Slavery & the War

Plantation society plantersyeoman farmerspoor/laborers

Slave population Border states: 13% (430,000) Upper South: 29% (1.2 million) Lower South: 47% (2.3 million) Dividing line? –Ohio River, –Mason-Dixon line

% of white families owning slaves 385,000 owned slaves (total pop: 5 million) 33% of all familes in the South – Mississippi: 49% – South Carolina: 46% – Arkansas: 20% – Delaware: 3% 88% of all slaveowners owned less than 20 50% owned less than 5

Plantation society

Rebirth of slavery in US When? – 1793 Why? – Eli Whitney’s cotton gin

Life on plantations House vs. Field slaves Control by overseers – Cotton, Sugar, Tobacco, Rice Relationship to owners – Sometimes raised together – Mutual dependency

Plantation Society Slave revolts – Denmark Vesey (1822) – Nat Turner (1831) Results of Nat Turner Revolt – Patrols – Restrictions on education, religion – Fear of Haiti-like situation

Slave life Why so few revolts? – Difficulty of escaping Differences to South American slavery? – Life comparatively less harsh – Death rate lower, reproduction higher

Racial Attitudes Romantic racialism – Naturally religious – Child-like innocence Racial science – Polygenesis – Evolution

Southern defense of slavery Paternalism Slaves happy Slavery civilizes them (Christianity) Better off slave than free – Evils of „wage slavery” Biblical justification – Old Testament – Pauline epistles

Northern attacks on slavery Power corrupts slaveholder – Leads to immorality Denies humanity of slave – Implies equality – Had rights to family life (Uncle Tom) Against Christianity Threatens national unity Solution: colonization

Reasons for war Economic? – Industrial vs. Agricultural societies – Tariff disagreements Political? – Power in US Senate – States’ rights Slavery?