Chapter 12

SLAVERY AND THE SOUTH

REVIEW

Recall Slavery

2 centuries

MAP 10.1 The South Expands, 1790–1850 This map shows the dramatic effect cotton production had on southern expansion. From the original six states of 1790, westward expansion, fueled by the search for new cotton lands, added another six states by 1821, and three more by 1850.

COTTON KINGDOM

Economic expansion Dependence

Growth Outside plantations profitable

MAP 10.4 Population Patterns in the South, 1850 In South Carolina and Mississippi, the enslaved African American population outnumbered the white population; in four other Lower South states, the percentage was above 40 percent. These ratios frightened many white Southerners. White people also feared the free black population, though only three states in the Upper South and Louisiana had free black populations of over 3 percent. Six states had free black populations that were so small (less than 1 percent) as to be statistically insignificant.

JUSTIFICATIONS

Necessary evil to “positive good” Biblical Legal Scientific (racial) Slaves better off

MAP 10.2a Cotton Production and the Slave Population, 1820. In the forty-year period from 1820 to 1860, cotton production grew dramatically in both quantity and extent. Rapid westward expansion meant that by 1860 cotton production was concentrated in the black belt (so called for its rich soils) in the Lower South. As cotton production moved west and south, so did the enslaved African American population that produced it, causing a dramatic rise in the internal slave trade. SOURCE:Sam Bowers Hilliard,Atlas of Antebellum Southern Agriculture (Baton Rouge:Lousiana State University Press,1984).

See next map

FIGURE 10.1 Cotton Exports as a Percentage of All U.S. Exports, 1800–1860 One consequence of the growth of cotton production was its importance in international trade. The growing share of the export market, and the great value (nearly $200 million in 1860) led southern slave owners to believe that “Cotton Is King.” The importance of cotton to the national economy entitled the South to a commanding voice in national policy, many Southerners believed. SOURCE:Sam Bowers Hilliard,Atlas of Antebellum Southern Agriculture (Baton Rouge:Louisiana State University Press,1984),pp.67 –71.

ECONOMICS

Significance? South, north, globally

SOCIAL STATUS

Status and wealth Most owned NO slaves

PLANTATION SYSTEM

Paternal Male, master Oversee all

“Plantation mistress” Day-to-day operations No real authority

Slaves

FIGURE 10.2 Distribution of Slave Labor, 1850 In 1850, 55 percent of all slaves worked in cotton, 10 percent in tobacco, and another 10 percent in rice, sugar, and hemp. Ten percent worked in mining, lumbering, industry, and construction, and 15 percent worked as domestic servants. Slaves were not generally used to grow corn, the staple crop of the yeoman farmer.

FIGURE 10.3 Slaveholding and Class Structure in the South, 1830 The great mass of the southern white population were yeoman farmers. In 1830, slave owners made up only 36 percent of the southern white population; owners of more than fifty slaves constituted a tiny 2.5 percent. Yet they and the others who were middling planters dominated politics, retaining the support of yeomen who prized their freedom as white men above class-based politics. SOURCE:U.S.Bureau of the Census.

SLAVERY

Field work Harsh, brutal Majority

House work Constant supervision Information?

This 1855 illustration of black stevadores loading heavy bales of cotton onto waiting steam boats in New Orleans is an example of the South’s dependence on cotton and the slave labor that produce it.

SLAVE LIFE

Long hours Harsh conditions Free time Elders/pregnant women

FAMILY

Increase in pop. Births, marriage

Marriage, children Equal status

Men-women

Separation fears

MAP 10.3 Internal Slave Trade Between 1820 and 1860, nearly 50 percent of the slave population of the Upper South was sold south to labor on the cotton plantations of the Lower South. This map shows the various routes by which they were “sold down the river,” shipped by boat or marched south. SOURCE:Historical Atlas of the United States (Washington:National Geographic Society,1988).

This engraving from Harpers Weekly shows slaves, dressed in new clothing, lined up outside a New Orleans slave pen for inspection by potential buyers before the actual auction began. They were often threatened with punishment if they did not present a good appearance and manner that would fetch a high price. SOURCE:U.S.slave market,ca.1863, in New Orleans.Courtesy of Culver Pictures,Inc.

RELIGION

Continuity “invisible” church

Circle dance, call/respond pattern, group singing

Survival

SLAVE WOMEN

Double the work Exploitation

Sexual Resentment from wives

This Louisiana slave named Gordon was photographed in 1863 after he had escaped to Union lines during the Civil War. He bears the permanent scars of the violence that lay at the heart of the slave system. Few slaves were so brutally marked, but all lived with the threat of beatings if they failed to obey. SOURCE:National Archives and Records Administration.

BRUTALITY

Whippings, beatings, brandings, mutilation Cause: fear

RESISTANCE

Running away Methodically planned out South to north

Sabotage

Turner’s Rebellion

Underground Railroad

Harriet Tubman

SLAVE QUARTERS

Family Congo Square (New Orleans) – 1817

Blues, gospel, ragtime, jazz, rock n roll