The Antebellum South

1
The Antebellum South
2
Early Emancipation in the North
3
Missouri Compromise, 1820
4
Slavery in the South

• At the dawn of the American revolution, many
  believed that slavery was on a slow decline, much
  to do with its economic inefficiency and also
  from the idealism of the revolution.
• Eli Whitneys Cotton Gin, which made cotton
  profitable and it also needed a huge labor force.
  As a result, it chained the slave to the gin and
  the planter to the slave.

5
Cotton is King!!!!

• Cotton became an instant boom crop and many
  planters raced to gain more land in the gulf
  states. As they got more land, they wanted more
  slaves, so they could plant more cotton, so they
  could reap more financial rewards. It became
  cyclical.
• The North is guilty too. They made huge amounts
  of money on the cheap available southern cotton
  in the northern textile mills (where cheap wage
  slaves worked). Also, Northern shippers
  transported massive amounts of cotton to Britain
  and made huge profits.
• The prosperity of both the North and the South
  depended heavily on slave labor, the North
  indirectly and the South directly.

6
Cotton is King!!!!

• In 1840, 50 of the value of American exports was
  cotton
• In 1840, the South produced more than half of the
  entire worlds supply of cotton.
• 75 percent of the cotton used in Britain, who
  employed 20 of its workforce in textiles, was
  from the South.
• The main point, Cotton was making a killing and
  southern plantation owners essentially had a
  monopoly on the worlds cotton market.
• So much so, the South believed that if a war were
  to happen between the North and South, the
  British Royal Navy would stop any attempts by the
  North to blockade the Souths cotton.

7
Southern Agriculture
8
Changes in Cotton Production
1820
1860
9
Slaves Picking Cottonon a Mississippi Plantation
10
Slaves Using the Cotton Gin
11
Value of Cotton Exports As of All US Exports
12
Southern Aristocracy

• South is an oligarchy because of the wealth and
  influence of the planter aristocracy.
• 1,733 families owned more than 100 slaves each.
• These families provided the cream of the
  political and social leadership.
• Image of the large columned white plantation
  house of the cottonocracy
• Sir Walter Scott
• Famous author idolized in the South because he
  wrote about feudal society with manors and
  castles. Many southern plantation owners viewed
  themselves as lords and kings in a feudal
  society. This is why they were attracted to
  Scotts books, they reflected their archaic
  medieval society.

13
Tara Plantation Reality or Myth?
Hollywoods Version?
14
Women and the Plantations

• Women who married plantation owners controlled a
  sizable household staff
• Cooks, maids, seamstresses, laundresses, and body
  servants
• Bonds varied between households. Some women had
  affectionate bonds while others were cruel and
  mistreated the slaves.
• However, despite accounts of kindness,
  essentially no slaveholding women believed in
  abolition or advocated for it.

15
The Plantation System
16
Plantation Waste

• Plantations were actually quite wasteful and
  inefficient.
• Harsh for the land and destroyed the soil
• Economy became more monopolistic and many small
  farmers were forced to leave to the West or
  Northwest to eek out a living. Basically, the
  big got bigger and the small got smaller. (Think
  Walmart and small mom and pop stores)
• Additionally, it was financially unstable.
• Overpopulation in land and slaves caused economic
  instability and debt
• Slaves represented a heavy investment of capital
• Dependence on one-crop economy (think the Irish
  and the potato). So no manufacturing, which made
  the South dependent upon the North

17
Antebellum Southern Society
18
Characteristics of the Antebellum South

1. Primarily agrarian.
2. Economic power shifted from the upper South to
   the lower South.
3. Cotton Is King! 1860? 5 mil. bales a yr.
   (57 of total US exports).
4. Very slow development of industrialization.
5. Rudimentary financial system.
6. Inadequate transportation system.

19
Southern Society (1850)
Slavocracyplantation owners 1,733 Families
Other Slaveowners (345,000 families) 2/3 of
which owned less than 10 slaves each) 1.7
million people
Whites who owned no slaves 6.1 million people
Black Freemen
250,000
Black Slaves4,000,000
Total US Population ? 23,000,0009,250,000 in
the South 40
20
Slave-Owning Population (1850)
21
Slave-Owning Families (1850)
22
Southern Population
23
White non-plantation population

• Usually owned no more than 10 slaves and many
  families had one or 2 slaves. Sometimes up to a
  family of slaves
• In total, only ¼ of the southern white population
  owned slaves.
• There were 6,120, 825 white non slave owners in
  the south
• They scraped a living and life was tough. Lived
  a simple life in the mountains or in the
  backcountry
• Viewed plantation owners as a snobocracy and
  benefitted little from slavery.

24
White non-plantation population

• However, why did the poor white non-slave owners
  defend slavery?
• Idea of perhaps owning slaves themselves and
  improving their lot, gaining their southern
  American Dream
• Took solace in idea of racial superiority of
  whites that was preached in the South and that
  even though southern whites were poor, slaves
  still ranked below them on the social ladder.

25
Mountain folk

• Isolated from the rest of the South in the
  Appalachian mountains. Kind of a throwback to an
  earlier time and stuck in time. Some even kept
  some Elizabethan speech patterns.
• Little in common with the other whites and far
  from King Cotton.
• During the Civil war, many of these whites in the
  mountains sided with the Union and helped in
  winning the war for the North.

26
African American Population

• In 1860, roughly 250,000 free blacks lived in the
  South.
• Upper South- many emancipated after the spirit of
  idealism spread during the revolutionary War
  period
• Deep South- many free blacks were mulattoes.
  However, some free blacks also purchased their
  freedom with earnings from labor after hours.
• In New Orleans, there was a sizable mulatto
  population and many owned property. William T.
  Johnson was a free black in New Orleans who owned
  15 slaves.

27
Laws Against Free Blacks

• In many ways, free blacks in the South were like
  a third race
• Forbidden from certain jobs and testifying
  against whites in court
• Constant fear of being kidnapped by slave traders
• Slave system saw them as a threat because they
  were examples of what a non-slave society could
  achieve.
• In the North (250,000 free blacks)
• Some states forbade entrance, most denied right
  to vote, and some barred free blacks from school.
  
• The Irish often fought against free blacks in the
  North because they competed for jobs with them.
• Frederick Douglas was mobbed and beaten in the
  North many times.
• Common thought of the day was that southerners
  hated blacks as a race but liked the individuals
  while northerners professed they liked the race,
  but disliked individual blacks.

28
Southern Slavery

• In 1860, estimated 4 million slaves in the South
  (quadrupled since 1800)
• Legal importation was banned in 1808, however.
• Illegal slave trade continued as many smuggled
• N.P. Gordon, was hanged for participating in
  illegal slave trade in 1862 in New York. Only
  recorded time of a slave trader being punished
  executed.
• Bulk of the increase came from natural
  reproduction, which made American slave
  population unique in the world.

29
Antebellum Southern Plantation Life
30
The South's "Peculiar Institution"
31
Plantation Life

• Slaves primarily seen as investments, and 2
  billion dollars sunk into slavery by 1860. Thus,
  as any capitalist, planters looked to make sure
  their investment was cared for as an asset
• As a result, many slaves were barred from doing
  dangerous work. This was usually done by Irish
  laborers, if a next was to be broken, better it
  was not a slave.

32
Slave Auction Notice, 1823
Slave auctions were brutal sights and showed the
lack of humanity that was the slave system. Many
families were separated. Many slaves were sold
alongside cattle and horses, further diminishing
their humanity. One of the worst legacies of
slavery was the lack of concern in keeping
families together and the separation of families
at these slave auctions
33
Slave Auction Charleston, SC-1856
34
Slave Accoutrements
Slave MasterBrands
Slave muzzle
Life on the plantations varied greatly based on
the slave owner. However, everywhere meant hard
work, ignorance, and oppression. Slaves worked
from dawn to dusk everyday, under constant threat
of the overseer and his whip. No civil or
political rights and could not testify in court.
35
Slave Accoutrements
Slave shoes
Slave tag, SC
Slave leg irons
Floggings were common because The whip was an
alternative to the Wage-incentive system. Some
Slaves sent to the breaker who Used cruel
lashings to break a Slaves will to resist.
36
Anti-Slave Pamphlet
37
Slaves posing in front of their cabin on a
Southern plantation.
By 1860, majority of slaves lived in the Deep
South were Cotton Farming was the most practiced.
In some counties, Slaves accounted for over 75
of the population. This allowed for secure
family life and also the creation of a Distinct
African-American culture.
38
African-American Culture

• Signs of family continuity evidenced in the
  following
• Practice of naming children for grandparents and
  surnames not of their current master, but of a
  forebears master
• Avoiding marriage between first cousins,
  displaying African cultural roots
• In religion, many embraced Christianity, but
  mixed it with African elements.
• Evident in the responsorial style of preaching,
  which was an adaptation of traditions in Africa

39
A Slave Family
40
The Culture of Slavery

1. Black Christianity Baptists or Methodists
   more emotional worship services. negro
   spirituals.
2. Pidgin or Gullah languages.
3. Nuclear family with extended kin links,where
   possible.
4. Importance of music in their lives. esp.
   spirituals.

41
Slave Resistance Uprisings
42
Slave Resistance

1. Destroying crops and pilfering food. Sabotaging
   expensive equipment, and sometimes poisoned
   masters food.

Sambo- Negative Caricature of Slaves.
43
Slave Resistance

1. Refusal to work hard.
2. Isolated acts of sabotage.
3. Escape via the Underground Railroad.

44
Runaway Slave Ads
45
Quilt Patterns as Secret Messages
The Monkey Wrench pattern, on the left, alerted
escapees to gather up tools and prepare to flee
the Drunkard Path design, on the right, warned
escapees not to follow a straight route.
46
Harriet Tubman(1820-1913)

• Helped over 300 slaves to freedom.
• 40,000 bounty on her head.
• Served as a Union spy during the Civil War.

Moses
47
Leading Escaping Slaves Along the Underground
Railroad
48
The Underground Railroad
49
The Underground Railroad

• Conductor leader of the escape
• Passengers escaping slaves
• Tracks routes
• Trains farm wagons transporting
  the escaping slaves
• Depots safe houses to rest/sleep

50
Slavery Was Less Efficient in the U. S. than
Elsewhere

• High cost of keeping slaves fromescaping.
• GOAL ? raise the exit cost.

• Slave patrols.

• Southern Black Codes.

• Cut off a toe or a foot.

51
Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South
Gabriel Prosser1800
1822
52
Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South
Nat Turner, 1831
53
Early Abolition
54
American Colonization Society

• In 1817, American Colonization Society founded
  with the purpose of transporting blacks back to
  Africa.
• In 1822, country of Liberia founded in West
  Africa for this purpose (capital Monrovia after
  President James Monroe)
• 15,000 Blacks and ex-slaves moved to Liberia over
  the next four decades. However, idea was not
  attractive to many because most southern slaves
  were African-Americans born in America with their
  own distinct culture separate from African
  culture.

55
1830s and Abolition

• 1833, Great Britain banned slavery in West
  Indies.
• Second Great Awakening spurred and inspired the
  abolition movement also
• Theodore Dwight Weld was evangelized by Finney
  and became an ardent supporter of abolition. Went
  to Lane Theological Seminary, where he and other
  students were expelled for waging an 18 day
  debate on slavery.
• In 1839, he published American Slavery as It Is.
  Almost nearly as influential as Uncle Tom's
  cabin.

56
William Lloyd Garrison (1801-1879)

• Slavery Masonryundermined republicanvalues.
• Immediate emancipation with NO compensation.
• Slavery was a moral, notan economic issue.
• 1831, published The Liberator. In 1833, founded
  the American Anti-Slavery Society

R2-4
57
The Liberator
Premiere issue ? January 1, 1831
R2-5
58
Black Abolitionists
David Walker(1785-1830)
1829 ? Appeal to the Coloured Citizens
of the World - Called for the bloody end to white
suprmecy.
Fight for freedom rather than wait to be set
free by whites.
59
Sojourner Truth (1787-1883)or Isabella Baumfree
1850 ? The Narrative of Sojourner Truth
R2-10
60
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)
1845 ? The Narrative of the Life Of
Frederick Douglass 1847 ? The North Star
R2-12
61
Party Support

• Many abolitionists supported the Liberty Party in
  1840, the Free-Soil Party in 1848, and finally
  the republican Party in the 1850s.
• In 1830s Southern states moved to silence any
  abolition movements in the South and any ideas of
  emancipation. Nat Turners rebellion played a
  huge role as well as the Nullification Crisis of
  1832

62
Southern Pro-SlaveryPropaganda
Also compared slavery To the wage slaves of the
North and said slavery was Kinder. These
arguments further increased the chasm Between the
north and south.
63
Gag Resolution

• In 1836, southern members of Congress got the Gag
  resolution passed. It required all anti-slavery
  appeals to be tabled without debate. This
  awakened John Quincy Adams fought for 8 years to
  have it repealed.

64
Southern Slavery--gt An Aberration?

• 1780s 1st antislavery society created in Phila.
• By 1804 slavery eliminated from last northern
  state.
• 1807 the legal termination of the slave trade,
  enforced by the Royal Navy.
• 1820s newly indep. Republics of Central So.
  America declared their slaves free.
• 1833 slavery abolished throughout the British
  Empire.
• 1844 slavery abolished in the Fr. colonies.
• 1861 the serfs of Russia were emancipated.

65
US Laws Regarding Slavery

1. U. S. Constitution 3/5s compromise I.2
   fugitive slave clause IV.2
2. 1793 ? Fugitive Slave Act.
3. 1850 ? stronger Fugitive Slave Act.