The Question of Slavery:

1
The Question of Slavery

• The Voice of Abolition is Raised

2
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.

3
Southern Population
4
Whats growin down on the farm??
5
Cotton Production in the South
1820s
by 1860
6
Slave Owning Families by 1850
7
Smaller slave owners made up the majority of
slave holders in the South
Their goal was to achieve.. The American
Dream through slave ownership
-become larger land owners
-gain political strength part of the oligarchy
8
The Plantation myth
Not every Plantation was like Tara in Gone With
the Wind
9
Mountain Plantation Home
Typical plantation home
10
Gone With The Winds Tara Interior
11
Typical slave quarters
12
Interior of Slave Quarters
13
The Fields
14
Larger Plantations
15
A real Georgia Plantation
16
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.

17
Slave Resistance

• 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..

18

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

19
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
20
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
21
Runaway Slave Ads
22
The Fugitive Slave Act

• Part of the Compromise 1850
• Allowed slave owners to retrieve
  
  property in any territory
  
  (free or slave)
• Was based upon a simple description
• Fugitives were denied trial by jury
  
  unable to present evidence
  
  (free blacks could be enslaved)
• Several Northern governments passed laws to
  undermine the FSA!

23
The Abolitionist Movement
1816 ? American Colonization Societycalled for
gradual, voluntary emancipation.
No real anti-slavery sentiment in the North in
the 1820s 1830s.
William Lloyd Garrison (1801-1879)
24
Garrisons Position..
Slavery Masonryundermined republicanvalues. Im
mediate emancipation with NO compensation.
Slavery was a moral, notan economic issue.
Garrisons anti-slavery paper Premiere issue ?
January 1, 1831
25
Frederick Douglass

• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
• Born into slavery in Maryland
• Escaped to the North
• Took up the cause of abolition
• North Star newspaper
• Recruiter for the 54th Mass.

"Right is of no Sex Truth is of no Color God
is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren."
26
Sojourner Truth (1787-1883)or Isabella Baumfree

• Originally a slave in New York
• Ran away but was emancipated under NY law in 1827
• Became a traveling missionary then an
  abolitionist speaker
• Aint I a Woman
• Petitioned on Womens rights, abolition,
  prisoner rights