Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. List of Tables and Figures vii
4. Preface ix
5. 1 A Window into the World of Antebellum Poor Whites: The Story of Edward Isham 1
6. 2 "A Third Class of White People": Poor Whites in North Carolina's Central Piedmont 11
7. 3 A Troubling Presence: White Poverty in a Slave Society 42
8. 4 Poverty Moves West: The Migration of Poor Whites to the Old Southwest 66
9. 5 Poor Whites in the Cotton South: Northeast Mississippi 84
10. 6 Electoral Politics and the Popular Presence: The Political World of the Antebellum South 113
11. 7 Electoral Politics versus the Popular Presence: The Secession Crisis in North Carolina 139
12. 8 Electoral Politics versus the Popular Presence: The Secession Crisis in Mississippi 161
13. Epilogue: Poor Whites and the "New South" 181
14. Appendix A Note on the Use of the Federal Manuscript Census 187
15. Notes 191
16. Bibliography 235
17. Index 251