1. The Old South and Slavery, 1830-1860
Chapter 12

3. Distribution of Slaves: 1790 and 1860
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4. The Internal Slave Trade: 1810–1860
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5. Cotton
1. Upper South – Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas
a. More diversified economy (wheat, tobacco, hemp, vegetables, livestock)
b. Less dependent upon cotton & slavery
2. Deep South (Lower South) – South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas
a. Almost exclusively dependent upon cotton and, therefore, slavery
b. In the end, the Upper South, which also had slavery, sided with the Deep South when it came to Civil War
Cotton was one the leading crops of this time.
With its warm climate, wet springs, and summers, and relatively dry autumns, the Lower South was especially suited to the cultivation of cotton.
Cotton was an inexpensive crop to grow with very little necessities.

6. Major Crops of the South, 1860

7. Cotton 3. Climate and geography of Deep South = ideal for cotton
could be grown profitably on almost any scale
by 1850, “King Cotton” dominated southern culture
4. Cotton cultivation = compatible with corn
= South largely self-sufficient & highly profitable
demand for cotton from Britain and New England was, seemingly, Limitless
The demand for cotton in Britain and New England kept the price of it high.
Advantage of cotton lay in the compatibility with the production of corn. Could be planted anytime throughout the year
Corn allowed planters to use employ slaves when cotton was not being harvested.

8. Figure 12. 1: Value of Cotton Exports as a Percentage of All U. S
Figure 12.1: Value of Cotton Exports as a Percentage of All U.S. Exports, 1800–1860
Cotton: with the production of cotton and other leading crops, it made the south the wealthiest part of the US at the time.
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9. Figure 12.2: Growth of Cotton Production and the Slave Population, 1790–1860
population doubled and cotton employed ¾ of slaves
Slave holding allowed planters to increase their cotton acreage and hence their profits.
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10. Ties Between the Lower and Upper South
Social, political, and economic factors promoted unity between upper and lower South, as opposed to the agricultural west
a. Many whites from lower South had migrated from Upper South
b. Both regions benefited from the Three-Fifths Clause
c. Hostility of abolitionists drove the regions together in defense of slavery
d. Internal slave trade from Upper to Lower created financial ties

11. The North and South Diverge
North increasingly urban/industrial
South remained agricultural accounting for less than 10% of nation’s manufacturing output – and most of that tied closely to agriculture
Industrialization of South inhibited by its risk, whereas cotton was foolproof investment
1. While much of the North started to urbanize, the South stayed relatively rural.
a. due to lack of industries.
b. J.D.B. DeBow advocated factories as a way to revive the economies of the older states to reduce the southern dependence on the north.
c. Chief brake of southern industrialization was money.
i. due to refusal to sell slaves for capital.
2. Factories and industries:
a. compared to North, Southern industries were small, closely tied to agriculture.
b. Slavery posed a major obstacle to southern industrialization.
i. Slaves hired in factories passed themselves as free and acted free to negotiate better working conditions.

12. Public Education in the South
Reject compulsory edu.
Reluctant to tax property to support schools
Most universities private
Crime to teach slaves
White illiteracy high
3. Public education:
a. Southerners rejected compulsory education and were reluctant to tax property to support schools.
b. lawmakers made it a crime to teach slaves
c. Some public aid flowed to universities but most was private.
d. white illiteracy remained high in the south.
e. the North took education more into effect accepting Horace Mann’s plan on education.

13. Progression
Visitors to the South often believed they were traveling “backwards in time”
The white South did NOT lack progressive features
I.e. agricultural improvement
More accurate to view as merely different
4. Progression:
Northerners believed that the South was not industrializing.
b. Yet the white south did not lack progressive features
i. In 1840 per capita income was slightly below average, and in 1860 exceed the average
c. Southerners progressed in agricultural improvement

14. Social Groups of the White South
PLANTERS
SMALL SLAVEHOLDERS
YEOMEN (small farmers)
PINE BARRENS FOLK 10%

15. Ownership of Slaves In 1860 – 25% of white families owned slaves
a. More than half of them owned fewer than 5 slaves
b. Only 12% owned 20 or more slaves
c. Only 1% owned more than 100 slave

16. Planters and Plantation Mistresses –
Those owning 20 or more slaves
1.Value of their slaves was biggest source of wealth
2. Often lived in cities and had hired overseers manage their plantations
3. “Infidelity” of planter men (rape of female slaves)was rampant, and the source of numerous mulatto children
Planters
a. those who owned 20 or more slaves, to run the plantation
b. dominated in low country and delta regions of the south
c. urban merchants & lawyers were classified in this group
d. labor staff in plantation:
i. domestic staff: butler, waiters, seamstresses, laundresses, maids and gardeners.
ii. pasture staff: shepherds, cowherds, hog drivers
iii. outdoor artisans: stonemasons and carpenters
iv. indoor artisans: blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, spinners, and weavers
v. field hands
e. the homes where usually elaborate mansions
f. slaves where worth a lot of money
g. Planters had to worry constantly about profitability. The fixed costs of operating plantations- including hiring overseers, housing and feeding slaves, and maintaining cotton gins and other equipment- were considerable.(caused them to search for better land)
h. the isolation left many women depressed which caused the couple to move to the cities for long periods of time and left the plantation management to the overseers.

17. Small Slaveholders
Profits depended upon low expenses and frequent migration to more fertile land, as cotton wore out the land rapidly
Small slaveholders
a. Those with fewer than 20
b. looked to the planters for leadership
c. typically owned few slaves, and didn’t aspire to be planters
i. In lower regions aspired to be planters
d. The invest in slaves could be justified only by setting them to work on profitable crops.
e. Small slaveholders where usually younger than large slave holders .
f. Initially pushed into the cotton belt

18. Yeomen farmers
The largest single group of southern whites 1.Often hired slaves for harvest 2. Often subsistence farmers, or had minimal crops for Market 3. Concentrated in upland regions, which had cheaper, less fertile land 4. Fiercely independent and proud –valued self-sufficiency
yeomen
a. Non slaveholding family farmers
b. comprised the largest single group of southern whites
c. dominated in hilly upland region(slaveholders tended to acquire their outlook
d. rural artisans & merchants usually were classified in this group (minority of yeomen didn’t own land)
e. hired slaves at harvest time, but paid them
f. leading characteristic is the value that they attached to self-sufficiency, devoted a large land to subsistence crops.
g. in the lower county were seen as “poor white trash”
h. in upper areas where highly respectable

19. People of the Pine Barrens
Squatted in the piney woods, eking out a living, hunt, raising livestock, and subsistence farming
people of the pine barren
a. usually squatted on the land, put up crude cabins, cleared some acreage and planted corn between tree stubs, and grazed hogs and cattle in the woods.
b. made up about 10% of southern population
c. neither raised cash crops nor engaged in daily routines as farmers did
d. proof to whites that slavery degraded them
e. were self-reliant and fiercely independent
i. some time worked slaves jobs
ii. women refused to become servants.

20. Social Relations in the White South
Conflict and Consensus in the White South
Although political power (elective office) was dominated by planters, the planters depended upon votes of the other classes for election
Were, therefore, responsive to other classes needs
On most issues, the classes had common agenda
a. conflict between slaveholders and non-slaveholders
b. Between slaveholders gained an increasing proportion of southern wealth while declining as a proportion of white population. i. Class size shrank 36% in 1831.
c. non-slaveholders wanted to abolish slavery
i. impending crisis of the south, by: Hinton R. Helper
d. slavery didn’t create a lasting effect for emancipation was dropped from southern agenda after 1832.

21. Conflict Over Slavery
Despite rising income inequality between planters and others, slavery was not a wedge issue among southern whites
Many non-slaveholding whites aspired to become slaveholders
Most non-slaveholding whites accepted the racial assumptions upon which slavery rested –slavery was a good way to enforce racial subordination

22. The Pro-Slavery Argument
Between 1830 and 1860, proslavery writers constructed a defense of slavery as a positive good, not a necessary evil:
1. Argued that, historically, great civilizations (e.g., Greece, Rome)had depended on slavery
2.Argued that Northern industrial labor was harsher than southern slavery
3. Clergy preached obedience and argued that slavery gave whites the opportunity to display Christian responsibility toward their inferiors and blacks the opportunity to develop Christian virtues of humility and self-control
Benevolent or harsh, masters operated under the market system –slaves were purchased and maintained in order to make a profit
Proslavery Arguments
1. Southern writers constructed a defense of slavery as a positive good rather than a necessary evil.
a. Southerners answered northern attacks on slavery as a backward institution by pointing out that the slavery society of ancient Athens had produced Plato and Aristotle and that Roman slaveholders had laid the basis of western civilization.
b. many southerners used references to the bible.
c. many believed that the real intentions for abolishment of slavery is to advocate women’s right and destroy the family.
d. proslavery began to emerge in discussions at church, for at first they thought that it was immoral, but later advocated that it was necessary.

23. “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave” –Byam Martin, 1833
White southerners could not escape the fact that much of the western world loathed their peculiar institution. In 1833, when a Canadian sketched this Charleston slave auction, Britain abolished slavery in the West Indies.

24. The Maturing of the Plantation System
1.By 1830s, gender balance enabled natural internal population growth among slaves
2. Despite decline (1760) and ban (1808) of importation, the slave population grew
Maturing of the plantation system:
Drastic change in the slaves from the 1700’s and the 1830’s
Typical North American slave was as likely to be a male or a female who was born in America, spoke a form of English, who worked in the company with numerous other slaves on a plantation.
Ratio of female and male slaves balanced, causing more marriage.
Usually married people from nearby plantations.
Importation of slaves gradually decreased during the 1760’s and congress banned it in 1808.

25. Work and Discipline of Plantation Slaves
1.The gang labor system prevailed on plantations 2. Women worked alongside men in the fields 3. Work usually began before dawn and ended after dusk 4. Harsh discipline was viewed as a Christian duty, to teach submissiveness 5. A minority of slaves got opportunities to work off-plantation and/or to work as skilled and semi-skilled artisans and craftsmen
Work on plantation slaves:
Typical slave worked with numerous other slaves usually in banned of 10
Almost 3/5 of all slaves that year were owned by masters with ten or more slaves.
½ slaves worked for masters who contained 20 or more slaves.
Working day:
Usually began an hour before sunrise with the sounding of a horn or bell.
After a sparse breakfast, they marched to the fields.
They would then work until sun down.
Men and female usually worked together side by side.
If women didn’t work in the fields, they worked caring for the masters family.
Discipline:
Overseers and drives usually walked around whipping the slaves
Master saw the discipline as a necessity and priority
Had opportunity of advancement, from unskilled field workers, to semiskilled indoor worker

26. Slavery and the Law
Bottom Line: Slaves were property and had little to no legal rights.
What slaves could not do:
Testify against a white person
Carry a fire arm
Learn how to read or write
Leave the plantation without permission
Gather in a group without a white person present
Get married without permission of their master
Spend free time without permission of their master
Resist sexual assault
How masters enforced laws
Whipping
Exploiting social divisions among slaves
Incentives
Threat of sale
Sexual exploitation

27. Slave Woman in the Field

28. The Slave Family
1.Marriage was actually encouraged as a means of discouraging runaways and rebellion, and to encourage childrearing 2. Nevertheless, slave marriage was not protected by law, and the sale of family members often took place out of financial necessity 3. Slave marriage was no protection against sexual assault by whites Combination of west African tradition and the vagaries of family life caused slaves to embrace extended and fictive families (all are brothers and sisters)
The slave family:
1. Some of the masters encouraged weddings, and at times made them a wedding cake.
2. laws provided neither recognition or nor protection fro the slave family.
3. Many times the families had to be separated when the master sold family members.
a. mothers where usually separated from their children for days.
b. when married from different plantations, the children usually stayed with the mother.
4. Differed from white families
a. in white families the parent-child bond overrode all others, slaves in contrast emphasized ties between children, uncles, grandparents, and aunts, as well as their parents.
b. slaves often created fictive kins network, with the absence of an uncle or aunt, they called their friends uncles, and aunts

29. Notice of Sale for Slaves 

30. Longevity, Diet, and Health of Slaves
1.Corn and swine were main food source, but slaves supplemented their diets with small gardens
2. Slaves had higher infant mortality rates and lower life expectancy than whites
5. Longevity, diet, and health of slaves
a. Slaves in the United States tended to live longer than the ones that were in the western hemisphere.
b. Gender rates among slaves equalized more rapidly in the United States, encouraging earlier and longer, marriages with more children.
c. the slaves food consisted of peck of cornmeal and 3-4 pound of meat a week
d. slaves had greater immunities to both malaria and yellow fever, but suffered more from cholera, dysentery, and diarrhea.
i. blacks often made remedies that cured stomach pains
e. although slave remedies were often more effective than those of white physicians, slaves experienced a higher mortality rate than whites.
i. whites could out live blacks at any age
ii. 2/3 black children survived to be ten

31. Slaves off Plantations
1. Blacks were often hired out to southern factories, mines, etc. because white labor was unavailable –all tied up in agriculture
2. Skilled labor opportunities existed for blacks in southern cities, which were not attractive to immigrants with labor skills
6. Slaves off plantations:
Many of the slaves who worked outside of the plantation had much more skills that they were able to acquire.
Slaves or free blacks found it easier to pursue skilled occupations in the southern cities attracted few immigrants to compete for work, and partly because the profitability of southern cash crops long had pulled white laborers out of towns and cities and left behind opportunities for blacks, slaves or free, to acquire craft skills.
Slaves that worked outside of the plantation were usually hired more than owned.

32. Slave Resistance
–Denmark Vesey devised a plan to attack Charleston, but slaves informed authorities and the conspirators were executed –Nat Turner’s Rebellion led to the murder of over 60 whites before it was brutally suppressed 3. Swift, brutal retaliation by heavily armed whites, reluctance to endanger families, and lack of any allies all worked to make overt rebellion rare
Nat Turner Rebellion
Nat Turner and six other slaves broke into Joseph Travis’ home, where they killed Travis, his wife, and two other whites, and later on the infant. They traveled around killing whites. The membership was about 60/70 and they killed over 60 whites. The white militia took control and slaughtered blacks even if they weren’t involved. Turner went to trial and then was hung.
A. Before the Turner Rebellion Virginians had worried little of slave rebellions.
B. Non-slaveholding whites in the western par of the state, urged that Virginia follow the lead of northern states and emancipate slaves.

33. Slave Resistance
4. Underground Railroad was a loosely organized escape network, but fewer than 1,000 of the millions of slaves escaped to the North than open rebellion, and were harshly punished

34. Newspaper Ad for the Return of an Runaway Slave

35. Life on the Margin: Free Blacks in the Old South
1.A small number of free blacks existed in southern cities –as barbers, carpenters, coopers, rarely small traders and businessmen
2. Free blacks were always at risk, especially after 1831 Nat Turner’s rebellion, after which several states banned free blacks
3. Strict segregation existed in all cities, regardless of wealth of a free black
4. Free blacks assumed leadership positions among freed slaves after the Civil War
7. Life on the Margin: free blacks in the old south
Free blacks would usually live In cities, and were urban
Usually given the chance to become carpenters, coopers, barbers and even small traders.
Urban free blacks formed their own fraternal orders and churches; a church run by free blacks was often the largest house of worship in the southern city.
Rate of growth of black slowed down after 1810
Due to fewer masters setting their slaves free
In the wake of the Nate Turner rebellion in 1831 laws restricting the liberties of free blacks were tightened.
Made it a felony in the south to teach blacks how to read and write.
Majority of blacks that didn’t live in the city lived in rural areas.

36. Free Blacks in the Old South

37. The Emergence of African-American Culture
The Language of Slaves –
Pidgin English eventually replaced African languages
The Emergence of African-American Culture:
A. The Language of Slaves
1. When the slaves had first arrived, many spoke different languages for they weren’t from the same part of Africa.
2. Developed pidgin: a language that had no native speakers in which people with different native languages can communicate.
a. As more American slaves began to form pidgin to root.
b. Usually dropped the verb to be and dropped the gender
c. Contained several African words: Banjo, goober

38. African-American Religion
1.Africans came with variety of native, nature-based religions
2. Methodist and Baptist revivalists introduced a version of Christianity to slaves that tried to be compatible with native religions
Missionaries preached a Christianity emphasizing obedience and preaching spiritual, but not civil/social, equality
Blacks identified with the ancient Hebrews and saw themselves as the oppressed “Chosen Ones” who would one day be set free
Christianity taught them that slavery was an affliction that God allowed in order to test their faith, and for which they would be ultimately rewarded
African- American Religion:
1. Usually worship native land religion.
2. Similar to the Indians , in which they believed in gods, and the sprites of the earth.
3. Many of the slaves that came had not clung to their relgion in native land
4.Many went to Christianity for they had similar symbolic features such as the meaning of water(life and hope)
a. Even though the whites and blacks where preached the same thing, many times they had different interpretations.
5. Later on went to make Baptist and Methodist churches.

39. Black Music and Dance
African heritage of rhythm influenced both music and dance
2. Work songs –call and response –were common
3. Spirituals also grew in popularity among slaves
Black Music and Dance:
1.Blacks were much more expressive, shouting “Amen” and let their body movement reflect their feelings.
2.Slaves also expressed their feelings in music, and dance
a. Used a lot of hand clapping to mark rhythm
i. American Slaves made clapping noises called patting juba.
b. Slavs also plated an African instrument, the banjo, and beat tin buckes as substitution for drums.
3. Always tied music with body movement
4. Also came up with many chants that masters encouraged, for it was believed that it would make them work harder.
5. Also sung religious songs later called spirituals.