The South and the Slavery Controversy

The Slavery Issue

• Post Revolution- TJ and other southern leaders openly talk about freeing slaves

• Eli Whitney restores profitability of slavery

• Cotton cultivation chains the slave to the gin, and the planter to the slave.

Cotton is King • Cotton- planters now moving to Gulf States because

soil is fertile• Northern merchants get rich- transport cotton to

England, then buy English goods to bring back to America

• Cotton- ½ of nations exports in 1840• Supplies half of world’s cotton supply• 75% of England’s cotton comes from the south-

England is largest producer of cotton cloth

Cotton Is King

• England’s dependence on South’s cotton makes them feel like Kings

The Planter Aristocracy

• South is more of an oligarchy than democracy

• Only 1,733 families owned over 100 slaves

• This select few dominate politics, economy, and and social aspects of life

• “Cottonocracy”

The Planter Aristocracy• Planters have majority of

wealth in South• Educate their kids in North

or abroad• Money allows leisure, for

study, reflection, and statecraft

• Aristocracy= undemocratic• Gap between rich and poor

increases• No public education, rich

can send kids to North, why use tax money

The Planter Aristocracy

• Women• Plantation mistress-

large staff to run• Some good, some bad• Almost all are against

abolition, don’t have problems with separating slave families

Slaves of the Slave System

• Quick profits leads to excessive planting = land butchery

• Monopolistic- small farmers often forced to sell lands to large farmers, then move north and west

Slaves of the Slave System

• Plantation system can be financially unstable– Get rich quick, many

planters buy too much land and go into debt

– Slaves are heavy investments

– Slaves can runway, or be wiped out be a disease easily

• One crop economy- price levels are controlled by global factors

Slaves of the Slave System• South resents North getting

rich at their expense• North “owns them from

cradle to grave” • No immigration in the

South why?– Slaves are labor source

– Best lands are too expensive

– Most immigrants lack knowledge of cotton planting

The White Majority

• Roughly only ¼ of South owns slaves or belonged to slave holding family

• Most slave owners own less than 5 slaves- worked on small farms , worked next to their slaves

The White Majority

• 75% of south population owns no slaves

• Most dream of becoming large plantation owner

• Forced into crappy lands, mountainous areas- subsistence farmers

• Known as hillbillies, crackers, clay eaters

White Majority

• If minority hold slaves, why did they fight in the ACW?

• 1.American Dream- maybe a few more slaves and I’ll be rich

• 2. Racial- Despite being poor and often living in worse conditions, still felt superior to blacks, if blacks are freed this kills that mindset

White Majority

• Special group of men- mountain whites- outskirts of society, many never seen a slave

• In the ACW, mountain whites will play crucial rule in helping the Union

Free Blacks of the South

• 250,000• In upper south- most

earned freedom after the AR

• Deep South- mulattoes, offspring of master and slave mistress– In New Orleans- many were

successful property owners

Free Blacks of the South

• The “Third Race”• Banned from certain jobs,

can’t testify against whites in courts

• Slave traders could kidnap them back into slavery

• White majority hates them, gives other slaves hope

Free Blacks of the North • Face same (if not more)

racism • Can’t vote, barred from

public schools • Irish hate them because

they compete for same unskilled jobs

• In the south- whites hate the race, but like the individual, in the north whites profess to like the race, but hate the individual

Plantation Slavery

• 4 million in the south in chattel slavery

• Slave traded ended in US 1808

• England 1807• Yet estimations of 3

millions slaves still illegally shipped around the world – “black ivory”

Plantation Slavery

• Stopping international slave trade encourages the internal (domestic) slave trade – Slaves goes from Upper south to deep south

• “Sold down the river”• Slave population growth is

due to natural production- makes US unique in slave history

Plantation Slavery

• Slaves are huge investment, and a sign of wealth in the south

• If jobs are too dangerous, plantations use Irish, rather than risk a slave’s life

• Female slaves now have a high value – “rattlin good breeders” usually had 13-14 kids (including mulattoes)

Plantation Slavery

Life of Slaves

• Differs greatly• Most work dusk till dawn• Most have white overseer

or black driver• No legal protection• Some states have laws that

down allow selling of children

• But- hard to enforce, black marriages are legal, and than cannot testify in court

Life of Slaves

• Whipping is best punishment

• Sometimes breakers must be sent

• Breakers = extremely cruel overseers

• Savage beatings are not common WHY

The Black Belt

• By 1860 most slaves concentrated in the Deep South- SC, GE, AL, MS, LA

• Also known as cotton kingdom

Life of Slaves

• Majority life on large plantations- communities of 20 or more slaves

• Most slave separations occur on smaller farms

• Despite conditions, form a distinct culture

Slaves and Religion

• Religion, mix of African and Christianity

• “Tell old Pharaoh, let my people go”

• Responsorial – congregation responds with assents or amens-

Slave Resistance

• 9 out of 10 blacks are totally illiterate b4 ACW

• Most successful methods of resistance– Work as slow as possible

(hence myth that blacks are lazy)

– Steal food from plantation house

– Break Equipment– Abortions, birth control

Slave Resistance

• Were slave rebellions, but never successful. Often informed upon by other slaves.

• 1800 Gabriel in Richmond • Denmark Vesey,

Charleston in 1822.• Most famous was rebellion

by Nat Turner in Va. in 1831.

Slave Resistance

• Spanish Slave Ship Amistad 1839

• Spent two years in prison• JQA releases them and

sends them to Sierra Leone (British Colony)

• White southerners, out numbered, are now terrified in the face of rebellions, especially Nat Turner’s

Early Abolitionism

• Early abolitionism. Quakers.

• American Colonization Society (1817)

• Liberia. 15000 freed blacks transported to Africa

• Why don’t more American Blacks go back to Africa?.

Early Abolition • In the 1830s abolitionist turned into a crusade.

– Why?

• Theodore Dwight Weld—early Abolitionist preacher.– American Slavery as It Is (1839)

• Lyman Beecher, head of Lane Theological Seminary, hotbed of early abolitionism. Very influential and father of “Lanes Rebels”– Harriet Beecher Stowe –Uncle Tom’s Cabin

– Henry Ward Beecher- Beecher’s Bibles

– Catharine Beecher- Women’s education movement

Radical Abolition • 1831 William Lloyd

Garrison• Published militant

abolitionist magazine: The Liberator.

• Founded the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833.

• Immediate Abolition • Critics say- too radical, and

didn’t offer any solution to “race” problem

I will be as harsh as the truth and as uncompromising as justice… I am earnest- I will not equivocate- I will not excuse- I will not retreat a single inch- I will be heard

Black Abolitionists • Sojourner Truth –abolition

and women’s rights• David Walker—Militant-

Appeal to Colored Citizens of the World

• Frederick Douglas– Narrative of Life of Frederick

Douglass (3 times)

– Greatest of the Black abolitionists

– escaped from bondage in 1838 at 21.

– Protégé of Garrison

The South Lashes Back

• Before 1830:– More anti-slavery societies in south than north

– Southerners openly debated merits of slavery.

• After 1830 debate in South ends and many southerners defend as positive good. What changed?– Nat Turners rebellion in 1831

– Nullification Crisis

– Reaction to Northern criticism

– Southern preachers arguing that slavery supported by Bible

Slavery the positive good?

• Slavery is supported by the bible and wisdom of Aristotle

• Africans taken from barbarianism, and brought to Christian civilization

• South tries to paint slave master is caring father of slave family

Slavery the positive good?

• South said slaves were happier than wage slaves of the north (Irish)

• How so? • South now viewed as

backward, while North viewed as moving forward

• 1836- Gag Resolution- slavery cannot be debated in congress

Abolitionists Impact in the North • Abolitionists were not particularly

popular in the North for some time. Why?– North had heavy stake in the cotton of the

south.

– Textile mills relied on southern cotton.

– Many northerners feared political controversy.

• Many northern politicians carefully distanced themselves from the abolitionists.

• Abolitionists harassed

• Yet, by 1850 abolitionism had gained strength and taken root as a popular cause.