Winston County is located in the hilly terrain of North Alabama. Its shallow soil is highly unsuitable for plantation-style agriculture, and thus the county was never home to very many slaves. The 1860 US Census shows there only 3,450 white residents in the underpopulated county, and just 122 slaves. Winston's residents were mainly poor farmers who viewed the Confederacy with suspicion, fearing it was meant to maintain the political control of the wealthy planter class.[citation needed]