1. THE SOUTH AND THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY, 1793-1860
Chapter 16

2. “Cotton is King!”
In 1787 many in both South and the North thought that slavery was on its way out.
Reasons?
Impact of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin.
Short-staple cotton
Seeds no longer removed by hand

3. Cotton brought quick profits; it made the nation’s wealth grow.
Cotton was ½ of all American exports after 1840 and the south produced more than half of the world’s supply of cotton.
Britain highly dependent on American cotton.
Britain’s most important product in the 1850s was cotton cloth.
About 75% of its cotton came from US.
1/5th of Britain’s workers directly or indirectly got livelihood from cotton processing.

4. Southern Cotton Production, 1860

5. Changes in Cotton Production
1820
1860

6. The Planter “Aristocracy”
Before the Civil War planter aristocracy controls government in the South.
Planter Aristocracy at the top.
1850, only 1733 families owned more than 100 slaves.
Cream of the political and social leadership.
The South was more of an oligarchy than a democracy before the Civil War.
Only some wealthy few influenced the government.
The women slaves were commanded by the slave owner’s wives.
Relationships between them ranged from affectionate to brutal.
Almost no women believed in abolition.

7. Slaves Of The Slave System
Problems with plantation system:
Raped” the land
Economy was monopolistic
System was economically unstable
Led to a dangerous dependence on one crop
The south was envious of the prosperous north.

8. Slave-Owning Population (1850)
In 1733 leading families were the less wealthy slave owners ,000 families representing 1.7 Mill people in 1850.
Over 2/3 owned fewer than 10 slaves.
Majority of whites didn’t own slaves

9. Whites Without Slaves Majority
Mostly subsistence farmers on poorer land
Bottom of group: “Poor white trash”, “rednecks”, “crackers”
Had no stake in the slave economy, but were some of the strongest supporters of the system
Why?
Mountain whites: very poor, resented slavery, “Hillbillies”
The mountain whites lived in the Appalachians away from civilization; they hated the southern whites and their gangs of blacks.

10. Free Blacks: Slaves Without Masters
By 1860 there were about 250,000 free blacks
The free blacks in the south were kind of a “third race”.
Some had been emancipated, some were mulatto children and some had bought their freedom. Some even owned their own slaves.
They were prohibited from certain jobs and from testifying against whites.
They weren’t liked in the north either.
They weren’t allowed in some states, not allowed to vote, not allowed ion public schools and were not liked by the Irish.

11. Plantation Slavery
Importation of black slaves was illegal but the price of “black ivory” was so high slaves were still being smuggled in.
Most slaves were the children of slaves in America.
Slaves were considered investments and slave owners took care that the slaves didn’t die.
Slave auctions were brutal - animals and slaves were sold in the same way.
Families were split apart.

12. Southern Population (1860)

13. Southern Population (1860)

14. Life under the Lash Not much fun Hard work, ignorance and oppression
No political or legal rights.
Floggings common
Many places illegal to teach them to read.
Slave-breakers.
By 1860 most slaves concentrated in the Deep South.

15. Life under the Lash
Slaves usually worked form dawn to dusk in the fields under the watch of an overseer with a whip.
Most slaves were used in the region that was furiously growing cotton called the black belt made up of South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.
Slaves managed to retain some family life in the Deep South and didn’t intermarry.
African roots were visible in their religious practices.

16. The Burden if Bondage
They were denied education because reading and writing brought ideas, and the owners wanted to keep them dim witted.
Slavery was known as the “peculiar institution”.
Slaves tried to sabotage their masters and always freedom.
Rebellions and people trying to escape were stopped, and sometimes caught and killed.
Slavery was degrading- deprived of dignity and independence

17. Early Abolition Quakers were some of the first to advocate antislavery
The American Colonization Society was founded in 1817 to send slaves back to Africa- They sent some back to Liberia in West Africa but by the 1860’s most slaves were American born and didn’t want to be sent to a strange country they didn’t know much about.
The Abolitionist Movement really expanded in the 1830’s.
The Second Great Awakening helped people notice the sin of slavery.
Theodore Dwight Weld was an abolitionist who spoke against slavery he wrote a pamphlet against slavery “American slavery as it is” and influenced “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.-(Harriet Beecher Stowe)

18. Radical Abolition 1831 William Lloyd Garrison burst onto the scene.
Published militant abolitionist magazine: The Liberator.
Founded the American Anti- Slavery Society in 1833.

19. Black Abolitionists Sojourner Truth David Walker—Militant.
Frederick Douglas
Greatest of the Black abolitionists
escaped from bondage in at 21.
Protégé of Garrison
Frederick Douglas

20. The South Lashes Back
Virginia defeated emancipation proposals and slave states tightened their restrictions.
Garrison was condemned a terrorist because of his newspaper.
States were making emancipation illegal.
The nullification crisis caused a decrease in abolitionism.
White pro-slave owners defended slavery by saying it was a positive good thing supported by the Bible.
The southerners compared their slaves with the northern factory workers
The Gag Resolution required all antislavery appeals to be disabled without debate- It was basically an attack on freedom of speech.
Antislavery propaganda was burnt.

21. The Abolitionist Impact In The North
Abolitionists were not particularly popular in the North for some time. Why?
North had heavy stake in the cotton of the south.
Textile mills relied on southern cotton.
Many northerners feared political controversy.
Many northern politicians carefully distanced themselves from the abolitionists.
Abolitionists harassed and killed.
Yet, by 1850 abolitionism had gained strength and taken root as a popular cause.