1. Chapter 16 The South and the Slave Controversy
The Cotton Kingdom
The Peculiar Institution

2. “Cotton is King” Eli Whitney’s cotton gin ironically prolongs slavery
Constitutionally international slave trade ended in 1808, but internal slave trade continued
The Northern states were exporters of cotton, therefore tied to slaves economically
England was great importer of American cotton, but also England was a nation of abolitionist

3. Southern socio-economic system
The pyramid of power
Non whites at longer end of pyramid
Planter aristocrats 3%
Small slaveholders / farmers
Slaveless whites (75%) of white population self sufficient farmers…including “po white trash” that were often sick
Mountain whites lived on frontier
Freed blacks…despised by southern whites…laws enforced a second class status (in northern states also).
Some (few) freed blacks owned slaves and fought for Confederacy.
Indians below pyramid…forced WEST

4. Planter aristocracy
Small percentage of southern people owned 100 plus slaves. They lived in stereotypical mansions and on large plantations. The super wealthy aristocrats controlled southern society, and educated children at private schools. Mistress of house ran plantation with overseer and various types of slaves

5. Plantation slavery One crop economy (wore out soil)
King Cotton price level at mercy of world market
North used raw material of cotton to build manufacturing base and advocate tariffs
Immigrants by and large migrated to Northern states

6. Slave conditions
1808 international slave trade banned, but domestic one flourished
4 million slaves by 1860 (lots of natural reproduction)
Slaves an investment…dangerous jobs done by immigrants or “po white trash”

7. Slave conditions
Deep South of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama and Louisiana accounted for half of all slaves
“Sold Down the River” meant going to work in Deep South on rice / tobacco / indigo plantations
Slave auctions were brutal affairs

8. Life under the lash Rape of women Broken families
Laws aimed to protect slaves were not often enforced
Adopted surname of a master
Many slaves adopted Christian religion

9. Slave “rebellions” Work slower , break equipment, poison food
Gabriel’s Rebellion of 1800
1822 rebellion of Denmark Vesey
1831 Nat Turner’s rebellion

10. Nat Turner’s Rebellion
Nathaniel Turner ( ) was a black American who organized and led the most successful slave revolt in the United States.
Nat Turner was born a slave on Oct. 2, 1800, in Southampton County, Va. He preached to other slaves, counseling them to seek self-respect, to fight for justice, and to resist and rebel against the institution of slavery if they were to be free men.
He believed that he was chosen by God to deliver his people from bondage and "slay my enemies with their own weapons.“
In 48 hours Turner and his followers killed between 55 and 65 whites throughout Southampton County.

11. Early Aboltionism
1817 American Colonization Society was founded to return slaves to Africa.
Liberia founded under James Monroe’s administration
1830s Second Great Awakening spurs more abolitionism
Quakers
Theodore Weld’s Slavery As It Is

12. Radical Abolitionism
1829 David Walker’s Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World
1831 William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator
Sojourner Truth fought for abolitionism

13. Frederick Douglas His Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas
Conscience Whigs
1840 Liberty Party , 1848 Free Soil Party , Republican Party in 1860
Civil War was the price of Emancipation

14. How Southerners Supported Slavery
The good of the “peculiar institution”
Religion
Northern Wage Slaves
1836 Congressional Gag Resolution (repealed in 1844)

15. Abolitionism in the North
Extreme Abolitionist unpopular….Garrison survived mob in 1835
Unionist in North
Economic connection with South (bank loans and cotton)
Prejudice
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe