1. The Slave Issue A Brief Look

2. Key Ideas Prior to Civil War the South splits into (2) different groups. Positions in the social ladder depended on race & wealth. The slaveowners continued to place blacks at the bottom of the social ladder & as inferior.

3. Southern Social Divisions The Lower South Better known as the Cotton Kingdom - all economy centered on this crop By 1850’s South grew 75% of world’s cotton Invention of the cotton gin made it easy to remove the seeds & because it was year-round business was best suited for slave labor Blacks were about half of the population The Upper South Once the center for tobacco, now areas had turned to mixed farming by 1850’s Some the states (Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky) began to model their neighbors in the North & become industrialized

4. Southern Social Divisions cont. South developed little industry & commerce. South resented the North for their industrial boom Slaves were employed in the few southern factories. Large plantations benefited directly from slave labor but the South as a whole did not Southern profits were not well distributed & the South’s unwillingness to move away from slave labor caused it to waste their own human resources & remain undeveloped

5. Southern Ladder of Society Top of ladder - big planters (those who owned 20 or more slaves) about 1% of white population. Mostly men who were self-made speculating in commerce, land, slave-trading, & cotton. Had little to do with slaves. The overseers dealt directly with the slaves. Middle of ladder - plain folk (those who owned less the 20 slaves) slaves endured the worst conditions because the plain folk were generally poor & had little to offer. Most southerners did not own slaves at all. Plain folk were small farmers. But the dream of possibly moving up the ladder kept slavery alive. Also slavery was a way to keep the slaves in their place. Bottom of ladder - the slaves themselves.

6. Southern Ladder of Society cont. Those at the top of the ladder feared rebellion from the bottom of the ladder and that those in the middle would join the abolitionist. To keep the ladder in check - planters would encourage talk of slavery to be only positive & to defend slavery based on the idea that blacks were inferior & the bible sanctioned slavery. Planters also saw slavery as the “asylum” for blacks that would evenually help them improve as a race. Southerners held on to their belief that the slave system was superior to the North’s wage labor system.

7. The Black Experience The eternal hope of the slave was that one day they would be free. Slave Resistance - as early as 1800 but most notably 1831 rebellion led by Nat Turner. Slaves used other ways - pretending illness, sloppy work, destroying tools, & poisoning their masters & the masters family. The Free Black - some southern slaves were free but heavy restrictions made them semi-slaves. Northern free blacks also suffered discrimination like not being able to vote. Worked together to help free slaves by use of the Undergournd Railrod. When not fighting against slavery, they were fighting racism. Black religion focused on reaffirming the joy of life, the hope of freedom, & family. Family life was sometimes difficult because of the chance of being separate at any time. But most slaves had a two-parent family. The idea of being related to each other even if not by blood hence the idea that all men were “uncles” and women were “sisters”. Family was the cement that helped the slaves deal with horror of capitivity.