The correct order of social hierarchy in the South in the early 1800s from highest to lowest would be:
Plantation owners, yeoman farmers, free African Americans, enslaved African Americans.
This reflects the significant wealth and power held by plantation owners, who operated large farms worked by enslaved people. Yeoman farmers, who typically owned smaller farms and may have worked their land themselves, occupied a lower social status. Free African Americans, while having some rights, were still marginalized and faced discrimination, and enslaved African Americans were at the bottom of the social hierarchy, with no rights or freedom.