Slavery in the South Inequality determined by class and caste – Class: unequal access to wealth and productive resources. – Caste: advantage/disadvantage associated with racial ancestry. The southern social hierarchy – Planters (4%): owned 20 or more slaves Mostly in the Cotton Belt. – Slaveholding Yeoman Farmers (20%) – Nonslaveholding Yeoman Farmers (75%)

Slavery in the South Daily Life and labor – In the Cotton Belt the slaves worked in gangs under an overseer and were half the population. “…sundown to sunup, six days a week.” Cotton cultivation was year round; no slack season. – In the Upper South the whites dominated the population 3:1 and slaves worked alongside their master. – 75% of slaves worked in fields, while the rest worked other jobs(built houses, worked on boats, house servants). – 5% worked in small industries/railroads.

Slavery in the South Family, Kinship, and Community – Kept slavery from becoming utterly demoralizing. – More stable in the Deep South than in the Upper South. – Mother-centered families due to unstable presence of fathers/men. – A sense of community was created that made slavery somewhat endurable. – Family break-up was most horrific aspect of the institution. Religion – Black Christianity stressed portions of the Bible that spoke to enslaved people trying to gain freedom. – White churches stressed the idea that God commanded slaves to serve their masters. – True slave religion was practiced secretly at night; highly emotional singing, dancing, and preaching.

Slavery in the South Resistance and Rebellion – Gabriel Prosser – Denmark Vesey – Bob Ferebee – Great Dismal Swamp – Nat Turner – Underground Railroad Slave Rebellion was the biggest fear of white people who lived in the South. Other forms of rebellion- indirect or passive resistance – Slow and inefficient work, faking illness and injury, theft from master, breaking tools, neglecting animals, setting fires, poison.

White Southern Society Most southern whites were nonslaveholding yeoman farmers. – Having a degraded class of blacks below them made them feel better about their own place in society The Great Planters – Exerted a decisive influence on public policy – Often were self-made men – Aristocratic lifestyle The aristocratic stereotype that has been portrayed in Hollywood was actually practiced by very few southern white families.

Paternalism Most planters considered themselves “benevolent masters.” Slaves were children to be cared for. “Slavery is a positive good.” This rhetoric increased as slaveholders were accused of abuses. There was truth to the claim that slaves were well-cared for, but reports of abuse were still widespread.

Violence in slavery Limits to Paternalism – Paternal attitude usually reserved for a few favored slaves. Slaveholders had no problem selling their slaves and breaking up families if they needed to settle a debt. In order to maintain control or to discipline surly attitudes, methods of punishment were common. – Fear of force and intimidation – Whipping – Threats to break up families – Slaves were tortured, Slaves were murdered, and often female slaves were attacked sexually. – No legal protection against this. Simon Legree from Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Small Slaveholders Usually owned fewer than ten slaves. Worked alongside them in the fields. The best and the worst of slavery could be found on these farms. – Less social life for slaves. – Less food and adequate clothing.

Yeoman farmers Self-reliant farmers. Concentrated in the southern backcountry. These slave-less farmers would be grouped into white counties. They were staunch Jacksonians that resented aristocratic pretensions. – “cotton snobs” They believed in slavery because… – It guaranteed their own liberty and independence – Freed slaves would compete with them for jobs – It allowed them to feel like equal members of a master race.

The Proslavery Argument Enslavement was the proper status for people of African descent (inferior). Slavery was sanctioned by the Bible and Christianity. It was humanitarian because the plantation allowed masters to “take care” of this race of “perpetual children.” The treatment of slaves in the south vs. the treatment of wage labor in the north.

Abolition in the South Proslavery southerners attempted to seal off their region from antislavery ideas. Whites who criticized slavery were taking great risk. Literature sent through the mail was seized and publicly burned. This was inspired by the fear that nonslaveholding whites and slaves would get negative ideas about slavery. In the 1850s, as the mood of panic and desperation resulted from national events, an increasing number of southerners started to believe that the only protection from abolition was secession.

Economics of Slavery Slaves were seen as a form of capital. It was the cornerstone of the southern economy. After slave trade was banned in 1808 it became economically necessary for the slave population to reproduce itself. The concentration of wealth in the north was so high that paying wages to workers was no big deal. In the south the concentration of wealth was substantially lower, so in order to keep their economy somewhat equitable to the north they needed a labor force that they did not have to pay.

Economics of Slavery Deep South – The Cotton Belt – The Cotton Gin was developed – The Deep South was more dependent on slavery as a result of the rise of “King Cotton.” – By the 1850s, three-quarters of the world’s supply of cotton came from the American South.

Economics of Slavery Upper South – Tobacco market was depressed – Diversified farming lowered the demand for slaves and increased the demand for capital. – The Upper South became the biggest market for slaves to the Deep South. – Upper South was torn between staying with the Deep South’s plantation economy or with the industrializing free labor system in the north.