Slavery in Antebellum America

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Slavery in Antebellum America

• The 3 Souths

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Border South DE, MD, KY MO

• 22 of families owned on average 5 slaves
• 1 of Souths ultra-wealthy
• 6 of large (20 slaves) plantations found in
  region.
• Slaves made up 17 of the population 21 of
  African American population free.

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Border South DE, MD, KY MO

• Little cotton cultivation tobacco, grain
  industrial products.
• Unionists prevailed after Lincolns election
  throughout Civil War.

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Middle South VA, NC, TN AR

• 36 of families owned on average 8 slaves
• 14 of Souths ultra-wealthy
• 32 of large (20 slaves) plantations found
  primarily in eastern VA western TN.
• Slaves made up 30 of the population.

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Middle South VA, NC, TN AR

• Different sections, some resembling Deep South,
  others Border South.
• Some industry Tredegar Iron Works used slave
  labor.
• Unionists prevailed after Lincolns election, but
  Secessionists prevailed after Fort Sumter early
  hostilities.

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Deep South SC, FL, GA, AL, MS, LA TX

• 43 of families owned on average 12 slaves
• 85 of the Souths ultra-wealthy
• 62 of large (20 slaves) plantations
• Slaves made up 47 of the population.

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Deep South SC, FL, GA, AL, MS, LA TX

• Most slaves concentrated in the Black Belt,
  especially along river valleys
• 95 of the Souths cotton almost all of its
  sugar, rice indigo grown in Deep South.
• Secessionists prevailed immediately after
  Lincolns election.

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Historiography

• The Peculiar Institution in Antebellum America

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Main Debates on History of Peculiar Institution

• Which came first slavery or racism?
• Was slavery economically viable?
• Was it an economic system of labor exploitation
  or a social system for racial control?
• What were the tools of oppression? Centrality of
  violence?
• What were the tools of resistance? Revolts
  escapes?

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Positive Paternalism

• Earliest interpretation, developed by U.B.
  Phillips Southern historians analyzing
  multi-racial communities of the South
• Argued that slaves masters loved respected
  each other.
• Slavery served as essential civilizing
  institution.
• Clearly racist aspects have been excised but
  romantic notion of the Southern Lost Cause
  persists.

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Factories in the Fields

• Economic interpretation proposed by Marxist
  historians, such as Kenneth Stampp.
• Saw mode of production as the motor of history
• Slaves were workers nothing more defined by
  lives in the fields.
• Minimized racial purpose of slavery presented
  hopeful vision of post-slavery America once
  economic system changed.

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American Concentration Camps

• Historians led by Stanley Elkins utilized
  understanding of human nature based on recent
  history of the Holocaust.
• Saw absolute nature of slavery its impact on
  slaves infantilization, creation of Sambo
  archetype.
• Saw little room for autonomy in slave existence.
• Presented pessimistic vision of post-slavery
  America.

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Oppressive Cage of Paternalism

• Paternalism existed as a tool of oppression
  survival.
• No real love respect between slaves masters,
  except in a few individual, isolated instances.
• Institutional support of systemreligion, slave
  culture, etc.designed to reinforce these
  relationships.

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Oppressive Cage of Paternalism

• Complexity of social cultural forms in slave
  life defined by
• Type of production (Gang or Task system)
• Regions (Tidewater, Black Belt)
• Different Worlds (Sunup-Sundown Sundown-Sunup)

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Oppression

• Centrality of Violence
• Need not be everyday or extreme
• Threat of violence or token violence
• Women often the target of sexual violence.
• Absolute authority of the master is
  unquestionable.
• Threat of Sale Separation
• Economic reality necessity
• Threat use of sale as a tool of control.
• Perhaps more absolute than violence.

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Oppression The Very Nature of Slavery

• Its bad to belong to folks that own you soul
  an body. I could tell you bout it all day, but
  even then you couldnt guess the awfulness of
  it.
• There was no such thing as being good to slaves.
  Many people were better than others, but a slave
  belonged to his master there was no way to get
  out of it.

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Resistance

• Planned Rebellion
• Gabriel Prosser Nat Turner in Virginia
• Denmark Vesey in Charleston, SC.
• Very Rare
• Individual Violence--Frederick Douglass
• Perhaps more prevalent
• Hard to quantify

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Resistance

• Weapons of the Weak
• Sabotage work slowdowns
• Putdowns snide remarks.
• Grand Theft the General Strike--Escape
• Cultural Autonomy--The ultimate resistance?

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