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CHAPTER 16 The South and the Slavery Controversy
Unit 5: Expansion, Sectionalism, and Slavery
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Chapter Themes Cotton’s growth and the complex social order of the South The economic benefits and struggles of increasing cotton production (North, South and Britain). The economics of cotton and slavery Emergence of a small, energetic radical abolitionist movement
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Before the Gin Slavery on the wane Multi crop system
Ideological beliefs Economic concerns Multi crop system Tobacco Rice Cotton Sugar
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Impact of the Gin Cotton Gin invented in 1793 by Eli Whitney
Wide-scale cultivation of short-staple cotton Supplant all other crops Increase need for labor “Chaining slave to the gin and the planter to the slave”
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North, South and Britain
In the South an economic spiral – quick profits, buy more land, buy more slaves Northern shippers profit from transporting cotton to Britain Use foreign exchange to buy British goods
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Some Quick Facts Cotton = ½ value of American exports after 1840
Export revenue was bulk of the national income America supplied ½ of the world’s cotton 20 percent of British citizens drew their livelihood from cotton ¾ of British cotton products originally sourced in the U.S.
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King Cotton If there was war between North and South
North would stop shipping cotton to Britain British factories would close British citizens would call for London to break the blockade Southern triumph
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Planter Aristocracy Oligarchical structure
One-quarter of southern white families owned ANY slaves In 1850 less than 1% of slaveholding families owned more than 100 slaves Big house stereotype
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Distribution of Slave Ownership Among Slave-holding Families
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Plantation Women Command of a sizeable household staff
Predominately female slaves Variable relationships Opposed abolition Supported husband in sale of slaves
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Plantation Agriculture
Wasteful Excessive cultivation Encouraged population movement to the West and Northwest Monopolistic economy Small farmers driven out of business Plantations were financially unstable Tendency to overspeculate in land and slaves
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Shaky Economics Slaves Single crop economy No incentive to diversify
Large capital investment $1,200 for prime field hand Food, clothing, shelter Risk of injury (by accident or not) Run away Single crop economy Dependent on world price Over production cuts price No incentive to diversify
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Divisions Southerners resented Northern profits from cotton
Middlemen, bankers, agents, and shippers Commissions and interests Discouraged European immigrants Cannot compete with slave labor In 1860 only 4.4% of southern population was foreign born (18.7% in the North) South remains most Anglo-Saxon area of an increasingly diverse nation
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The White Majority Few owned slaves
Disdained “snobocracy” Subsistence farming Isolated lives Attend religious camp meetings Small slave owners were the majority Similar lifestyle to small Northern farmers Modest Worked alongside slaves
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Non Slaveholding Whites
“Cracker”, “Hillbillies”, “Clay-eaters” Forced off good land Mountains or thin soil areas Hope of buying a slave Poor, yet knew they were higher status than free blacks and black slaves Mountain whites remained isolated Hatred of southern plantation
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Free Blacks – The Third Race
250,000 by 1860 Upper South freed during Revolutionary days Deeper South – often mulattoes Emancipate children of land owner and black mistress Some earned money for freedom through after hours labor Property ownership Occasional slave ownership
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Northern Free Blacks Equivalent number as in the South
Several states forbade entrance Most states denied the right to vote Some states barred blacks from public schools Especially hated by Irish immigrants Competition Southerners – “liked the individual, but hated the race” Northerners – “hated the individual, but liked the race”
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The Market for Slavery 4 million by 1860
Legal importation of slaves ended in 1808 Britain’s West African Squadron seized slave ships and freed captives Black market continued Illegal slave traders were often acquitted by southern juries
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Internal Slave Trade Upper Southern states became major source of supply Supply came from natural reproduction Lack of tropical disease
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Slavery in the Southern U.S.
Slaves as an investment ($2 billion industry) Primary form of wealth “Protected” asset Find alternatives for most dangerous work Breeding programs were discouraged but understood Production and treatment of mulattoes Most remained enslaved Separation of families
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Slave Life Romanticized white version Variable conditions
Hard work, ignorance, and oppression No civil or political rights Protection due to economic value Beatings were common Breakers – professional lashings Black belt – Deep South (South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi)
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Slave Communities Large plantations developed slave communities for >20 slaves Here, slave life was relatively stable Slaves held population majority in some Southern counties Development of African American culture Most slaves were raised in two-parent households Avoid intermarriage Blending of African and Christian religions Repsonsorial style of preaching
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Response to Bondage Degrading Lack of access to education
Forms of protest Slow down pace of labor Steal food and other goods Runaway
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Slave Revolts Stono Rebellion 1739
20 whites and 44 slaves were killed 1800- Slave insurrection planned by Gabriel Foiled and leaders were hung 1822 – Free black Denmark Vesey led a revolt in Charlestown Strung from the gallows 1831 – Nat Turner’s Rebellion Led an uprising that killed 60 Virginians (mostly women and children) Swift and bloody response 1839 – Amistad rebellion aboard a Spanish slave ship. J.Q.Adams argued and won their freedom before the U.S. Supreme Court
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Early Abolitionism Began in the Revolutionary period with the Quakers
American Colonization Society founded in 1817 Founding of Liberia in 1822 Return blacks to Africa Approximately 15,000 freed blacks were transported Many wanted to remain America was their only country Had assimilated Martin Delany visited West Africa’s Niger Valley to find suitable site for relocation
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Ties to Second Great Awakening
Attack the sin of slavery Theodore Dwight Weld Studied under Lyman Beecher – father of Harriet Beecher Stowe The Liberator – antislavery newspaper William Lloyd Garrison
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Growth of Abolitionist Societies
American Anti-Slavery David Walker’s Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World Called for a bloody end to white supremacy Sojourner Truth fought for emancipation and women’s rights Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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Growth of Abolitionist Societies
American Anti-Slavery David Walker’s Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World Called for a bloody end to white supremacy Sojourner Truth fought for emancipation and women’s rights Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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Pragmatism and Politics
Garrison eschewed politics Burned a copy of the Constitution Railed against slavery, but offered no practical solutions Douglass saw politics as a path for change Back the Liberty party in 1840, Free Soil party in 1848 and eventually the Republican party in 1850s Recognition of the inevitable Civil War
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Southern Response Antislavery societies existed in the south
Silenced after 1830 Bounty for William Lloyd Garrison Campaign to promote slavery as a positive good Contrast to the northern wage slave
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Congressional Response
Receive a flood of antislavery appeals Issue Gag Resolution Table all antislavery appeals without debate J.Q. Adams fought an 8-year battle for its repeal Southerners feared antislavery publications would enflame slaves Drawings were graphic Washington postmaster ordered southern postmasters to destroy abolitionist materials in 1835
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Northern Attitudes Extremists were unpopular
Talk of succession irked their patriotism Economically dependent on the South Mob outbursts By 1850, Northerners began to oppose extending slavery to the West. Free soilers
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