1. CHAPTER 12 The South Expands: Slavery and Society, 1800–1860
James A. Henretta
Eric Hinderaker
Rebecca Edwards
Robert O. Self
America’s History Eighth Edition America: A Concise History Sixth Edition
CHAPTER 12
The South Expands:
Slavery and Society, 1800–1860
Copyright © 2014 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

2. 1. What insights into the lives of slaves does this image provide
1. What insights into the lives of slaves does this image provide? (Answer: Work and social life are depicted; the family of cotton pickers looks tired and is wearing tattered, dirty clothing reflective of manual labor.)

3. I. The Domestic Slave Trade
A. The Upper South Exports Slaves 1. Slavery in the Chesapeake region 2. Transfer and sale
I. The Domestic Slave Trade
A. The Upper South Exports Slaves (1776–1809: 115,000 Africans imported; 1809 – U.S. participation in Atlantic trade ended; illegal importation continued through Spanish Florida until 1819 and then through Mexican province of Texas, bringing 50,000 slaves between 1810 and 1865.)
1. Slavery in the Chesapeake region – Black population grew naturally in the Chesapeake; traders began selling slaves to planters in the Deep South; by 1860, more than 440,000 slaves were traded from Virginia alone; transfers and sales took place; slaves were given to grown white children settling in the western slave territories; by 1860, majority of slaves lived in the Deep South (Georgia to Texas).
2. Transfer and sale – Some Chesapeake planters sold their plantations and moved their slaves to the Southwest; others gave slaves to children who moved west; transfers accounted for 40 percent of African American migrants; 60 percent were “sold south” through traders. Chesapeake planters increased their wealth substantially through sales; coastal trade in slaves from Atlantic coast to sugar plantations in Louisiana was highly visible and widely condemned by abolitionists; inland system was less visible, but traders marched slave purchases in coffles from Chesapeake to Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri in the 1830s, and to Arkansas and Texas in the 1850s. 3

7. I. The Domestic Slave Trade
B. The Impact on Blacks 1. Emphasis on slaves as property 2. Individuals and families
I. The Domestic Slave Trade
B. The Impact on Blacks
1. Emphasis on slaves as property – Domestic trade revealed how vulnerable slave population was as “property”; whites emphasized slaves’ status as property as key to slave discipline, threatening to sell them if they did not behave.
2. Individuals and families – Interstate slave trade focused on young adults; approximately one-fourth of slave marriages were destroyed by trade; separated one-third of slave children under age 14 from their parents; family ties were strong among slaves, despite conditions; planters often viewed themselves as “benevolent masters” caring for their “family,” including their slaves; often argued they only sold those who were difficult; few questioned the morality of the trade.

9. II. The World of Southern Whites
A. The Dual Cultures of the Planter Elite 1. The Traditional Southern Gentry 2. The Ideology and Reality of “Benevolence” 3. Cotton Entrepreneurs
The World of Southern Whites
A. The Dual Cultures of the Planter Elite
1. The Traditional Southern Gentry – Expansion split the plantation elite: traditional Old South aristocrats (wealth from rice and tobacco, lived in Chesapeake, South Carolina, Georgia) and capitalists/planters (cotton-producing states); aristocrats married their children to one another to maintain privileged identity; men were planters, merchants, lawyers, newspaper editors, ministers; lived extravagantly; rice planters were wealthiest in the Chesapeake and Old South; production of goods changed with migration and transfers; tobacco farmers moved west to gain wealth from cotton.
2. The Ideology and Reality of “Benevolence” – Planter aristocracy defended slavery as a “positive good” or “normal condition”; some required slaves to attend church services, building churches on their land; attempted to shape slaves’ behavior; used religion to justify slavery; many absentee slave owners lived in urban areas.
3. Cotton Entrepreneurs – Less extravagance in the Deep South among capitalists; slavery was more harsh in this region and slaves resisted the system more vigorously; unlike in the Chesapeake, where slaves gained other skills, cotton production was labor intensive; “gang-labor system” (1820s) used to increase output and keep slaves working at a steady pace; by 1840s, gangs were producing approximately 4 million bales of cotton annually.

10. II. The World of Southern Whites
B. Planters, Smallholding Yeomen, and Tenants 1. Planter Elites 2. Smallholding Planters and Yeomen 3. Poor Freemen
II. The World of Southern Whites
C. Planters, Smallholding Yeomen, and Tenants
1. Planter Elites – Approximately 5 percent of white population in the South owned 20 or more slaves; substantial proprietors, another 20 percent of population, owned 6-20 slaves each; lawyers had wealth; either owned slaves or managed the financial affairs of those who did.
2. Smallholding Planters and Yeomen – Were the majority; owned 1-5 slaves and less than 100 acres of land; wanted more land but either could not afford it or were waiting to inherit it from fathers; wives of yeomen had little power, losing all legal identity at marriage; women participated in evangelical Baptist and Methodist churches, outnumbering men by a margin of two to one; white landowners in this class worked alongside slaves.
3. Poor Freemen – Propertyless whites had no social mobility; slave owners refused to pay taxes to fund public schools; poor white men struggled to get jobs that required labor because landowners preferred slave labor; served in slave patrols as a requirement of citizenship even if they did not own slaves; enjoyed the psychological satisfaction that they were ranked “higher than blacks in southern society; when possible, migrated to west of the Appalachian Mountains, where they hoped to establish a home/farm with family members.

11. 1. Considering what you know about slavery in the South, speculate on the circumstances that could have led to this man’s physical condition. (Answer: Insubordinate behavior, attempted escape, failure to complete work, or completing work too slowly.)
2. Why might Union soldiers have chosen to photograph Gordon’s scars? (Answer: Publicizing such an obvious example of the brutality of slavery during the Civil War undoubtedly would have provoked response by northerners against the institution of slavery; depending upon the political convictions of the soldiers who photographed this man, they may have wanted to encourage support of emancipation and not just restoration of the Union through the war effort.)

12. 1. Who are the people depicted in this painting. What are they doing
1. Who are the people depicted in this painting? What are they doing? (Answer: They are a white family from North Carolina—mother cradling a child, daughter and son between their parents, father leaning against the well. The mother rides the family’s horse which also carries their possessions; the family’s cow drinks from the well. The dog eats the scraps alongside the well.)
2. What does the image suggest about the family’s economic status? (Answer: The family is clearly poor. Although they are in the process of moving from one state to another, they are carrying very little with them; the only possessions visible are those carried by the horse—a few pots and pans, a dead fowl for food, one bundle, and whatever is in the father’s small bag. The family is shabbily dressed, and the children are not wearing shoes.)
3. What message might the artist have been aiming to convey with this painting? (Answer: The looks on the faces of the family clearly convey despair and resignation. They call into question the notions of American prosperity and opportunity and the positive ideas associated with migration. It is possible that the artist also aimed to convey an antislavery message—commenting on the ways that some whites were impoverished by the institution that enriched white planters.)

13. III. Expanding and Governing the South
A. The Settlement of Texas 1. The Austins 2. “Remember the Alamo”
III. Expanding and Governing the South
A. The Settlement of Texas
1. The Austins – Moses Austin received a land grant and Mexican citizenship when he moved to the region after Mexico was granted independence in 1821; son Stephen followed him and received approximately 180,000 acres, which he sold to newcomers; in 1835, nearly 30,000 Americans (white and some black slaves) were living in what is today eastern and central Texas; S. Austin led the “peace party” of settlers who accepted Mexican rule but wanted political autonomy for Americans in the region; “war party” wanted independence.
2. “Remember the Alamo” – Political differences continued between Americans and President Santa Ana, who wanted to impose his authority throughout Mexico; On March 2, 1836, “war party” began a rebellion, supported by the Americans in Texas; after Americans were defeated at the Alamo in San Antonio, newspapers published romantic descriptions of the fighting men and called for Americans to “Remember the Alamo”’; Americans went to Texas to fight under General Sam Houston; in April 1836, Battle of San Jacinto led to independence; debate began in the U.S. over whether to annex Texas, desired by the Texans but not by President Van Buren.

14. III. Expanding and Governing the South
B. The Politics of Democracy 1. Taxation Policy 2. The Paradox of Southern Prosperity
III. Expanding and Governing the South
B. The Politics of Democracy
1. Taxation Policy – Debate ensued in Alabama over taxation; Democrats wanted low taxes; Whigs wanted higher taxes to provide subsidies for banks, canals, roads; Whigs appealed to the common people; Alabama legislators appealed to slave owners who had money and power in the state; between 1830 and 1860, 70 percent of state revenue came from taxes on slaves and land; Alabama was viewed as a state that taxed democratically; more often, yeomen bore the burden of taxation in southern states.
2. The Paradox of Southern Prosperity – Two extremes: extreme hardship, poverty for African Americans vs. wealth and prosperity for white planters; South had a higher per capita income among whites than France and Germany; compared to North, a lower standard of living; focused on land and agriculture, not on new technology of the 19th century: factories, machine tools, steel plows, crushed gravel roads, water and steam-powered factories were all part of life in the industrial North; urban growth in the North was limited in the South to New Orleans, St. Louis, and Baltimore; few immigrants to the South because of lack of opportunity; by 1860, some 84 percent of southerners still worked in agriculture.

16. IV. The African American World
A. Evangelical Black Protestantism 1. African Religions and Christian Conversion 2. Black Worship
IV. The African American World
Evangelical Black Protestantism
1. African Religions and Christian Conversion – African-born slaves continued to worship their traditional gods and spirits; ministers such as Presbyterian Charles C. Jones believed that whites should convert slaves; some slaves became Christians in the Chesapeake and then were sold to the Deep South.
2. Black Worship – Adapted Protestantism to their needs; slaves disliked and avoided passages in the Bible that told them to obey authority without question; some believed they would be liberated as the Jews had been in the Old Testament; adapted music to their African roots and spiritual needs; worship became “distinctive and joyous.”

17. IV. The African American World
B. Forging Families and Communities 1. African influences 2. Kinship and marriage
IV. The African American World
B. Forging Families and Creating Culture
1. African influences – By 1820, the percentage of slaves born in Africa was decreasing (20 percent in South Carolina); regional differences were evident; Mississippi Valley population had large number of slaves who descended from the Congo region of West-Central Africa; shunned marriages between cousins (African incest taboos).
2. Kinship and marriage – Cousin marriages were common among whites in the South; slave marriages were not recognized by law, although marriages did often take place in front of ministers; slaves who came from Africa often gave their children African names; many American-born slaves chose English names. 17

18. IV. The African American World
C. Negotiating Rights 1. Working Lives 2. Survival Strategies
IV. The African American World
C. Negotiating Rights
1. Working Lives – Families and communities provided order among slaves; collective unity aided slaves in achieving additional rights (“task” work in South Carolina); slaveholders feared rebellion among slaves that organized; was difficult to maintain order unless a slave owner was comfortable using violence; only hardened or sadistic masters had the stomach for such violence.
2. Survival Strategies – Slaves slowed the pace of work by feigning illness or breaking tools; insisted that they be sold in families; burned master’s home or barn; poisoned food; destroyed crops; any of these tactics could be met with violence by masters, including rape of slaves; few slaves rebelled violently (Gabriel and Martin Prosser in 1800; Nat Turner in 1831); escape was difficult for those in the Deep South; escape from any plantation meant leaving family members.

20. IV. The African American World
D. The Free Black Population 1. Northern Blacks 2. Standing for Freedom in the South
The African American World
D. The Free Black Population
1. Northern Blacks – About half of free blacks lived in the North; discrimination against blacks kept them in low-paying jobs and considered socially inferior; few northern states gave black men suffrage; only Massachusetts allowed blacks to testify against whites in court; black activist Martin Delaney remarked: “We are slaves in the midst of freedom.” Created strong institutions including businesses, schools, mutual-benefit societies, Free African Societies, and a new religious denomination—the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
2. Standing for Freedom in the South – The free black population in slave states was approximately 225,000 in 1860; most lived in coastal cities and in the Upper South; faced dangers of being forced into slavery, denied jury trials, or simply kidnapped and sold; very few free blacks owned slaves (mixed-race David Barland in Mississippi owned at least 18); free black men were symbols to slaves of potential for freedom.