Some dumb guy on the Internet is saying that it reminds him of a time when he was actually happy. Now, he's obviously racially dogwhistling, but it really occurred to me that I don't really know what life was like for a non-slave, non-rich person back then. Obviously, it was hell on earth for slaves, and probably pretty good for the super rich (just like every other time). Was it better or worse for a free, working class person than the northern states? Better or worse than the US right now?
In Defense of Looting has good takes about this that I'm about to explain poorly.
Non-planter white southerners had very little power politically or economically, but were consoled by their 1. not being slaves, and 2. promise of the rewards of westward colonial genocide.
So southern aristocrats wanted to be a slave empire in the way that Europe was and make the 'west' into endless slave plantations, but the north wanted to make the 'west' a white settler colonial state with homesteading and industrial labor. These things are kinda at odds with one another, cause that homesteader labor was pretty racistly organized and didn't want to be undercut by slave labor and the plantation capitalist south needed more land to build more plantations to enslave more people to make a line go up. Plus northern capitalists make a lot of it's money acting as a stand in for Britain in the Triangle Trade and collecting colonial profits from the southern states (+ the Caribbean).
Pre-Civil war slavery being outlawed was not uncommon in New England and Europe, although that comes with some serious caveats, and the south used a "the north will make slavery illegal" line as a racist way to get support from non-planter whites (and whites in the north). There were also a lot of slave uprisings in this time for a lot of reasons which destroyed the economies of the south and north because both economies were based on slave labor. Then the war happened and non-planter southerners had a "rich man's war" vibe. Many deserted, but also many didn't.
I guess that because this is an internet person it's not really that important to be super correct or thorough in your response. I liked this book though.