Final answer:
Poor, landless Whites in the South did not typically live on plantation tenant housing but worked on lesser-quality lands or served in roles supporting the plantation economy. They aspired to own land and enslave people, and shared with wealthy Whites the social values of racism and White supremacy, supporting the plantation elites and the system of slavery.
Step-by-step explanation:
During the antebellum period in the South, society was structured in a strict hierarchy, with wealthy planters at the top and poor, landless Whites near the bottom. These poor Whites did not typically live on the plantations of wealthy Whites but instead worked on lesser quality lands elsewhere, sometimes as overseers, drivers, or traders in the southern economy. Their dream was often to one day own land and enslave people themselves, as this was one of the limited avenues for upward social and economic mobility. In a society anchored by racism, even non-slaveholding Whites supported the plantation elites, sharing a belief in White supremacy and relying on this racial hierarchy to mitigate class tensions.
While some poor Whites became sharecroppers or farmed their own small plots, especially post-Civil War in regions like Appalachia, they did not live in plantation tenant housing. Instead, their lifestyle was more akin to that of a peasantry class, working their lands or hiring themselves out for labor, yet striving for the possibility of land ownership and joining the ranks of planters as a sign of success and prosperity.
Despite the economic challenges, both planters and the poorer classes supported laws and social structures that ensured their dominance and the continuation of the system of slavery, which they saw as central to their way of life and economic well-being.