1. The South and the Slavery Controversy

2. Testing the New Nation 1820-1877
American slavery was rooted in both racism & economic exploitation and depended on brutal repression for its survival.
Slavery remained a cancer on American democracy; a moral outrage that mocked our nation’s claim to be a model of social & political enlightenment.
The American slave populations had several unique distinctions:
The only enslaved population in world history which grew by its own biological reproduction.
Developed a distinctive & durable African-American culture which flourished under slavery.
** Because of these TWO facts, some historians have WRONGLY suggested that American slavery must have been less punitive than slavery in other parts of the world.

3. American Slavery after the Revolution
The nation lived uneasily with slavery from the beginning.
In the early Republic, the Federal Government took steps to slow the growth of slavery:
Old Northwest Ordinance (1787)- banned slavery there.
Prohibited the importation of slaves to US after 1808.
Missouri Compromise (1820)- forever banned slavery in the Louisiana Purchase Territory north of the Line & Missouri.
Many northern states began to abolish slavery GRADUALLY after the Revolution also.
Antislavery attitudes even gained support in the South following the American Revolution as citizens & state governments debated limiting or ending slavery.

7. The Growth of the Cotton Economy
Before 1793, Slavery was on the decline until invention of the cotton gin= short staple cotton becomes profitable
1780’s- northern states were gradually abolishing slavery.
CHANGE: Eli Whitney’s Cotton GIN—1793
Led to a resurgence in demand for slaves
War of 1812 & Indian Removal Act 1830—open up Gulf states to cotton production & plantation slavery.
Effects:
million slaves in the US (quadrupled since 1800)= worth $2 Billion = 90% illiterate
Prime field hand= $1200- $1800 (1860 dollars)
Northern bankers loaned $300 million to southerners for slaves
Textile manufacturers in US depended 100% on Southern cotton
75% of whites in the south owned ZERO slaves
“Lords of the Loom tied to the Lords of the Lash”

8. Changes in Cotton Production
1820
Changes in Cotton Production
1860

10. Southern Agriculture

11. Slaves Picking Cotton on a Mississippi Plantation

12. “Cotton is King”
As cotton became more profitable- planters drifted down to the Gulf states= planters bought more slaves & land to buy more slaves & land.
“Sold Down the River”– a phrase that describes process of selling slaves in upper south down into the deep south.
Northern shippers made much profit from the cotton trade
Cotton accounted for ½ the value of all US exports after 1840
Britain’s textile mills depended on southern cotton (75% of their cotton came from the South).
1850’s- 1/5 of the British population directly or indirectly got its living from Southern Cotton
If Civil War between North & South occurred- Southerners believed that Britain would break any Northern blockade & force recognition of the South= “FALSE SENSE OF SUPERIORITY”.

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

14. The Planter Aristocracy
Before the Civil War, a planter aristocracy (oligarchy-a government by the few) dominated Southern government & society .
,733 Southern families owned 100 or more slaves each= “Cottonocracy”
educated their children in private schools –many located in the north
had leisure time for study & statecraft= John C. Calhoun (Yale), Jefferson Davis (West Point grad)= South produces higher proportion of high rank statesmen before 1860

15. The “Cottonocracy” Effects of the Planter Elite rule on the South:
The South, dominated by cotton rich planter class= undemocratic, widened the gap between rich & poor
Hampered the growth of tax-supported schools
Characteristics of the Planter Class:
favorite writer of this class- Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe)= southern chivalry= idealized feudal systems
Southern mistress– commanded large staff (mostly slave women)
almost no slaveholding women advocated for abolition of slavery.

17. The Mistress of Belle Grove Plantation

18. Effects of the Slave System on the South
Plantation agriculture RUINED the soil; was wasteful= led to populations moving West & Northwest
Increasingly monopolistic- as “land butchery” increased, small famers sold their land to prosperous plantation neighbors = “the big got bigger & the small got smaller”
Plantation system was financially unstable- over speculation in land & slaves was common = planters went into more debt
Dependence on a one crop economy- discouraged agricultural diversification (price was dependent on world conditions)
By the 1850’s Southerners increasingly resented the North- the North was prospering at their expense (commissions & interest paid to bankers, agents, shippers & middlemen).
Plantation Economy repelled immigration- by only 4.4% of the Southern population was foreign-born= white south is most Anglo-Saxon section of the nation.

19. The South & the White Majority
Only a handful of southern whites lived in fancy mansions.
Planter Elites= 1,733 families who owned a hundred or more slaves (1850)
Less Wealthy Slave-owners= 345,000 Southern white families (1,725,000)
Over 2/3 of these families (255,268) owned fewer than 10 slaves
***In all- only ¼ of white southerners owned slaves or belonged to a slave holding family= made up a majority of slave owners
Small Farmers= typically small famers who worked hard in the fields
households owned a slave or two-most likely a slave family
lived in modest farm houses
Non-slave holding whites
By ,120,825 southern whites (3/4) of all whites owned no slaves
made a living cultivating poor soil of backcountry or mountain valleys
Resented the rich planter class (“snobocracy”)
raised corn, hogs, -- not cotton
lived isolated lives
Poor Whites=least prosperous non-slave holding whites = “poor white trash”

22. Poor Whites The Mountain Whites called “hillbillies or crackers”
probably suffered from malnutrition, parasites, hookworm
Among the strongest defenders of slavery WHY??
Prospect of upward social mobility
Belief in their racial superiority
The Mountain Whites
Isolated in the valleys of Appalachia Range from western Virginia to northern Georgia & Alabama
lived under meager frontier conditions
Retained Elizabethan speech
hated planters & slaves
proved loyal to the Union during the war & the Republican Party after the war

23. Slave Owning Families, 1850

24. Life of Free Blacks Free Blacks “the Third Race”
1860- numbered about 250,000 in the South
Upper South- free blacks were part of manumission after Revolutionary War
Deep South- many free blacks were mulattoes- emancipated children of white planter & his black mistress
Some free blacks in the South earned freedom with their earnings
Life of Free Blacks
many owned property- William T. Johnson (New Orleans) even owned black slaves
prohibited from working certain occupations
prevented from testifying against whites in court
could be kidnapped back into slavery
Free Blacks In the North
225,000-
northern states forbade them entrance; forbade them the right to vote, forbade them the right to attend public schools

25. anti-black feelings in the north stronger than in the south
Free blacks in the North –hated by the Irish
anti-black feelings in the north stronger than in the south
“ it was often observed …white southerners, who were often suckled and reared by black nurses, liked the black as an individual but despised the race. The white northerner, on the other hand, often professed to like the race but dislike the individual blacks”

26. Plantation Slavery
4 million black slaves dwelt at the bottom of Southern social society.
1808- legal importation of slaves to America ended= slaves were smuggled into the US AFTERWARDS
Most increases in the US slave population = natural increase – distinguishes American slavery from all others!!
Slaves were an investment Southern investment in slaves= $2 billion (1860 price $1800 for prime field hand)
Masters cared for slaves like most expensive property
2. Slavery hobbled the economic development of the region as a whole (slaves from upper South drained to deep south)= slave women in the Old South could earn freedom by bearing up to 13 children.

27. White masters often forced themselves on slave women= malatto children
Slave Auctions
slaves sold alongside horses, cows & pigs
families were separated- for bankruptcy or inheritance

28. The Life of Slaves
There is no clear or simple answer to describe the life of slaves. Treatment varied from master to master, mansion to house, and region to region.
hard grueling work, ignorance, oppression
worked from dusk until dawn
work & lives of slaves managed by a white “overseer” or black “driver”.
no political rights-only min. protection from arbitrary murder
the whip served as a reminder of white mastery & substitute for wages (strong- willed slaves sent to a “breaker”)

29. Life in the “Black Belt”
area from SC and Georgia to Alabama, Mississippi, & Louisiana
life was harder here than in the Old South
majority of blacks lived on plantations in slave communities of 20 or more (75% of the population)
maintained a fairly stable family life & African-American culture

30. African- American Culture & Family
lived in stable two parent families
named children after grandparents or forebear’s master
Religious practices: influenced by preachers of the Second Great Awakening (mix of African & Christian traditions)
emphasized stories in the Bible- like captivity of Israelites
call & response style of preaching- adapted from African “ringshout”

32. Burden of Bondage
most states passed laws which prohibited the education of slaves. education leads to ideas=9/10 of adult slaves illiterate at start of Civil War)
Slave Resistance
slaves conduced work slow downs (led to myth of black “laziness”)
slaves stole goods produced by or purchased by their labor
conducted sabotage of tools.
Slave Rebellions:
1. Gabriel Prosser Rebellion (1800): planned slave revolt in Virginia; foiled by informants—leaders were hanged.
2. Denmark Vesey Revolt (1822): Charleston SC; led by a free black- foiled by informers= Vesey & 30 others hanged.
3.Nat Turner Rebellion (1831): a black preacher (Nat Turner) led an uprising & killed 60 whites (mainly women & children)- Vesey & others hanged

33. Black Slavery’s Toll on Whites
4. The Amistad (1839): enslaved Africans rebelled aboard a Spanish Slave ship & seized the ship off the coast of Cuba and attempted to sail back to Cuba but, ended up at Long Island, NY.
They were imprisoned for several years & tried several times.
John Q. Adams successfully argued their case before the Supreme Court to gain their freedom. They were sent back to Sierra Leone, Africa.
Black Slavery’s Toll on Whites
Southern whites developed a “siege” mentality (surrounded by potentially rebellious blacks angered by northern abolitionist propaganda).
Southern fear & paranoia bred theories of biological racial superiority to blacks.
The American South was one of the last strongholds of slavery in the world. .

34. Perspectives on Race & Slavery
“(Africans) are a distinct race of people, separated by strongly marked lines of moral and physical condition from those among who they reside. This difference is so strongly marked that there can be no spontaneous amalgamation by intermarriage, and consequently no reciprocity of social rights and privileges between the races…They must therefore continue to exist as a separate race” , William A. Smith, Southern clergyman, College President (DEFENDER OF SLAVERY)
“…that all persons of color who possess the qualifications which are demanded of others ought to be admitted forthwith to the enjoyment of the same privileges, and the exercise of the same prerogatives, as others; and that the paths of preferment, of wealth, and of intelligence should be opened as widely to them as persons of a white complexion.”
Declaration at the opening meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1833
* Is there any common ground between the TWO positions?

35. The Abolition Movement
1st emerged at the time of the Am. Revolution among the Quakers. Northern states gradually abolished slavery because of the “revolutionary spirit”.
Early abolitionists wanted to transport free blacks back to Africa= The American Colonization Society (1817)= 1822 free African-American founded Liberia (capital-Monrovia)
Over 40 years- 15,000 freed blacks colonized back to Africa
* Most blacks did not wish to be sent back to Africa
Colonization remained a popular but non-practical solution- espoused by prominent Americans like former president James Monroe…and Abraham Lincoln

36. Abolitionism Gains Steam
Before the 1830’s- abolition was not seen as much of a threat to the South (example: Benjamin Lundy (Quaker) & James Birney (slave holder) gave speeches in south pushing GRADUAL emancipation.
By the 1830’s- abolitionism gained new energy
Influenced greatly by the Second Great Awakening admonition to rid America of the sin of slavery
Impact of the British Abolitionist:
William Wiberforce (British member of Parliament, Evangelical Christian…inspired by George Whitefield) led the Britain to free slaves in the West Indies
Theodore Weld: evangelized by Charles Grandison Finney in NY’s “Burned Over District”; spoke to the mass of rural uneducated farmers to end slavery.
Arthur & Lewis Tappan ( richNY merchants): 1832 paid Weld’s way to Lane Theological Seminary (Ohio) headed by Lyman Beecher= Weld & “ Lane Rebels” expelled in 1834.
Weld & rebels went across the Old Northwest preaching anti-slavery &published “American Slavery as It Is” (1839)= influenced Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.

37. Radical Abolitionists
William Lloyd Garrison: published the Liberator (abolitionist newspaper) at age 27.
Waged a 30 year war on slavery in the US (MOST MILITANT)= demanded the north secede from the South.
Helped found the American Antislavery Society (1833)
co-collaborator: Wendell Phillips (the “golden trumpet” of abolitionism)- wore no cotton cloth/ate no cane sugar.
“I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice…I am in earnest—I will not equivocate---I will not excuse---I will not retreat a single inch---and I WILL BE HEARD!” William Lloyd Garrison

38. Prominent Black Abolitionists
David Walker who wrote Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829)
Encouraged readers to take active role in fighting their own oppression; Spoke out against theories of racial prejudice
Advocated a bloody end to white superiority.
Martin Delaney- one of the few blacks who supported of black colonization back to Africa
Sojourner Truth, a freed black woman in NY who fought for black emancipation (freedom) & women’s rights.
**Frederick Douglas: greatest black abolitionist; escaped slavery in 1838 at age 21; lectured to anti-slavery groups.
Wrote his own autobiography- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas (1848)

39. Same Goals—Different Approaches
Frederick Douglas & some Abolitionists turned to POLITICS to help bring an end to slavery.
Political Abolitionists supported:
The Liberty Party (1840)
The Free Soil Party (1848)
The Republican Party (1850’s)
Most Abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison (pacifist) supported bloody violence as the price to end slavery.
“I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice…I am in earnest—I will not equivocate---I will not excuse---I will not retreat a single inch---and I WILL BE HEARD!” William Lloyd Garrison

40. The South Reacts Against Abolitionism
Antislavery sentiment was not unknown in the South.
In the 1820’s Antislavery Societies more popular in the South (below Mason-Dixon Line) than in the North
The last gasp of southern questioning of slavery was:
The Virginia legislature debated emancipation & eventually defeated proposals to end slavery.
1831-The Nat Turner Revolt occurred
Southern states passed laws forbidding emancipation & tightened slave codes & began to build up state militias
Post –slave revolts- Abolitionist Garrison party blamed by Southerners
1832 Nullification Crisis: heightened southerners fears & suspicions
Southern paranoia, fear = brutal beatings, lynchings

42. Southerners Defend Slavery
**“Positive Good”- Southerners argued that slavery was supported by the Bible & Aristotle
Slavery rescued Africans from barbaric conditions of Africa
master-slave relationship was like family
black slavery vs. wage slavery of the north
**1836 The Gag Rule: Southern politicians pushed a resolution that all anti-slavery appeals submitted to the House of Representative would be shelved.
a clear limit on right to petition the government
John Quincy Adams- ex-president fought this for 8 years=finally repealed.
US Government Postal Service- ordered postmasters to destroy abolitionist newspapers being delivered South & allowed the South to arrest postmasters who refused.

43. This 1839 cartoon provides a satire on the "gag rule" in the House of Representatives.  Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts is featured pinned to the ground protecting petitions against slavery.
Image courtesy of Library of Congress

44. Abolitionist Impact in the North
Extreme abolitionists (Garrisonians) were resented for a long time in many parts of the North as EXTREMISTS.
Northerners respected the Constitution’s proclamations on property rights.
Northerners were owed $300 million by 1850’s by Southerners
Northern textile mills would shut down= unemployment for many. (“Doughface” –any northern politician who sided with the south)
1835- William Lloyd Garrison- WAS attacked & almost hanged by a mob (Boston) “Broadcloth Mob” BUT HE ESCAPED.
1837- *Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy: His abolitionist Printing Press was destroyed 4 times; killed by an ANTI-ABOLITIONIST mob in Illinois in 1837.
Most respectable politicians like Lincoln tended to avoid contact with strict abolitionists
By 1850’s- abolitionism started to touch many northerners; even though many northerners did not want to end slavery many began to support limiting the spread of slavery any further west (Lincoln)= became known as FREE SOILERS

45. Elijah P. Lovejoy
Wood engraving of the pro-slavery mob burning down Winthrop Sargent Gilman's warehouse