1. Cotton, Slavery, and the Old South
Chapter 11
Cotton, Slavery, and the Old South

2. Objectives
1. How cotton became “king” and the role it played in shaping the “Southern way of Life.”
2. The continuing historical debate over the South, its “peculiar institution,” and the effects of enslavement on the blacks

3. Trade made the South a major force in international commerce and created substantial wealth
Southern society, culture, politics all changed in response to these important demographics and economic changes
“The South grew, but it did not develop.”

5. Cotton Economy Demand for cotton was growing rapidly
1820 – 500,000 bales of cotton
1850 – 3 million bales
1860 – 5 million bales
Nearly 2/3 of the total export trade of the US
South produced 85% of world’s cotton crop

7. Southern Trade and Industry
Inadequate transportation systems
Crude roads
Little or no real railroads

8. Southern Differences No commercial or industrial economy
Traditional values of chivalry, leisure, and elegance
“Cavaliers” – people happily free from Yankee values
Refined and gracious way of life rather than with rapid growth and development

10. WHITE SOCIETY IN THE SOUTH
Only a small minority of southern whites owned slaves
Planter Class – apex of society. Determining the political, economic, and even social life
Like to compare their planter class to the old upper class of England
Code of Chivalry

11. The “Southern Lady”
Affluent white women occupied roles similar to those of middle-class North
Served as companions and hostesses
Nurturing mothers
Spinning, weaving, agricultural tasks
Supervise the slave work force
Less access to education
Subordinate in southern culture

12. Half of children born in 1860 did not reach age five
Some male slave-owners had sexual relationships with slaves. White women would take out their feelings on these slaves.

13. “Women, like children, have but one right, and that is the right to protection. The right to protection involves the obligation to obey.”

14. The Plain Folk
Typical white southerner was not a great planner and slaveholder – but a modest yeoman farmer
¾ of all white families owned no slaves
Men were unquestioned masters of tehir homes

15. Degraded Class Crackers, Sand hillers, poor white trash
Resorted to eat clay at times
Formed true underclass and were worse than that of African-American slaves
Poor whites still considered themselves member of the ruling class

17. THE “PECULAR INSTITUTION”
South in the mid 19th Century was the only Western world (except Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico) that had slaves
Slaves developed a society and culture of their own
Bond between Master and Slave was both ways

18. Varieties of Slavery Could not hold property
Could not leave without permission
Not out after dark
No firearms
Could not strike a white person
Could not learn to read or write
No legal marriage

19. Could be killed while being punished and nothing happened to the owner
Anyone rumored to posses any trace of slave blood was presumed to be black unless they could prove otherwise
Most masters possessed very few slaves.
Master – slave relationship like parent to child

21. Most preferred to live on large plantations – more privacy and chance to build a cultural and social world
Plantation had two methods:
Task System – once finished your task the slave would have the rest of the day off
Gang System – worked in gangs and worked all day long

22. Life Under Slavery Adequate diet, could grow gardens
Clothing and shoes
Cabins
Doctors
Children started with light tasks

23. Women – cooking, cleaning, and child bearing
Life for slave may have been better than those of many northern factory workers
Hired labor would be used for dangerous work
Irish could be hired for $1.00 a day
Slaves cost $300 – 1000 to replace

25. Slavery In The City
Urban slaves gained opportunities to mingle with free blacks and with whites
Some Free Blacks owned slaves
In some states, owners could not free (Manumit) their slaves
Abolitionists worked to abolish slavery

26. The Slave Trade
Domestic slave trade was essential to the growth and prosperity of the whole system
There were stereotype: Sambo, shuffling, grinning

27. Ways of Revolt Slave revolts did happen: 1831 and Nat Turner
Running away
Most important ways of revolt
Refusal to work
Breaking tools
Cutting off their own fingers
Killing themselves

28. Culture Retained a language of their own Music – banjo (from Africa)
Religion was more emotional than whites