The Slave South

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The Slave South

• 1820-1860
• Chapter 12

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Opening Vignette

• Slave Nat Turner leads a revolt to end slavery
• 21 Aug 1831 he set out with 6 friends to punish
  slave holders
• Start with his own master with an ax Joseph
  Travis
• By noon they had visited 11 farms
• Killed all whites M-W-C 57 total 50-60 new
  followers
• The next day all are killed except Nat
• Hid for 10 weeks captured, stood trial, executed
• By this time 45 slaves stood trial 20 executed
• Hundreds are killed in the ten weeks

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The Southern Difference

• Cotton Kingdom, Slave Empire
• The South in Black and White
• The Plantation Economy

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The Southern Difference

• 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville
• I could easily prove that almost all the
  differences which may be notices between the
  character of the Americans in the Southern and
  Northern states have originated in slavery.
• Charleston Mercury
• On the subject of slavery, the North and
  Southare not only two Peoples, but they are
  rival, hostile Peoples.

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Cotton Kingdom, Slave Empire

• 1815 Western expansion is a stampede
• Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and
  Arkansas
• The Souths geography and climate ideal for
  cotton
• From South Carolina west to Texas
• This was also a slave Empire
• 1790 700,000 slaves in the south
• 1830 2,000,000 slaves
• 1860 4,000,000 slaves
• 600 increase in 70 years
• Why the increase??? 1808 importation is illegal
• Natural increase

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The South in Black and White

• One in every three southerners were slaves
• The population was higher in the lower South
• Race had to become the issue
• Most southerners did not own slaves
• Southern culture will be shaped by this huge
  presence
• Southerners will try to justify the institution
• See book 414

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The Plantation Economy

• Cash Crops in the South
• Tobacco
• Sugar
• Rice
• Cotton
• Modern sugar mill 1795

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The Plantation Economy
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The Plantation Economy
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The Plantation Economy

• Was not accepted by all
• Industrial development would be slow
• Immigration would be slow

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The Promise of Technology

• The Cotton Gin Engine of the South

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Masters, Mistresses, and the Big House

• Plantation Masters
• The Plantation Mistresses

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Masters, Mistresses, and the Big House
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Plantation Masters
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The Plantation Mistresses
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Historical Question

• How often were slaves whipped?
• See Book

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Slaves and the Quarters

• Work
• Family, Religion, and Community
• Resistance and Rebellion

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Work

• Majority of workers were field hands
• House Servants
• On call 24-7
• Could be open to more abuse
• Skilled Artisans
• Only 1 in 20
• Blacksmiths, carpenters
• Work was can to cant

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Family, Religion, and Community

• In slave Quarters when work is done
• Dusk to dawn work was done
• All day Sunday
• Saturday afternoons
• Family life in slave community easily disrupted
• But the family persisted
• Before the Rev. most slaves hung on to African
  Rel.
• After Baptists and Methodist attempt to convert
  slaves
• White preachers told them to obey their masters
• Black preachers focused on Jesus and Moses

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Resistance and Rebellion

• Slavery was not passively accepted
• Negro Spirituals
• Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox
• Runaways
• Nat Turner

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Black and Free On the Middle Ground

• Free Blacks and the White Response
• Achievement Despite Restrictions

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Free Blacks and the White Response

• Not every black southerner was a slave
• 1860 260,000 blacks in the south were free
• When times got hard masters allowed their slaves
  to buy their own freedom
• 1820s and 1830s laws made to limit freedoms
• No interstate travel
• No schools
• Must carry freedom papers
• Could not strike whites even in self defense
• Southerners feared free blacks

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Achievement Despite Restrictions
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The Plain Folk

• Plantation Belt Yeoman
• Upcountry Yeoman
• Poor Whites

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Plantation Belt Yeoman
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Upcountry Yeoman
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Poor Whites

• Many southerners were landless
• Lived as tenants renting land
• Unskilled day labor
• They just tried to make a living

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The Politics of Slavery

• The Democratization of the Political Arena
• Planter Power

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The Democratization of the Political Arena

• The south experienced universal white suffrage
• By 1850 wealth and property restrictions are
  removed
• South really bought into the part politics
• Whigs and Democrats
• Whigs central Govt., Govt. support for roads
• Dem. threat of Govt. intervention, big Gov.
  only helps rich
• But in reality

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Planter Power

• The wealthy slave holders maintained political
  control
• See book 442

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Conclusion

• A Slave Society