Ante-Bellum Plantation Society The South and Slavery Ante-Bellum Plantation Society

King Cotton Whitney’s cotton gin makes cotton the king crop of the south.

Spiral of Speculation Southern planters were caught in a spiral of speculation in cotton.

Enormous profits were reinvested in more land and more slaves.

The Importance of Cotton Northern shippers bought cotton in the south and sold it in England and brought finished manufactured goods back to America.

The American South produced more than half of the world’s cotton.

The Cotton Belt

1/5 of the British population was involved in the cotton textile industry.

75% of British cotton came from the American South.

Cotton accounted for 1/2 of U.S. exports after 1840.

Which side would Britain choose in the Civil War?

The Planter Aristocracy 1850 – only 1,733 families owned more than 100 slaves – they were the cream of southern society.

Moonlight and Magnolia Cottonocracy - controlled the government - held to the ideal of chivalry.

Sir Walter Scott Then comes Sir Walter Scott with his enchantments, and by his single might checks this wave of progress, and even turns it back; sets the world in love with dreams and phantoms; with decayed and swinish forms of religion; with decayed and degraded systems of government; with the silliness and emptiness … and sham chivalries of a brainless and worthless long-vanished society. He did measureless harm; more real and lasting harm, perhaps, than any other individual that ever wrote. ~ Mark Twain

This elitism led to an undemocratic gap between rich and poor.

And it hampered the development of tax-supported education and left few opportunities for social mobility.

Cotton cropping ruined the soil

Monocropping weakened the economy.

Planters over-speculated in land and slaves.

The White Majority Only 1/4 of the white population owned slaves 2/3rds of these had less than 10.

Most of the population were small farmers - many worse off than slaves.

Life in Appalachia Mountain whites tended to look down on the slave owners and the blacks.

Appalachia Many mountaineers would back the Union in the Civil War.

Life in Appalachia

Life on a Plantation

Mississippi Delta

Natchez, Mississippi Monmouth Plantation

Free Blacks 250,000 free blacks in the south by 1860.

Many purchased their freedom, some even owned slaves of their own.

There were many mulattos in Louisiana and the Deep South.

Free blacks had few rights - could easily be captured as runaway slaves.

250,000 free blacks in the north often fared as poorly - many states restricted their entry. Northerners, especially Irish, disliked blacks more than southerners

Plantation Slavery 1860 4 million black slaves in America

Legal importation ended in 1808 - still continued as an underground market.

Aunt Jane and Uncle Jerry," domestic slaves owned by a Norfolk, Virginia family; photographed about 1848

Slaves were considered an investment and were protected from dangerous labor.

Still many were often mistreated - whipped, families broken up, sold at auction.

Ledger of John White Matilda Selby, 9, $400.00 Sold to Mr. Covington, St. Louis, $425.00 Brooks Selby, 19, $750.00 Left at Home -- Crazy Fred McAfee, 22, $800.00 Sold to Pepidal, Donaldsonville, $1200.00 Howard Barnett, 25, $750.00 Ranaway. Sold out of Jail, $540.00 Harriet Barnett, 17, $550.00 Sold to Davenport and Jones, Lafourche, $900.00

Most slaves were concentrated in the Deep South - La, Miss, Al, Ga, SC. 75% of population in some areas.

Treatment of Runaways

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.” - Ephesians 6:5 "(Our) Peculiar Institution"

Slave Quarters

Slave Quarters

Slave Revolts 1800 - slave named Gabriel led uprising in Virginia - leaders were hanged. 1822 - Denmark Vesey led revolt in Charleston - 30 were hanged.

1831 - Nat Turner led a revolt and killed over 60 people - mostly women and children.

The Amistad Revolt

The South’s Peculiar Institution led to the creation of Abolition societies.

Early Abolitionism Quakers led the fight to abolish slavery

The American Colonization Society was founded in 1817 to repatriate blacks to Africa.

1822 – The Country of Liberia was founded in Africa - capital city in Monrovia.

1830’s - 2nd Great Awakening led to increase in call for reform and abolition.

Theodore Dwight Weld - led the way in the fight for abolition. Weld was educated at the Lane Theological Seminary in, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Lane College was presided over by Lyman Beecher -- father of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Catherine Beecher and Henry Ward Beecher.

Weld wrote American Slavery As It Is.

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Radical Abolition William Lloyd Garrison publishes the “The Liberator” - 1831.

William Lloyd Garrison “I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! . . . I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD!!”

1833 American Anti-Slavery Society was founded Wendell Philips led a boycott of south. “Abolition's Golden Trumpet"

African American Abolitionists David Walker - black abolitionist - wrote an “Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World”

Sojourner Truth fought for freedom and women’s rights.

I'm on my way to Canady That cold and distant land The dire effects of slavery I can no longer stand - Farewell old master, Don't come after me. I'm on my way to Canady Where coloured men are free. A version of the song "The Free Slave"

Harriet Tubman The Underground Railroad

Frederick Douglass - great orator against slavery - wrote an autobiography of his life as a slave.

Politics of Abolition 1840 - formation of the Liberty Party. 1848 - the Free Soil Party 1850’s the Republican Party.

The South Fights Back 1830’s last emancipation bills are defeated in the south. Southerners defend their “peculiar institution” as good for blacks - better than “wage slaves” of the North.

Abolition literature and meetings were banned in the South.

“Gag Rule” applied to congressional debate over slavery. John Quincy Adams