand, were a smaller elite group who owned large plantations and relied on enslaved labor for their agricultural activities. The planters were the wealthiest and most powerful group in Southern society. The capitalist middle class in the South was relatively small, mainly consisting of merchants, bankers, and professionals in urban areas.
