What were some basic understandings regarding Southern the stratified hierarchy in the South during the antebellum period?

 Antebellum South  Aristocracy- feudalism & chivalry (duels etc..)  Myth of the Southern aristocrat  Mostly self made (attorney’s, soldiers, marriage)  Leisure time? finances and managing plantation  Non planter class- predominate but supported slavery for economic and social reasons Cotton Kingdom

  Notion of benevolent masters- slaves were like children that depended upon their masters  Economic yet family investment (“our people)  Firm discipline was necessary for sound economic investments  Ban of the slave trade made reproduction a must in order to perpetuate slavery  Comparatively (world wide) fairly well cared for Planter Paternalism

  Not all planters followed this axiom  Many slaves were malnourished and tortured  Did not have a close relationship with the actual owner- mostly the drivers  Selling of slaves for economic reasons contrasts the paternalism  Basis for authority was “fear”  Whipping, threat of sale  Bad treatment- torture, rape etc. had no recourse  There was “absolute power” over the slaves- major critique of slave power  Uncle Tom’s Cabin But…

  Most of the population did own large amounts of slaves  Generally small merchants  Lived in relative closeness but with Spartan like conditions Small Slave-owner

  The “shiftless poor whites”  Did not have the same economic opportunities do to a lack of development  Mostly located in the backcountry  Similar to the later homesteads of the west  Reliance on subsistence farming- therefore grew corn and other crops  Accepted slavery but some voiced concern about the planter control over society- Hinton Helper  Jacksonians who feared “cotton snobs”  But also did not abolition for fear of economic competition from slaves: slavery kept “them in their place” Yeomen Farmer

  Fear of a slave uprising  Fear of abolition- equal footing with the lower class  Debate over gradual emancipation (Virginia)  American Colonization Society:  But defeated by the notion of slavery being a “positive good”  1) slavery was natural and the proper social status  2) slavery was sanctioned by the Bible (Saint Paul- obey your masters)  3) Family government- slaves were incapable of supporting themselves Slavery was more humane than northern industry- Cannibal’s All  Intimidation and isolation of anti-slavery ideals also prevailed  Cassius M. Clay: anti-slavery intellectual fired from University of North Carolina for stating he would vote for a moderate Republican view of emancipation Closed Minded Society

  Effects…  Stringent anti-education laws  Curfews  Patrols  Attacks on anti-slavery propaganda  Talks of secession due to onslaught of propaganda Nat Turner

  : slavery tripled to 4 million slaves  Cotton? Or the reliance on the institution of slavery?- regional dichotomy  Decrease in the need for slaves in the upper South with an increase in slaves for the lower South (cotton belt)  Led to an increase in the internal slave trade  Upper South became somewhat of a breeding ground for slaves to be sent South  Cotton became king due to ease of growth, cotton gin and westward expansion (13,000 to 4.8 million bales by 1860). King Cotton

  Cotton growth ruined the land: what options?  Hard times- big planters could diversify crops (keep the slaves); other planters may move west or sale the slaves (need to retain slaves).  Motivation is to keep slavery as an institution  Industrialization- should remain free whites, but also posed a threat to slavery (demands for wages etc.): South failed to industrialize as a whole. Slavery Reliance

  Read the section regarding profitability on pages …  What were the arguments for and against the profitability of slavery? Was Slavery Profitable