How did wealthy slaveholders in the nineteenth-century South maintain their political power when they

were outnumbered by nonslaveholding whites?

wealthy slaveholders in the nineteenth-century South maintain their political power By persuading the white majority of their shared interests

Explanation:

Wealthy slaveholders maintained their political power when they were outnumbered by enslaving whites by persuading the white majority of their shared interests.

First of all, let's analyze the context. Slaveholders were fewer than known slavers, so they required to possess some kind of power to oppose the numbers. First of all, they had money and it bought them social influence, arguments to manipulate the crowds who didn't possess them or convinced the ones who had weak arguments, and provided them an economic dependence.

They claimed Slavery was part of their culture, code of honor and their way of life. Scholars wrote books about it and how they benefited society. They had economic contributions to non-slavers income by providing jobs, etc. But also, they made political figures fall for them, by providing them resources to maintain power. They were part of the elite and they had everything to maintain it.