Final answer:
Accounts reveal that slavery was central to southern society, with slaveholders rationalizing the practice through ideas of white supremacy and paternalistic care, despite its brutal reality. The end of slavery caused significant upheaval, perpetuating racial oppression through black codes. The antebellum South's culture and economy were deeply interwoven with slavery's exploitation, defended as a natural order by many Southerners.
Step-by-step explanation:
The accounts depict slavery as an institution that permeated every aspect of Southern society and culture, shaping norms, economic systems, and social hierarchies. Slaveholders endorsed slavery by emphasizing notions of white supremacy and paternalistic care, suggesting that slavery was beneficial to both the enslaved and the owners. This was done to maintain the status quo and defend their interests against increasing antislavery sentiment. However, the lived reality for enslaved individuals was one of severe oppression, deprivation, and injustice, which was rationalized through a deeply entrenched racial ideology that codified white superiority and black inferiority.
The end of slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment led to massive social upheaval, with former slaveholders attempting to retain control through black codes and other means of racial subjugation. Nonetheless, this seismic shift laid the foundation for the challenging and protracted struggle for civil rights that would continue well into the 20th century, highlighting the long shadow that the institution of slavery cast over American history.
The antebellum South, while steeped in a culture of supposed hospitality and chivalry, relied heavily on the brutal exploitation of enslaved labor, especially in the booming cotton economy. This paradox was maintained and justified through a complex web of social, economic, and ideological factors that were fiercely defended by the Southern elite and accepted by many non-slaveholding whites as the natural order of things.