SC to Louisiana Just the opposite of the Upper states Despite differences they still had the bond of slavery Slavery will divide whites and blacks, whites and whites, blacks and blacks

(1)

 Upper and Lower South

 Crops

 Southern Industry  Education

 Plantation agriculture  Few immigrants

 Plantation farmers

 Yeoman

 Why support slavery?  White conflicts

 Hinton Rowan Helper: The

Impending Crisis of the South

 Free blacks  Slave life

 Types of work  Overseers  Slave family

 Church

 Uprisings  Revolts fail

 Degrees of freedom  Slave Codes

 Compared to wage slaves  Religion

 Petition Congress  Abolition divides

The South and Slavery\

Antebellum

(2)

Upper

Lower



Virginia, NC, Tn,

Arkansas



Depended less on

slavery and

cotton



Approached

secession more

reluctantly



SC to Louisiana



Just the opposite of

the Upper states



Despite differences

they still had the

bond of slavery



Slavery will divide

(3)

Cotton

 If not for what invention would slavery probably died out?

 By 1840 the south produced 1\2 of all the cotton in the world

 75% of British imports came from US

 Why so much cotton?

 Also easier to maintain than sugar cane (rich man’s crop)  Many could grow it and smaller

farms didn’t require slaves  Slavery made it possible to

(4)

Corn

 Could be grown before or

after cotton

 Slaves could be used for this

too

 Corn acreage exceeded

cotton in the south

 Had to feed the family, sell it,

hog feed, etc.

 By 1860 the south had 2\3 of

the nations hogs

 This money was kept in the

south

 By 1860 the 12 wealthiest

(5)

Southern Industry

 The south remained rural for the most part

 1\3 of the population of the US lived in the south by

1850 but only accounted for 10% of industrial goods

 Most industries were related to….????

 Agriculture

– Corn into flour\meal

– Trees into lumber

 Some slaves worked in the factories (limited)

 Slavery itself didn’t impede industrialization

 It did disrupt social relations and bring anti-slavery

(6)

Southern Edu-ma-cation

 School not compulsory

 Reluctant to pay taxes for

support

 Slaves not allowed to read  60% of NC men who enlisted

in US Army before the civil war were illiterate compared to 30% in the north

 Why did the south lag

behind

 Revenues go with crops and

it made it difficult to appropriate money

(7)

Plantation

Agriculture

 Wasteful

 Quick profits led to excessive

cultivation and more population out west

 Smaller farmers sold land to

bigger farmers

 Financially unstable

– Dependence on one crop

– Slaves expensive

– Mercy of the world market

 Many southerners unhappy

the north was gaining from southern cotton

 Much money being made by

(8)

Immigrants



Why did few immigrants come to

the south?



Few immigrants in the south



Jobs; slave competition



High cost of land

(9)

Social Relations



Distorted by the north



Alleged slavery robbed the lower

class of the incentive to work and

made them lazy



Slavery made the south a region of

rich planters and poor common

people

(10)

Plantation Farmers



The Antebellum south seemed to some

like an oligarchy (nobility)



Small group who owned over 100 slaves

controlled the politics and

social circles in the south



Led to more gaps between the rich

and poor



This is the romanticized south



Many planters traveled away from their

(11)

 Men often had

relationships with their slaves

 The offspring faced harsh

treatment from the wives

 Although the plantation

owners seemed to control things, they knew who voted them into govt. offices

Any lady is ready to tell you who is the father of all the mulatto children in everybody’s household

but her own.

(12)

Small Farmers



Majority of southern

land owners didn’t own

majority of slaves



88% of slave owners

owned fewer than 20

slaves



Some slave owners

were not even farmers

(1 in 5)



White farmers seemed

to have more in

common with the small

farmers of the north

(13)

Yeoman

 Non slave holding whites  Largest portion of white

population

 3/4 by 1860 (6 million)  Subsistence farmers

 King Cotton seemed a dream

 Called “poor white trash” even by

slaves

 Hillbillies  Crackers

 Largely located in upper south

and hill country

 Valued self sufficiency, which

slavery wouldn’t allow

 Some were called squatters who

(14)

Why Support Slavery?

 Why did non slave holding whites support slavery and make a majority of the Confederate Army?

 Racial superiority

 As low as they were they still outranked slaves

 Slaves were status symbols

 To be an aristocrat

 Where would the free slave go?

 What would they do?

 Emancipation may create a race war

(15)

(16)

Hookworms made

Southerners Lazy?

 By 1905, the parasitologist Charles Stiles estimated that 40 percent or more of the Southern population was infected with hookworms.

 The parasite thrives in fecal matter, and the combination of shoddy waste disposal and the rarity of shoes

allowed hookworm larvae to enter people's bodies through the webbing between their toes.

 Once hookworms have penetrated the skin, they'll travel through their host's lungs and into their intestines, where they'll survive on a diet of blood they suck out from the intestinal wall. A female hookworm can lay up to 10,000 eggs in a single day,

The "laziness" that's

synonymous with

hookworm infections

is a symptom of iron

deficiency anemia,

(17)

Conflicts between whites



Slavery took away jobs

from Yeomen



Slaves could be rented out

cheaper as carpenters, etc.



Some planters thought to

reopen the Trans-Atlantic

Slave Trade to get more

whites involved



Still, for the most part,

(18)

Hinton Rowan Helper: The

Impending Crisis of the

South

Called for abolition of slavery and

the need to industrialize the south

He wasn’t an abolitionist but he

saw the need for southern

industrialization

(19)

Honor and Violence

 High violence rates in the south  In 1760’s Virginians were

described:

Bitting one anothers lips and noses off, and gowging one

another-thrusting out anothers eyes and kicking one another on the cods

 Murder rate was 10 times

higher in the south

 The south saw the slave as

degraded and powerless to resist

 This led to the idea that white men

(20)

The Duel

 To outsiders the duel seemed

meaningless and trivial

 Glances, brushing up against

someone, accusations, etc.

 Not all duels ended in violence  It consisted of a complex code

of etiquette of the Gentlemen of the Old South

 A refined alternative to the

lower classes

 Once challenged, a time was

set for the duel

 No immediate reprisals

 Choose weapons

 Set a place

 Second parties tried to

negotiate peace

 Most ended this way

 No resolutions from the courts

were used

 Most didn’t duel anyone

beneath his status

 The chance of dying in a pistol

duel was relatively slim.

Flintlocks often misfired. And even in the hands of an

experienced shooter, accuracy was difficult. Generally, pistols had to be discharged within three seconds; to take aim for a longer time period was

(21)

 1802-North Carolina outlawed dueling

 Yet it continued and was generally ignored by law enforcement.

 The last recorded duel between North

Carolinians occurred between two

(22)

(23)

Free Blacks

 About 250,000 in the south

 Many owned land and some owned slaves

 Unpopular in the north also

 Hated by immigrants…why?

 Many urban free blacks formed their own churches  Laws were eventually made

against blacks in all

southern states to prevent the immigration of free

blacks

 1859: Arkansas ordered all free blacks to leave

In 1830, the year most carefully studied by Carter G.

Woodson, about 13.7 percent (319,599) of the black population was free. Of these,

3,776 free Negroes owned 12,907 slaves, out of a total of 2,009,043 slaves owned in the

entire United States, so the numbers of slaves owned by black people over all was quite

small by comparison with the number owned by white

(24)



Discrimination



Among free blacks

towards “darkies” in

the field



Also among lighter

(25)

Slave Life



Seen in two ways:

–

Living under a

benevolent master

and content

–

Cruel and

inhumane system

–

Both have some

truths and falsities



Large numbers of

slaves in America at

this time…why?



Breeding

 They are an investment of

the planters

 You cared for your

investment

 Dangerous work would be

hired out to immigrants

 Though breeding wasn’t

encouraged, the lower

south seemed to be doing that

 Women who bore 13

(26)

Types of Work

 Types of plantations

determined the harshness of work

 House slaves usually had

easier jobs, but less freedom as they were constantly

around their masters

 Many hired their slaves out if

they had a particular talent

 A large skilled labor class of

slaves developed

 Some could even hire

themselves out and could earn money to buy their freedom

 Some found work easier than

their free northern counterparts due to

(27)

Overseers



In charge of the slaves



Beatings were

common and strong

willed slaves were

sent to breakers



But savage beatings

would reduce the

value of a slave

especially for resale



Pregnant women were

forced to lye in

depressions to be

(28)

(29)

Slave Families

 Most slaves were located in the deep south

 Families were relatively stable and began to develop their own culture  Christianity was a large part of it

 Captivity of the Israelites in Egypt

 Marriages were encouraged to enlarge the family and discourage runaways  Many times they had to deal with the

sale of family members

 Some estimate a slave would see on average 11 family members sold

 Slave marriages were not a protection against sexual demands from white masters

(30)

Family Ties



Blacks and whites developed different family

ties



Whites close to mom and dad



Blacks were connected to parents and

extended family



Created “kin” networks



Friends called aunt and uncle in absence of

true representatives



Greeted as “brudder” as a statement of

(31)

Slave

Languages

 Pidgin language

 No native speakers, but

allows people of different languages to communicate

 Me Tarzan, You Jane

 Most slaves knew only this

language

 Most dropped the verb “to

be”………no African translation

 No for Not

 Mary is in the cabin; Mary,

she in cabin

 He is not wicked; He no

wicked

 African words enter

American language

– banjo, goober, etc.

(32)

Church

 Most integrated part of

slave life; attended the same church as masters

 Separate seating, but

heard same sermon, sang same songs, etc.

 Slaves drew their own

conclusions

 They were the Chosen

People who were to be led out of Egypt to Zion

 More animated and vocal in services than masters  They created their own

songs and hymns which masters believed

encouraged them to

work harder and showed they were happy

(33)

(34)

When the sun goes back and the first quail calls Follow the drinking gourd The old man is a-waitin' for

to carry you to freedom Follow the drinking gourd

Chorus

Follow the drinking gourd, follow the drinking gourd For the old man is a-waitin'

to carry you to freedom Follow the drinking gourd

The river bed makes a mighty fine road, Dead trees to show you the way And it's left foot, peg foot, traveling on

Follow the drinking gourd

The river ends between two hills Follow the drinking gourd

There's another river on the other side Follow the drinking gourd

I thought I heard the angels say Follow the drinking gourd

The stars in the heavens gonna show you the way Follow the drinking gourd

"Follow the Drinking Gourd" is a coded song that gives the route for an escape from Alabama and Mississippi. Of all the routes out of the Deep South, this is

(35)

Fighting Back……Slave

Style

 As slavery expanded so did

the fear of uprisings

 Laws against learning; 9\10 of

all blacks were illiterate in the south

 Fighting Back???  Sabotage

 Not working to potential (lazy)  Poisoned master’s food

– A common method in

Africa to exact vengeance

 Run away

 Not all Southerners for slavery

and at some points more in the south than north opposed it

 Other types of resistance:  Break tools

 Fake sickness

 You wouldn’t be fired for

your negligence; you didn’t get paid

 The harder you worked the

more money the master made and the more slaves he could buy

 There was no successful

large scale rebellions though one came close

 Why not large scale

(36)

Nat Turner #1

 Aug. 1831 in Virginia

 Bloodiest slave revolt in US history

 Led to stricter control over all blacks in US

 Escaped; Vision; Returned and planned

 6 months

 He and 50 others attacked 5 plantations killing 70

 Whites had organized by the 5th plantation

 Turner eventually captured and hanged along with 200 other slaves

 Before this Virginia had been

(37)

(38)

Why do revolts fail?



Informants



No large majority in any states



Formidable white presence (guns

and soldiers)



No allies

(39)

Blacks felt little loyalty to

slavery and when the Civil

War began many masters

were shocked their slaves

turned on them!

(40)

Degrees of Freedom



Some slaves still had

some degrees of freedom



Some slaves seemed to

come and go as they

pleased



To town; market; stay

overnight



It gave them the sense

(41)

Abolition

Movement

Abolish slavery

Some wanted immediate end

Some wanted gradual end

(42)

Other

alternatives

 Anti-slavery movements

around since the

Revolution………who?

 Some proposed going back to

Africa

 Supported by many for racist

reasons; not humanitarian

 American Colonization

Society #2

 1822

 Some against this as they

were partially Americanized

 12,000 resettled

 Idea pursued until end of Civil

(43)

William Lloyd Garrison

 #3: Id William Lloyd

Garrison

 The Liberator

 Immediate end of slavery  Abolitionist

 Garrison seemed to focus on the

righteousness than the actual substance of slavery

 The good north v. the evil south  He burned the Constitution and

called it a pro slavery document

 He pointed out the ills, but no

cures

 He was attacked many times

(44)

Liberty Party #4



Break with

radicals like

Garrison to find

political and

(45)

David Walker’s Appeal:

1829

Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World



Many blacks began to challenge

traditional views



David Walker

was a free black man

from NC who moved to Mass. and urged

blacks to revolt against their masters

(bloody)



Southerners urged Walker to leave

Boston after smuggling copies into the

south



He refused, and his body was found

soon after



This was the most radical abolitionist

(46)



#5 Id key abolitionists of the

period



Elijah P Lovjoy



John Brown

(47)

Abolitionist as viewed by

others



Radicals



Many northerners were prejudice and

didn’t want blacks to have rights



More abolitionists in the south before

1830 than the north



North had an interest in keeping slavery



Why?



Cotton, creditors (south owed northern

banks over $300,000,000)



Many northerners weren’t for removing

(48)

Slave Codes

 Passed to control slaves and free blacks

 NC was the last state to deny the vote to free blacks  Also lost other rights

– gun ownership

– assemble in public

– buy alcohol

– testify in court

– own property

– education

 Garrison was seen as a terrorist and so was anyone found

with his paper

(49)

Peculiar

Institution



After 1830 some saw it as a

positive good providing

workers



Supported by northern

factory owners (got cotton)



Southerners said they were

taken better care of than

the

wage slaves

of the

north



Northern blacks had menial

jobs and were easily

replaceable

(50)

Maintaining slavery is like holding a wolf

by the ears. You don’t like it, but you

dare not let go.

(51)

Use of Religion



Many were told the Bible trained them to

be slaves



Mark of Cain



No major people in the Bible condemned

slavery



Psychology to control slaves



They civilized the Africans

(52)

The Bible



Ephesians 6-5 :

Slaves, be obedient to those

who are your masters according to the flesh,

with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of

your heart, as to Christ;



Peter: Servants, be submissive to your masters

(53)

Gag Rule



Abolitionists petitioned Congress

many times



Southerners passed a gag rule to

keep antislavery material tabled

without debate



Took 8 years to repeal with the

aid of JQ Adams

(54)

Abolitionist:

Cassius Marcellus Clay

Positioned cannons to protect his

printing press; in 1845 the mob

got through anyway

Anyone found with Helper’s book

was reason to fear for their life in

(55)

Abolition arguments will

divide the north and south

even further!

People Speak Video

(56)

Amistad

•On July 1, 1839, the Africans seized the ship, killed the captain and the cook, and ordered the planters to sail to

Africa.

•On August 24, 1839, theAmistad was seized off Long Island, NY, by the U.S. brig Washington. The planters were freed and the Africans were imprisoned in New Haven, CT, on charges of murder. Although the murder

charges were dismissed, the Africans continued to be held in confinement as the focus of the case turned to

salvage claims and property rights.

•President Van Buren was in favor of extraditing the Africans to Cuba. However, abolitionists in the North

opposed extradition and raised money to defend the Africans.

•The court ruled that the case fell within Federal jurisdiction and that the claims to the Africans as property were not legitimate because they were illegally

held as slaves.

•The case went to the Supreme Court in January 1841, and former President John Quincy Adams argued the

defendants' case. Adams defended the right of the accused to fight to regain their freedom.

•The Supreme Court decided in favor of the Africans, and 35 of them were returned to their homeland. The