SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES

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SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES
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THE NEW SLAVE ECONOMY

• Prices for tobacco and other staples declined
  toward the end of the 18th century as alternative
  sources for these crops appeared. Some hoped
  that would lead to a decline in the demand for
  slaves and their eventual disappearance.
• The development of technology for spinning cloth,
  cleaning cotton, and raising new strains of
  cotton combined at the start of the 1800s to
  ensure a demand for slaves over the coming half
  century.
• The demand for slaves increased over the next
  decades as the cotton they produced became
  Americas number one export. The average price
  for a prime field hand went from 200 in 1800 to
  600 by 1850.
• Slavery and cotton spread across the South
  throughout the 19th century. Southerners thought
  of it as King Cotton as demand for the product
  grew each year and they believed supplying this
  demand gave them a great deal of economic and
  political clout.
• This economic system ensured the South would
  remain largely rural, limit immigration from
  Europe, retard industrialization in the South,
  and create a cultural elite of slave owners who
  controlled society and poltics for the South.

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Slave Owners
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SLAVE OWNERS

• Southern society was defined in large part by
  slave ownership. The upper class were the large
  plantation owners controlling large numbers of
  slaves.
• In the South fewer than 300 families owned
  plantations with more than 200 slaves. This group
  often made up the political leadership, supplying
  Senators and Governors in most of the states as
  well as most of the Congressmen.
• They also controlled much of the economy.
  Without large cities most trade and manufacturing
  in the South happened on the large plantations.
  Here poorer farmers would find docks for shipping
  their cotton, gins for cleaning, and storehouses
  to keep their cotton. Some slaves on these
  plantations provided necessary skilled labor.
  Other manufactured goods arrived at the docks of
  these plantations for transport or sale to other
  poorer farmers. Even those farmers who did not
  grow cotton found the market for their goods at
  the big plantations.
• Much of the Southern middle class was involved
  directly or indirectly with slavery. They made
  up much of the 25 that owned 10 or fewer slaves.
  
• Most owned only one or two slaves during their
  lifetime and during difficult times might have to
  sell their slaves. They often worked beside their
  slaves in the fields.
• Because they only owned a few slaves, all of
  their slaves were field hands. They could not
  afford the extra slaves as household labor or
  skilled labor like on the big plantations.
• At the bottom of White Southern society were the
  75 of non-slave owning whites. Some of these
  might own slaves briefly during their lifetime
  and more often rented slaves to help plant or
  bring in a crop.
• Like their slave owning cousins they benefited
  from slavery through renting them. They also
  made use of the larger plantations as a market
  for their goods or a way to get their crops to
  market. They were also hired by the plantation
  owners to perform services including acting as
  overseers.
• Poorer whites also benefited psychologically
  because no matter how poor they were they always
  had someone on the social ladder beneath them,
  slaves.

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Slaves
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SLAVE SOCIETY

• The experience of most slaves was on the larger
  plantations. About 50 of all slaves spent part
  or most of their life on a plantation with 50 or
  more slaves.
• Like the free society they lived under, slave
  society had its hierarchy. At the top were the
  household servants.
• Household servants were the cooks, maids,
  butlers, nannies, etc, working and often living
  in the plantation house. They often had bedrooms
  in the attic of the large homes. They might
  often eat leftovers from the masters table and
  were often given better garments to clothe
  themselves. Their close relationship with their
  owners sometimes bred familial feelings and might
  lead to their manumission.
• Below the household servants were the skilled
  craftsmen. These slaves had picked up a skill
  like carpentry or metal smithing. They often had
  quarters some distance from the rest of the
  slaves and the main house. They had more say
  over the pace of their work and were too hard to
  replace to punish severely. They could also earn
  extra income by working for local farmers with
  their masters permission.
• Overseers were often grouped next when slaves
  were used for this job. Sometimes whites were
  hired to perform this function. On large
  plantations slaves were usually grouped in work
  gangs of approximately 20 slaves each. An
  overseer was responsible for making sure they did
  their work and did not run away. In return they
  did not work in the field.
• At the bottom and the most common was the field
  hand. These were the ones who brought in the
  crop. Typically they lived in one or two room
  shacks built on raised platforms. On smaller
  farms they might live with the master or in a
  stable. In many cases they had a small plot of
  land to grow vegetables to enhance their meager
  rations of beans, corn meal, and occasionally
  bacon. They worked long hours and were
  physically punished if they did not perform well.
  

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SLAVE CULTURE

• Because of the prevalence of slaves throughout
  the South, they had an influence not only on
  their own culture but on white culture as well.
• Slaves influenced the development of certain
  crops that they brought with them from Africa
  (peanuts, sorghum, etc).
• Slaves influenced music in both style
  (spirituals, blues, jazz) and instruments
  (banjo). Music was a popular spare-time activity
  and was also used to control the pace of work.
• Slaves influenced medicine and religious beliefs
  (voodoo and folk medicine).
• Inside their own community they established norms
  to try and establish their own society and family
  structure.
• Whites did not recognize slave marriage. Slave
  developed their own marriage customs.
• Whites neglected African spirituality so they
  found their own religious leaders from among the
  elder males. These men also often became the
  community leaders and were respected for their
  wisdom.
• Slaves maintained a strong oral tradition to keep
  their history and cultural values alive.

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Runaway Advertisement
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SLAVE RESISTANCE

• Sabotage was a common form of slave resistance.
  Since slaves did not earn their share of profits
  for the work they performed they had no interest
  in their own productivity. They worked as little
  as possible. They also broke tools and damaged
  livestock to free themselves from labor
  activities. As a result of this activity Mules
  became the preferred beast of burden because they
  were studier than the faster horse and could take
  more punishment. This attitude was also
  encouraged by African folk tales of the
  trickster, a smaller animal able to overcome a
  stronger animal by tricking it.
• Minor resistance also included acts of
  retaliation against whites in a passive manner.
  Creative insults could include spiting in food
  for the masters table or urinating in wells used
  by whites.
• Running away was another form of resistance.
  Slaves could run to non-slave regions or run to
  isolated areas in the South where maroon
  communities were established. These communities
  were small towns made up entirely of run away
  slaves. They were often in swampy or mountainous
  areas.
• Another possible response, though far less
  common, was the slave revolt. All of these
  failed in the U.S. They include Bacons
  Rebellion (1676), Stonos Rebellion (1739),
  Pointe Coupee Rebellions (1795/1811), Prossers
  Revolt (1800), the Vesey Plot (1822), and Nat
  Turners Revolt (1831).

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Politics
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SLAVERY AND POLITICS

• The issue of slavery continually appeared in
  America from the creation of the Constitution to
  the Civil War. Although slavery was not always
  the only issue in theses events, it often was a a
  factor in the debate.
• The Missouri Compromise (1820)
• The South Carolina Nullification Crisis (1824)
• The Annexation of Texas (1836,1845)
• The Mexican American War (1846-48)
• The Compromise of 1850
• Bleeding Kansas (1854)
• The Caning of Charles Sumner (1856)
• The Dred Scott Case (1857)
• The Raid on Harpers Ferry (1859)
• The presidential election of 1860

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Presidential Candidates and their Stand on
Slavery in 1860

• Stephen Douglas (Northern Democrat)
• Douglas favored the idea of popular sovereignty
  established by Lewis Cass. Based on the concept
  of states rights it left it up to each state to
  determine if it wanted to be free or slave. This
  ran counter to the Dred Scott decision and had
  failed to produce a clear result in Kansas. It
  tended not to favor Southerners.
• John Breckenridge (Southern Democrat)
• Breckenridge was nominated to force Douglas to
  resign so Democrats could chose a compromise
  candidate. When Douglas refused to resign
  Breckenridge stayed on the Southern ticket.
  Although not a supporter of secession,
  Breckenridge became the banner carrier for the
  Southern Democrats who sought protection of
  slavery and opposed Lincoln.
• John Bell (Constitutional Union)
• This party felt the issue of slavery was so
  divisive they did not take a stand. They hoped
  many Americans agreed with them that no good
  would come of discussing the issue and that if
  conflict was to be avoided slavery should not be
  debated on the national level.
• Abraham Lincoln (Republican)
• Lincoln had spoken out against the institution of
  slavery and did not agree with the Dred Scott
  decision. An early Conscience Whig, Lincoln felt
  slavery was immoral, but also did not feel the
  country was ready to end slavery or knew what to
  do with the slaves if they were freed. Lincoln
  did believe that Blacks were inferior to whites.
  He suggested that slavery not be permitted in
  western territories so he was against popular
  sovereignty. At no point during the election did
  he suggest emancipation of slaves during his term
  of office

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Lincolns Image
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CIVIL WAR POLICIES ON SLAVERY

• UNION
• Lincoln had no plans to free the slaves when he
  entered the White House. Many of Lincolns
  generals were more incline to free slaves seeing
  them as a tool which the South could use to win
  the war. In Aug. 1861 Congress passed the First
  Confiscation Act which gave Union officers the
  right to free slaves actively used by the
  Confederates in the War effort. The act was
  amended in 1862 top promise freedom to any slave
  who made it to Union lines. On September 22,
  1862 Lincoln announced the Emancipation
  Proclamation which held that all slaves in
  rebelling territories were free as of the first
  of the following year.
• CONFEDERACY
• Southerners had to address the possibility of
  slave revolts and that tied down troops to watch
  slaves that might have been sent to the front,
  hurting their war effort. Officer who took their
  slaves with them found these slaves often
  deserted at the first opportunity and often
  supplied the North with critical intelligence.
  Slaves were sometimes used in mass work gangs but
  their owners were reluctant to give them tot the
  army because they might be lost in combat or
  capture and they were often poorly treated and
  returned in bad condition. Slaves were also used
  in industry in the South for the first time.
  Toward the end of the war when things looked
  bleak for the South, the Confederate Congress
  finally passed a motion to allow slaves to serve
  in the military. Although the bill does not
  specifically state it, some assume these soldiers
  would have been emancipated. The South
  surrendered three weeks later.

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The Black Vote
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RECONSTRUCTION AND SLAVERY

• Immediately after the war Congress passed the
  13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865 ending
  slavery in the U.S. Other dates for emancipation
  in other nations include
• Chile 1823
• Mexico 1829
• British Colonies 1838
• French and Danish Colonies 1848
• Dutch Colonies 1863
• Spanish Colonies except Cuba 1870-1873
• Cuba 1886
• Brazil 1888
• Emancipation was followed by a series of acts
  designed to give the freed slaves political
  rights during Reconstruction. By failing to
  provide economic opportunities the freedmen were
  forced to return to their former masters for jobs
  as agricultural workers under a sharecropping
  system. This placed them in an impoverished
  position which damaged their chances for true
  freedom and equality.