1. Antebellum America:
The Industrialized
North v. Agrarian South

2. The “Iron Horse” Wins! (1830)
1830  13 miles of track built by Baltimore & Ohio RR By 1850  9,000 miles of RR track
1860  31,000 miles

3. The Railroad Revolution, 1850s
Immigrant labor built the No. RRs.
Slave labor built the So. RRs.

4. New
Inventions:
"Yankee Ingenuity"

5. Resourcefulness & Experimentation
Americans were willing to try anything.
They were first copiers, then innovators.
1800  41 patents were approved.
1860  4,357 patents were approved.

6. Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin, 1791 Actually invented by a slave!

7. Eli Whitney’s Gun Factory Interchangeable Parts Rifle

8. First prototype of the locomotive
Oliver Evans
First automated flour mill
First prototype of the locomotive

9. John Deere & the Steel Plow (1837)

10. Cyrus McCormick & the Mechanical Reaper: 1831

11. Samuel F. B. Morse
1840 – Telegraph

12. Elias Howe & Isaac Singer
1840s Sewing Machine

13. The “American Dream”
They all regarded material advance as the natural fruit of being an American & proof of the country’s virtue and promise.
A German visitor in the 1840s, Friedrich List, observed:
Anything new is quickly introduced here, including all of the latest inventions. There is no clinging to old ways. The moment an American hears the word “invention,” he pricks up his ears.

14. Distribution of Wealth
During the American Revolution, 45% of all wealth was in the top 10% of the population.
1845 Boston  top 4% owned over 65% of the wealth.
1860 Philadelphia  top 1% owned over 50% of the wealth.
The gap between rich and poor was widening!

15. Samuel Slater (“Father of the Factory System”)

16. Early Textile Mill Loom Floor

17. Early Textile Loom

18. New England Textile Centers: 1830s

19. New England Dominance in Textiles

20. Lowell Girls
The "Mill Girls" were female workers who came to work in industrial corporations in Lowell, Massachusetts during the Industrial Revolution in the United States.

21. Lowell Mills Time Table

22. Irish Immigrant Girls at Lowell

23. Regional Specialization
EAST  Industrial
SOUTH  Cotton & Slavery
WEST  The Nation’s “Breadbasket”

24. American Population Centers in 1820

25. American Population Centers in 1860

26. National Origin of Immigrants: 1820 - 1860

27. Early Emancipation in the North

28. Missouri Compromise, 1820

29. The US grows, and slavery with it.
New lands for Slavery
The US grows, and slavery with it.

31. Characteristics of the Antebellum South
Primarily agrarian.
Economic power shifted from the “upper South” to the “lower South.”
“Cotton Is King!” * 1860 5 mil. bales a yr (57% of total US exports).
Very slow development of industrialization.
Basic financial system.
Inadequate transportation system.

32. Southern Society (1850) “Slavocracy” [plantation owners]
6,000,000
The “Plain Folk” [white yeoman farmers]
Black Freemen
250,000
Black Slaves 3,200,000
Total US Population  23,000,000 [9,250,000 in the South = 40%]

33. Large Planters Best education Political and social leaders
Employ overseers to run plantations
Smallest group
Emphasize chivalry, honor, and hospitality

34. Small Planters
Many more than large planters, but still a relatively small social group
Some political power
Generally do not employ overseers
Aspire to rise to the class of large planters, but the expense of slaves generally prevents this

35. Yeoman Farmers Some own a few slaves Raise a variety of crops
Largest white group
Could vote/hold office
Strong supporters of slavery
Aspire to rise to planter class

36. Mountain Whites Live isolated in Appalachian Mtns.
Self-sufficient farmers
Nationalists who oppose the power of the planters and the slavery system
Most fight for the Union in the Civil War

37. Poor Whites Rarely own land Work as tenants or day laborers
Looked down on by most other whites
Tend to refuse “slave” work
Health problems and malnutrition common
Strong supporters of slavery

38. Southern Population

39. Southern Agriculture

40. Slaves Picking Cotton on a Mississippi Plantation

41. Slaves Using the Cotton Gin

43. Changes in Cotton Production
1820

44. 1860

45. Value of Cotton Exports As % of All US Exports

46. Slave Auction Notice, 1823

47. Slave Auction: Charleston, SC-1856

50. Autobiography of Louis Hughes
“I was sick a great deal – in fact, I had suffered with chills and fever ever since Mr. Reid bought me. He, therefore, concluded to sell me, and, in November 1844, he took me back to Richmond, placing me in the Exchange building, or auction rooms, for the sale of slaves.
“When I was placed upon the block, a Mr. McGhee came up and felt me and asked me what I could do The bidding started, and I remember well when the auctioneer said: “Three hundred eighty dollars – once, twice, and sold to Mr. McGhee” As near as I can recollect, I was not more than twelve years of age, so did not sell for very much. Servant women sold for $500 to $700. Good blacksmiths sold for $1,600 to $1,800.
“At length, after a long and wearisome journey, we reached Pontotoc, McGhee’s home, on Christmas eve. Boss took me into the house and into the sitting room, where all the family were assembled, and presented me as a Christmas gift to the madam, his wife.”

51. Slave Accoutrements
Slave Master Brands
Slave muzzle

52. Anti-Slave Pamphlet

53. Slave Accoutrements
Slave leg irons
Slave tag, SC
Slave shoes

54. Distribution of Slave Labor in 1850

55. Slave-Owning Population (1850)

56. Slaves posing in front of their cabin on a Southern plantation.

57. The Arrival of Europeans in Africa - 1795
The Portuguese, under the sponsorship of Prince Henry, had landed in West Africa 350 years earlier.

59. Slave Trade

60. Slave Trade Fort

61. Middle Passage

63. Africans were crowded and chained cruelly aboard slave ships.

64. "...the excessive heat was not the only thing that rendered their situation intolerable. The deck, that is the floor of their rooms, was so covered with the blood and mucus which had proceeded from them in consequence of the flux, that it resembled a slaughterhouse."
Taken from Alexander Falconbridge, a surgeon aboard slave ships and later the governor of a British colony for freed slaves in Sierra Leone.

65. Frequently, slaves were permitted on deck in small groups for brief periods, where the crew would encourage, and many times force, captives to dance for exercise.

66. "Exercise being deemed necessary for the preservation of their health they are sometimes obliged to dance when the weather will permit their coming on deck. If they go about it reluctantly or do not move with agility, they are flogged…”
Taken from Alexander Falconbridge, An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa.

68. Heading for Jamaica in 1781, the ship Zong was nearing the end of its voyage. It had been twelve weeks since it had sailed from the west African coast with its cargo of 417 slaves. Water was running out. Then, compounding the problem, there was an outbreak of disease. The ship's captain, reasoning that the slaves were going to die anyway, made a decision. In order to reduce the owner's losses he would throw overboard the slaves thought to be too sick to recover. The voyage was insured, but the insurance would not pay for sick slaves or even those killed by illness. However, it would cover slaves lost through drowning. The captain gave the order; 54 Africans were chained together, then thrown overboard. Another 78 were drowned over the next two days. By the time the ship had reached the Caribbean,132 persons had been murdered.

69. Olaudah Equiano Kidnapped from Africa. Sold to Virginia farmer.
Then sold to Philadelphia Quaker and freed.
Fought against slavery.

70. "I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life: so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything.
I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables; and on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands and laid me across I think the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely.”
- Olaudah Equiano, giving the first eyewitness account of life on a ship from a slave's point of view.

71. Diseases, such as dysentery, malaria, and smallpox killed thousands of Africans.
From 13% - 20% of the Africans aboard slave ships died during the Middle Passage.
Between 1699 and 1845 there were 55 successful African uprisings on slave ships.

72. US Laws Regarding Slavery
U. S. Constitution: * 3/5’s compromise * fugitive slave clause
1793  Fugitive Slave Act.
1850  stronger Fugitive Slave Act.

73. Southern Slavery-> An abnormality?
s: 1st antislavery society created in Phila.
2. By 1804: slavery eliminated from last northern state.
: the legal termination of the slave trade, enforced by the Royal Navy.
s: newly indep. Republics of Central & So. America declared their slaves free.
: slavery abolished throughout the British Empire.
: slavery abolished in the Fr. colonies.
: the serfs of Russia were emancipated.

74. Runaway Slave Ads

75. Quilt Patterns as Secret Messages
The Monkey Wrench pattern, on the left, alerted escapees to gather up tools and prepare to flee; the Drunkard Path design, on the right, warned escapees not to follow a straight route.

76. Slave Resistance Refusal to work hard. Isolated acts of sabotage.
Escape via the Underground Railroad.

77. Slave Rebellions Throughout the Americas

78. Gabriel’s Rebellion-1800 Virginia
Gabriel Prosser planned an assault on the Richmond armory to arm themselves and destroy slavery in Virginia
After the Revolution many slaves had greater freedom of movement, especially those like Gabriel who worked on the water
Gabriel’s plan was given away by a fellow slave before the revolt could take place, and Gabriel and the other leaders of the plot were executed

79. Denmark Vesey-1822
Born in Africa, he purchased his freedom after winning $1500 in a lottery
He organized about 9000 others in the black community to revolt in Charleston, SC
The plot was given away before it could go forward and Vesey and over 40 others (including 4 whites) were hanged

80. Nat Turner-1831
A preacher among the slave population of Southampton, Virginia
Had a series of visions of two armies clashing in the sky and took this as a sign that he should lead a rebellion to destroy slavery
Led his followers in a surprise attack on slaveholding families, beginning with his own masters
Over 60 whites were killed in the insurrection, most of them hacked to death with machetes
After spending several months hiding in the Dismal Swamp, Turner and his followers were captured, tried, and executed

81. John Brown’s Raid
1859, John Brown and his men attacked the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (Today West Virginia)
Wanted to lead an rebellion and slave uprising
Colonel Robert E. Lee leads troops; Brown is captured and executed for treason.

82. Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe’s bestseller
Best seller in 1850’s (Most sales after the Bible)
Northerner bought it in droves
Southerners burned it and banned it
Storyline:
Eliza Harris, a slave, escapes when her child is to be sold
The kindly Uncle Tom is sold and is killed by his brutal master, Simon Legree