"Slavery was the dominating reality of all southern life." Assess the validity of this generalization for two of the following aspects of southern life from about 1840 to 1860: political, social, economic, and intellectual life.

In the South from 1840-1860 slavery dominated the southern way of life; both socially and politically. Socially speaking if you look at how the "classes" were set up if you had slaves then you were the "aristocracy". If you had no slaves then you were seen as lower than the men who did. The men with giant plantations and loads of slaves were always the most powerful and pretty much the super stars of their day. On the political side, owning slaves gave you a boost in running for office. If you wanted to become the governor or the mayor then if you did not own slaves then there was little hope for you. The more slaves you owned then the more chance you had of winning. So reflecting on these things you would have to say that slavery did dominate the southern lifestlye from 1840 to 1860.