1. SOUTHERN SLAVERY THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION

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THE ROAD TO THE CIVIL WAR

• 1. SOUTHERN SLAVERY THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION
• Prior to 1791 slavery was not profitable
• Cotton Gin----Eli Whitney---1791
• South relied on cotton and slaves.
• Cotton production doubles every 10 years
• King Cotton
• 2. Southern society
• 3. Facts on Slavery
• 4. Why did the South fight a war to preserve
  slavery when ¾ of Southerners did not own
  slaves?
• American Dream

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• 5. SOCIAL OUTCRY AGAINST SLAVERY
• Rise of abolitionists----1830 to 1860
• William Lloyd Garrison
• Frederick Douglass
• Harriet Tubman
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Arguments
• For slavery
• Against slavery
• 6. Did slaves revolt against slavery?
• Slave revolts Slave codes

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C O T T O N P R O D U C T I O N
The invention which changed the South, cotton
and slavery.
1791 4,000 bales of cotton are produced 1849
2, 246, 900 bales of cotton are produced 6
cents a lb. to 14 cents in 1857 Expanded into
Arkansas and Texas Crop increase 2,500,000
bales in 1850 to 5,300,000 in 1860 Crop Value
In 1800, 8 million In 1860, 250
million Tobacco by 1860 200,000,000 lbs. to
430,000,000 lbs.
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Whitney Ends the Fiber Famine

• Cotton gin invented in 1793
• 50 times more effective than hand picking
• Raising cotton more profitable
• South needs slavery more than ever for King
  Cotton

• New England factories flourish with Southern
  cotton

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Effects
Increased exports for the South Planters became
rich
Cotton Gin
Increased demand for slaves
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Slaves Using the Cotton Gin
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GROWTH OF SLAVERY

• Total U.S. population was 3.5 million
• 700,000 slaves in the U.S. at this time.
• Still bought slaves through the slave trade.

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GROWTH OF SLAVERY

• Total U.S. population was 18 million
• 2 million slaves in the U.S. at this time.
• 1808, importation of slaves was illegal
• Slave trade within the U.S.
• Increase of slave population was from natural
  reproduction

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GROWTH OF SLAVERY
33 million U.S. population, 4 million slaves in
the South
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Map Crops in South
GROWTH OF SLAVERY
COTTON BELT, Cotton Kingdom
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Map/Cotton Belt
GROWTH OF SLAVERY
COTTON BELT, Cotton Kingdom
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SOUTHERN SOCIETY

• Southern society was similar to a Feudal system
  that existed in Europe during the Dark and Middle
  Ages..(Manorial System)
• Caste system and difficult to move up the social
  ladder.
• Based on white supremacy and the slave was
  inferior.

Plantation owners Aristocracy
Upper class
Owned some slaves. Achieve American Dream
Middle ClassSmall farmers
Owned no slaves.Hated white upper classAmerican
Dream
Poor Whites
Free Blacks, 2nd class citizens
No political or civil rights.
Slaves---no rights, considered property
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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--gt 5 mil. bales a
   yr. (57 of total US exports).
4. Very slow development of industrialization.
5. Rudimentary financial system.
6. Inadequate transportation system.

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FACTS ON SLAVERY
Conditions on a slave ship were horrible. This
was called the Middle Passage.

• At the Constitutional Convention
• 3/5s Compromise
• 1807, imported slaves was abolished in the U.S.
• Fugitive Slave Law
• 90 of Europes cotton came from the South by
  1860
• 1/2 of U.S. exports were from cotton
• More money invested in slaves than land and
  tools---2 billion

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FACTS ON SLAVERY

• More slaves you had the greater social status
• 2/3s of presidents since independence were
  slaveowners
• Majority of Supreme Court justices were from the
  South

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Facts on slavery
FACTS ON SLAVERY
Slaves being sold at an auction was prevalent
throughout the Southern U.S. right up to the
Civil War.

• More millionaires in the South than the North
• 75 of the cotton harvest was done by plantations
  with10 or more slaves.
• Slave population grew from natural reproduction
• There was a slave trade within the U.S.

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FACTS ON SLAVERY

• No political or civil rights to protect slaves
• U.S. was the largest slave institution in the
  world by 1860
• U.S. produced 7/8s of worlds cotton supply
• Peculiar Institution, to own another human being
  is immoral.
• Cotton is King/King Cotton
• South was not willing to change
• Always felt isolated and threatened from the rest
  of the U.S.

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Chart/Total slaves
FACTS ON SLAVERY
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Chart/Life expectancy
FACTS ON SLAVERY
Life Expectancy of Working Men, 1830 to 1920
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Chart/Net Earnings
FACTS ON SLAVERY
of White to Black Population in 1860
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Chart Total Deaths
OF SOUTHERN WHITE FAMILIES OWNING SLAVES IN
1860

About 1,150,000 Southern white families owned no
slaves---75
About 384,000 Southern white families owned 1
slave or more---25
Total of 1,534,000 Southern white families in
1860A total population of 7,981,000.
(Number of slaves)
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FACTS ON SLAVERY

• Statistically only 25 of Southern families owned
  slaves
• 384,000 Southern families owned 1 or more slaves.
• 75 of Southern families did not own slaves.

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Chart/slave owners
FACTS ON SLAVERY

• Out of the 25 of slaveowners, here is the
  breakdown of the number of slaves.
• 75 owned 1 to 9 slaves.
• 22 owned 10 to 49 owned slaves.
• 3 owned 50 or more slaves.

384,000
1860
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Slave Accoutrements
Slave MasterBrands
Slave muzzle
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Slave Accoutrements
Slave tag, SC
Slave leg irons
Slave shoes
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Slaves posing in front of their cabin on a
Southern plantation.
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Slave Resistance Uprisings
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Slave Resistance

1. SAMBO pattern of behavior used as a charade in
   front of whites the innocent, laughing black man
   caricature bulging eyes, thick lips, big smile,
   etc..

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Slave Resistance

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

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Runaway Slave Ads
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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.
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SLAVE REVOLTS

• Slaves resorted to revolts in the 13 colonies and
  later in the southern U.S.
• 250 insurrections have been documented between
  1780 and 1864.
• 91 African-Americans were convicted of
  insurrection in Virginia alone.
• First revolt in what became the United States
  took place in 1526 at a Spanish settlement near
  the mouth of the Pee Dee River in South Carolina.

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SLAVE REVOLTS
Stono County Rebellion

• September 9, 1739, twenty black Carolinians met
  near the Stono River, approximately twenty miles
  southwest of Charleston. They took guns and
  powder from a store and killed the two
  storekeepers they found there.
• "With cries of 'Liberty' and beating of drums,"
  "the rebels raised a standard and headed south
  toward Spanish St. Augustine . Burned houses, and
  killed white opponents.
• Largest slave uprising in the 13 colonies prior
  to the American Revolution.
• Slaveowners caught up with the band of 60 to 100
  slaves. 20 white Carolinians and 40 black
  Carolinians were killed before the rebellion was
  suppressed.

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SLAVE REVOLTS

• Slaves resorted to revolts in the 13 colonies and
  later in the southern U.S.
• Gabriel Prosser
• Denmark Vessey
• Nat Turner

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SLAVE REVOLTS
Gabriel Prosser, (1776-1800), American leader of
an aborted slave uprising, whose intention was to
create a free black state in Virginia. Born near
Richmond, he was the son of an African mother who
instilled in him the love of freedom. Inspired
perhaps by the success of the black
revolutionaries of Haiti, he plotted with other
slaves, notably Jack Bowler, in the spring of
1800 to seize the arsenal at Richmond and kill
whites. On August 30, 1800, as many as 1000 armed
slaves gathered outside Richmond ready for
action. A torrential downpour and thunderstorm,
however, washed away a bridge vital to the
insurrectionists' march at the same time
Governor James Monroe, the future president, was
informed of the plot and dispatched the state
militia against them. Prosser and some 35 of his
young comrades were captured and hanged.
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SLAVE REVOLTS
The leader of an American slave revolt in
Charleston, S.C., Denmark Vesey, b. Africa, 1767,
d. July 2, 1822, had been owned by a slave-ship
captain before he purchased his freedom (1800)
with 600 won in a street lottery. As a freedman
in Charleston, he worked at carpentry, became a
leader of his church, and read antislavery
literature. Determined to strike a blow against
the institution that had victimized him, he
devised an intricate conspiracy for an uprising
in Charleston and vicinity during the summer of
1822. Informers divulged the plot, however, and
35 blacks, including Vesey, were executed.
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SLAVE REVOLTS
Nat Turner Rebellion Nat Turner, a slave owned
by Joseph Travis of Southampton, Virginia,
believed that he had been chosen by God to lead a
slave rebellion. On 21st August, 1831, Turner and
seven fellow slaves, murdered Travis and his
family. Over the next two days and nights,
Turner's band killed around 60 white people in
Virginia. Turner had hoped that this action would
cause a massive slave uprising but only 75 joined
his rebellion. Over 3,000 members of the state
militia were sent to deal with Turner's gang, and
they were soon defeated. In retaliation, more
than a hundred innocent slaves were killed.
Turner went into hiding but was captured six
weeks later. Nat Turner was executed on 11th
November, 1831.
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Slave Revolts/Turner
SLAVE REVOLTS
Arrest of Nat Turner
Tree Nat Turner was hung on
Nat Turner Rebellion
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Slave Revolts
SLAVE REVOLTS
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SLAVE REVOLTS

• Besides slave revolts, slaves resorted to other
  ways to revolt..
• Wouldnt work hard.
• Would sabotage equipment or break tools.
• Sometimes poisoned their masters food.
• Tried to escape

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Slave Laws
SLAVE CODES AND LAWS

• Slave Revolts would lead plantation owners to
  develop a series of slave laws/codes which
  restricted the movement of the slaves.
• Slaves were not taught to read or write
• Restricted to the plantation
• Slaves could not congregate after dark
• Slaves could not possess any type of firearm
• A larger slave plantation than white in some
  states
• Slave owners wanted to keep their slaves ignorant
  of the outside world because learning about life
  beyond the plantation could lead to more slave
  revolts and wanting to escape.

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SLAVE CODES OR LAWS
Slave Codes of the State of Georgia, 1848
SEC. I. CAPITAL OFFENSES. 1. Capital crimes
when punished with death. The following shall be
considered as capital offences, when committed by
a slave or free person of color insurrection, or
an attempt to excite it committing a rape, or
attempting it on a free white female murder of a
free white person, or murder of a slave or free
person of color, or poisoning of a human being
every and each of these offences shall, on
conviction, be punished with death.
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SLAVE LAWS
Georgia Slave Code, 1848 2. Punishment of free
persons of color for encouraging slaves. If any
free person of color commits the offence of
encouraging or enticing away any slave or slaves,
for the purpose of, and with the intention to aid
and assist such slave or slaves leaving the
service of his or their owner or owners, or in
going to another state, such person so offending
shall, for each and every such offence, on
conviction, be confined in the penitentiary at
hard labor for one year.
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SLAVE LAWS
Georgia Slave Code, 1848 3. Punishment for
teaching slaves or free persons of color to read.
If any slave, Negro, or free person of color,
or any white person, shall teach any other slave,
Negro, or free person of color, to read or write
either written or printed characters, the said
free person of color or slave shall be punished
by fine and whipping, or fine or whipping, at the
discretion of the court.
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Abolitionist Movement

• 1816 ? American Colonization Society
  created (gradual, voluntary
  emancipation.

British Colonization Society symbol
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Abolitionist Movement

• Create a free slave state in Liberia,
  WestAfrica.
• No real anti-slavery sentiment in the North in
  the 1820s 1830s.

Gradualists
Immediatists
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Anti-Slavery Alphabet
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Anti-Slave Pamphlet
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Abolitionists
ABOLITIONIST ARGUMENTS

• Abolitionists believed slavery was
  immoral..Peculiar institution or it is odd,
  strange or weird to own another human being.
• Abolitionists argued slavery was immoral because
  it violated the ideals that this country was
  founded on.
• All men are created equal (DOI)
• If the U.S. was to succeed as a democratic
  society, slavery had to be abolished

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Abolitionism Division and Opposition

• Abolitionism forced the churches to face the
  question of slavery head-on, and in the 1840s the
  Methodist and Baptist churches each split into
  northern and southern organizations over the
  issue of slavery
• Even the abolitionists themselves splintered
• More conservative reformers wanted to work within
  established institutions, using churches and
  political action to end slavery

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William Lloyd Garrison (1801-1879)

• Slavery Masonryundermined republicanvalues.
• Immediate emancipation with NO compensation.
• Slavery was a moral, notan economic issue.

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Picture/Garrison
ABOLITIONISTS

• Through his newspaper, The Liberator, William
  Lloyd Garrison spoke out against slavery and for
  the rights of black Americans for 35 years. The
  tone of the paper was established in the first
  issue of the paper with Garrison's editorial
  entitled, "To the Public,
• On this subject, I do not wish to think, or
  speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a
  man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate
  alarm tell him to moderately rescue his wife
  from the hand of the ravisher tell the mother to
  gradually extricate her babe from the fire into
  which it has fallen -- but urge me not to use
  moderation in a cause like the present. I am in
  earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not
  excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND
  I WILL BE HEARD.

Garrison, a leader among American abolitionists,
delivered his views with great conviction, as
well as great foresight. "Posterity," he
concluded in the editorial, "will bear testimony
that I was right
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The Liberator
Premiere issue ? January 1, 1831
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Black Abolitionists
David Walker(1785-1830)
1829 ? Appeal to the Coloured Citizens
of the World
Fight for freedom rather than wait to be set
free by whites.
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Picture/Douglass
ABOLITIONISTS

• Escaped slave in 1838
• Mother was a slave and father was white
• Great speaker against slavery
• Bought his freedom for 600.00
• Wrote his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of
  Frederick Douglass
• Editor of the North Star--Abolitionist paper
• Friends with Garrison
• Organized the 54th Black Regiment of Mass

Frederick Douglas
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Reading/On Douglass
ABOLITIONISTS
After hearing Frederick Douglass speak in
Bristol, England, in 1846, Mary A. Estlin wrote
to an American abolitionist There is but one
opinion of him. Wherever he goes he arouses
sympathy in your cause and love for himself..Our
expectations were highly roused by his
narrative, his printed speeches, and the
eulogisms of the friends with whom he has been
staying but he far exceeds the picture we had
formed both in outward graces, intellectual power
and culture and eloquence.
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Sojourner Truth (1787-1883)or Isabella Baumfree
1850 ? The Narrative of Sojourner Truth
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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
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Picture/Stowe
ABOLITIONISTS

• Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abolitionist, authored the
  book Uncle Toms Cabin
• Book was used as propaganda to show the
  inhumanity of slavery.
• Southerners were enraged by this book and called
  it lies.

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Uncle Toms Cabin 1852

• Sold 300,000 copies inthe first year.
• 2 million in a decade!

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In the closing scenes of Harriet Beecher Stowes
novel, Uncle Toms brutal master, Simon Legree,
orders the 1200.00 slave savagely beaten (to
death) by two fellow slaves. Through tears and
blood Tom exclaims, No! no! no! my soul aint
yours Masr! You havent bought it-----ye cant
buy it! Its been bought and paid for by One
that is able to keep it. No matter, no mater,
you cant harm me! I cant said Legree, with
a sneer well see----well see! Here, Sambo,
Quimbo, give this dog such a breakin in as he
wont get over this month!
Reading/Toms Cabin
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ARGUMENTS FOR SLAVERY

• Economically profitable
• Slavery was in the Bible
• Duty of Southerners to Christianize the slaves,
  Positive Good
• Provided a better life for slaves than in Africa,
  Positive Good
• 5th Amendment legalized and protected slavery
  because slaves were considered property.

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Southern Pro-SlaveryPropaganda
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• Gag rule was passed in Congress which nothing
  concerning slavery could be discussed.
• Under the gag rule, anti-slavery petitions were
  not read on the floor of Congress
• The rule was renewed in each Congress between
  1837 and 1839.
• In 1840 the House passed an even stricter rule,
  which refused to accept all anti-slavery
  petition. On December 3, 1844, the gag rule was
  repealed