A Blessing and A Curse The Northern Slave Connection Nathan Jungmeyer Tomah High School American History I

Plan Overview This plan explores the connection that Northern industries shared with Southern slave holders. These connections go far beyond the 17 th and 18 th century slave trade or the textile industry. Plantation provisions provide another real and practical connection. Students will learn about three northern manufacturers and how they and their communities are bound to the slave South.

State Standards B.12.1 Explain different points of view on the same historical event, using data gathered from various sources, such as letters, journals, diaries, newspapers, government documents, and speeches B.12.5 Gather various types of historical evidence, including visual and quantitative data, to analyze issues of freedom and equality, liberty and order, region and nation, individual and community, law and conscience, diversity and civic duty; form a reasoned conclusion in the light of other possible conclusions; and develop a coherent argument in the light of other possible arguments B.12.9 Select significant changes caused by technology, industrialization, urbanization, and population growth, and analyze the effects of these changes in the United States and the world B Explain the history of slavery, racial and ethnic discrimination, and efforts to eliminate discrimination in the United States and elsewhere in the world

A Blessing and A Curse The Northern Slave Connection

The Northern Slave Connection Background - recall New England’s part in the Triangle Trade Northern textile industry grows with Southern cotton industry New Question How did Northern industry benefit from slave and plantation provisions?

Plantation Provisions What supplies/tools did a slave need or use on a daily basis? List below…  Where did these things come from? 

3 Northern Industries and the Communities that Benefited

Skovil Hoe, Higganum and East Haddam, CT

D & H Skovil Co., 480 miles from Richmond, VA Daniel Skovil travels the South observing the tools used by slaves in cotton fields. Skovils brothers create the “self sharpening planter hoe” Started in 1844, Skovil Co. quickly grows to a 500 acre and 5 mill factory complex. During the Civil War, they produced ram rods for guns.

R. G. Hazard & Co. Peace Dale, RI 493 miles from Richmond, VA Cotton bagging clothing, precut garments, “negro cloth” for use by slaves Roland Hazard spend most of his time selling to plantations in LA, but also in AL, MS Helped free a black man from RI taken as an escaped slave. Eventually worked to free 100 formerly free blacks and newly enslaved.

R. G. Hazard & Co. Peace Dale, RI Roland was an Abolitionist and Republican RI House of Reps How do you balance his position on slavery and his benefitting from it? Hazard Castle Narragansett, RI

North Brookfield, MA Slave Shoes 502 miles from Richmond An otherwise poor/struggling farming town became economically strong. The entire town was involved and thrived in the slave shoe business. “Russet Brogan” Much of the town was Anti-Slavery, they had stops on the Underground Railroad Thomas Snell a local pastor had to deal with this paradox.

North Brookfield, MA Slave Shoes Pastor Snell “Not $1 in 50 passes through our hands that is not derived from slavery.” “does not prove that the shoe business is wrong or that slavery is right”

North Brookfield, MA Slave Shoes Henry Wilson - Future VP of the US and cobbler from Natick, MA “Would it have been better for the slaves not to have shoes?”

The Northern Slave Connection Other Information To pay off debts, planters sometimes turned over ownership of slaves to northern manufacturers. Some manufacturers based credit potential on a planter’s slave population. Some manufacturers gained possession of slaves as payment for debts. Some/much of a plantations supplies came from Europe

The Northern Slave Connection Planter: “A vote for Abraham Lincoln will end our business relationship.” Manufacturer: “I sell boots not principles. But, not under any circumstances will I sell my principles to sell boots.”

Critical Thinking Questions Use examples from the discussion to answer. Write a paragraph for each question. 1.How does a Northern manufacturer view his connection with slavery? 2.In what ways do you agree and/or disagree with this position?

Work Cited OAH presentation by Seth Rockman, An Indestructible Hoe