Post on 01-Jan-2016
Causes of the Civil War and Antebellum AmericaJon HaleCollege of Charleston
Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
Evidence that Henry Ogden Holmes invented a cotton gin prior to Whitney
developed a saw-toothed gin in 1787 at Kinkaid Plantation in Craven County.
Expired on March 14, 1794
Whitney was granted his patent on that same date.
After the cotton gin, cotton became America’s leading crop. In 1790, 1,500 pounds of cotton
Slaves concentrated in Virginia (tobacco), South Carolina and Georgia (rice)
By 1800, 35,000 pounds.
By 1815, production had reached 100,000 pounds. 1820, slavery had spread westward to Mississippi.
In 1848, production exceeded 1,000,000 poundsBy 1865, 4 million slaves lived in the South.
Denmark Vesey Uprising
35 local African Americans tried, convicted, and executed
Two died in custody
40 African Americans were tried and deported
Nat Turner Rebellion, 1831
The Citadel“Act to Establish a Competent Force to Act as a Municipal Guard for the Protection of the City of Charleston and its vicinity." (1822)
The act provided that a suitable building be erected for the deposit of the arms of the State, and a guard house.
John C. Calhoun
John C. CalhounSeeks protect of “peculiar institution”
Protest tariffs on imported manufactured goods
Relies on Jeffersonian notions of states rights
William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879
"I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. . . . I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD.”
American Colonization Society
The Liberator, est. 1831
Abolitionism in South Carolina
A.E. Grimke, abolitionist and Quaker, born to South Carolinian slaveholders
Articulated message in “Appeal to the Christian Women of the South”
Roberts Smalls and the Reconstruction Educational Reformers
Robert Smalls of Beaufort, South Carolina proposes a universal education for all students
Joins a cohort of elected black politicians that build a system of public education in the South
“Sherman's march through South Carolina--advance from McPhersonville,” Harper’s Weekly, (March 4,
1865)
“Ruin in the Heart of Charleston” Harper’s Weekly (July 8, 1965)