The distribution of the slaves over the state was determined by the crops raised. In East Tennessee the ratio of slaves to whites was about 1 to 12; in Middle Tennessee, 1 to 3; and in West Tennessee, 3 to 5. In no county in East Tennessee was the ratio greater than 1 to 6, while in several counties it was 1 to 60, and in two-thirds of them it ranged from 1 to 20, to 1 to 60.[12] This, of course, was a matter of the soil. These factors reflected themselves in social life, education, religion, and politics. Slavery produced aristocracy and classes of society wherever it appeared. It made for the private school in education, Whiggery in politics, and the southern division among the Protestant churches that split. East Tennessee in Andrew Jackson’s time was the democratic part of the state. West Tennessee, the seat of the Black Belt, was the home of the Whig aristocracy. When the Whigs became Democrats in the decade between 1850 and 1860, the free farmers and small slaveholders, Democrats of East Tennessee, became Unionists and later Republicans. This same formula worked out over the entire state. There are Republican islands in Democratic sections, and Democratic islands in Republican sections. East Tennessee remained loyal to the Methodist Church, and West Tennessee went into the Methodist Church, South. These divisions were not peculiar alone to the three grand divisions of the state, but are found in the various counties. For instance, in the Presidential elections of 1844 between Clay and Polk, Tennessee went for Clay. The big Democratic counties of today were Whig then. Fayette’s vote was 1217 to 1060 in favor of Clay; Shelby’s, 1828 to 1607 in favor of Clay; Madison’s, 1562 to 737 in favor of Clay; Gibson’s, 1423 to 688 in favor of Clay. These counties are now the big Democratic counties of West Tennessee. They stood the same way in 1848 on the election between Taylor and Cass. They voted overwhelmingly for the Whig candidate for Governor in 1847.[13] Present Republican counties of East Tennessee went Democratic. Washington, 1225 to 881 in favor of Polk; Sullivan, 1533 to 350 in favor of Polk; Greene, 1701 to 1031 in favor of Polk. The same line-up expressed itself in 1847 and in the Presidential election of 1848.[14] There are certain counties in West Tennessee today that are quite as overwhelmingly Republican as any in East Tennessee. These counties are in full sympathy with the point of view of the North in politics and toward life generally. The northern branches of the churches, together with their schools, are found in these counties. They prefer school teachers from the North and send their children to northern colleges. The human response to the soil that determined their attitude toward slavery is mainly responsible for these results. It was this force that made poor whites out of some and slaveholders out of others. II. THE MANAGEMENT OF THE PLANTATION.