Slavery & Southern Antebellum Society

1. Slavery & Southern Antebellum Society

2. Yeoman —A funny word Yeoman (plural Yeomen) Not Yoeman, nor Yo-Man, nor Yowman Definition—An independent farmer. What makes one independent? Another definition “A self-working farmer” So… did yeomen own slaves? Some did…but would only be 1-2 & they worked alongside them What percentage of the South’s population were Yeomen? Approximately 80%

3. Yeoman Farmer

4. Andrew Jackson’s Houses:Social Mobility Did Exist in the South

5. Harmony actually existed between Slaveowners & Non-Slaveowners • Non-slave owners aspired to become slaveowners • If slavery exists, there’s always somebody lower than you • Kin – most non-slaveowners had at least 1 relative that did own slaves • Political power is held by the common man – all yeoman farmers could vote & slaveowners were taxed for their property (slaves) • Economic transactions occurred between non-slave and slave owners…renting of cotton gins for example

6. Good SocietyArgument • By 1830s slavery seen as a positive good – benefits rising for N & S • One of long-term effects of economic profitability of slavery via Whitney’s cotton gin • Replaced Jeffersonian view that slavery was a necessary evil with no real solution

7. COTTON IS KING! • 50% of all exports after 1840 • S produces 50% of world’s cotton supply • 75% of BR cotton comes from S – BR is world’s leading industrial power

8. Before Ind. Rev., most Southern planters made little profit from slave labor • BUT, invention of cotton gin by ELI WHITNEY made slave labor profitable throughout the South • Positive Effect: • Production increased ; cotton is biggest export • Negative Effects: • More Americans began to think of slavery as a “positive good” - less criticism of slavery • Slave labor quintupled between this invention & the Civil War

9. Where did slaves work? • Cotton 55 percent • Tobacco 10 percent • Sugar/rice/hemp 10 percent • Servants 15 percent • Trades/industry 10 percent

10. Slave Crops

11. Cotton—4.5 million bales (1860)

12. Slave Distribution

13. RATIO OF SLAVEHOLDERS TO FAMILIES, (1860) STATE: SLAVEHOLDERS TOTAL FAMILIES PCT MISSISSIPPI 30943 63015 49 SOUTH CAROLINA 26701 58642 46 GEORGIA 41084 109919 37 ALABAMA 33730 96603 35 FLORIDA 5152 15090 34 LOUISIANA 22033 74725 29 TEXAS 21878 76781 28 NORTH CAROLINA 34658 125090 28 VIRGINIA 52128 201523 26 TENNESSEE 36844 149335 25 ARKANSAS 11481 57244 20 Total 316632 1027967 31 Works out to 1 in 3 families actually owned slaves – 31% of families in the South

14. PLANTERARISTOCRACY • Government by the few in the South • Wealth & power concentrated in the hands of an elite upper class – cottonocracy • 1,733 families own 100+ slaves

15. SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH: • Planter Aristocracy on top (Whigs) • “Lesser Masters” (less than 10 slaves- most own 1 or 2) • Yeoman Farmers (subsistence farmers - usually Democrats) • Majority of white population by 1860 • “crackers, hillbillies, clayeaters” • Aspire to slaveowning • Non-slaveholding whites (approximately 1/4 of all southern whites) • “Poor white trash”- mountain whites (will support Union during war) • Slaves

16. South – 250,000, 1860 Manumission: Upper – after Rev. War Deep – mulattos; manumitted in willls Some purchased freedom Black slaveowners Status: none – 3rd race, must carry papers Some black slaveowners…. North Victims of prejudice & segregation Schools, voting, housing, conflicts with Irish Anti-black feeling actually worse many times in N Little contact with blacks Friends of race, but don’t like individuals FREE BLACKS

17. SlaveCodes • Slave laws are state laws & most define them as property – can be bought, sold, mortgaged, etc. • Can’t testify, can’t own property, can’t have a family, etc. • Note though that slaves WERE seen as people & not property in the criminal system…so slave could be tried for crimes and it was also illegal to commit crimes against slaves – murder for ex.

18. Economic Weaknesses of Plantation System: • Land intensive; leads to soil depletion • Cotton production is monopolistic • Involves huge capital investments in land and labor • Discourages economic diversification • Reliance on cotton; no manufacturing • Discourages immigration • Slave labor, high cost of land, Europeans don’t know cotton farming

19. PLANTATION ORGANIZATION Gang System was typical: • Owner—Planter (owns 20+ slaves) • Overseer—Day-to-day authority figure • Occasionally would be a trusted slave (Jeffferson Davis) • Driver—Slave Foreman • Field Hand—Men and women

20. SlaveTrade • Apprx. 900,000 sold in U.S. – sold “down river” – split many families • Apprx. 20% of wealth from slavery comes from the internal slave trade

21. Slave Prices Price of slaves quintuples from 1800-1860 $35,000 to $40,000 in today’s prices

22. Plantation SlaverySlave Quarters

23. Slave Weddings Marriages not officially recognized

24. Plantation Slave Life • Work from “kin to kin’t” (dawn to dusk) • Kept in ignorance (9/10 illiterate) • Whippings ……but why not beaten bloody on a regular basis? • Religion a big part of slave life – Sunday off • Forms of resistance: • Work slowdowns • Theft • Sabotage (arson, crop destruction, tool breaking) • Runaways & rebellions • Gabriel Prosser Conspiracy 1800 – “revolt” that never actually happened ….hanged anyway • Denmark Vessey Conspiracy 1822 – SC, over 30 hanged

25. Nat Turner’s RebellionVirginia, 1831 • Preacher / slave • 40 slaves killed over 60 whites (in bed at night) • Turner eventually caught, hanged, skinned • Sets off mob & revenge lynchings of blacks • Effect: solidified the greatest fears in the South and caused the end of abolitionism in the South

26. Fugitive Slaves • Running away was most common way of resisting slavery • Most ran away for a short time due to feeling they had received an unjust punishment or to look for a family member • Whipped 10 times for each day they were gone

27. Slave “Diseases” • Drapetomia • “Disease” that caused them to run away & the cure is to whip it out of them • Dysaethesia Aethiopica • Caused slaves to be “rascals” • To be insubordinate & commit minor sabotage • Cure was whipping or isolation Dr. Samuel Cartwright Leading internationally recognized scientist from MS that studied slaves

28. EARLYABOLITIONISM British Colonization Society symbol • Quakers were first • as early as Revolutionary War • 1816 – American Colonization Society • Liberia, 1822 (capital – Monrovia) • 15,000 transported • Most didn’t want to go – by 1860, most slaves were American born • Lincoln favored this early on • 1830s influences: BR emancipation in 1833 & 2nd Great Awakening • Theodore Weld, Grimke Sisters

29. Anti-Slavery Alphabet QUAKERSare the early leaders in the abolitionist movement.

30. RADICAL ABOLITIONISM • William Lloyd Garrison • Sees Constitution as an “agreement with hell” • The Liberator, 1831 • Comes out same year as Turner’s rebellion – Garrison seen as a terrorist • American Anti-Slavery Society, 1833 • Garrison • Wendell Phillips • Elijah Lovejoy

31. William Lloyd Garrison (1801-1879) • Slavery undermined republican values. • Slavery was a moral, notan economic issue. • Immediate emancipation with NO compensation to owners. • Full and complete equal rights for blacks. • Despised in S, but also seen as too radical in N R2-4

32. The Tree of Slavery—Loaded with the Sum of All Villanies!

33. Other White Abolitionists Elijah Lovejoy Wendell Phillips James Birney • Liberty Party. • Ran for President, 1840 & 1844. Theodore Weld

34. Northern Reaction to Abolitionists • Most treat abolitionists as radicals • The North has a significant economic interest in Dixie! • Violence: • Lewis Tappan’s house ransacked in 1834 • Broadcloth Mob drags Garrison through Boston streets in 1835 • Rev. Elijah Lovejoy killed in IL in 1837

35. Black Abolitionists David Walker(1785-1830) 1829  Appeal to the ColouredCitizens of the World Fightfor freedom rather than wait to be set free by whites; violence is only way to freedom

36. Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) 1845 The Narrative of the Life Of Frederick Douglass 1847 “The North Star” Believes in power of education Differs from Garrison in that he does NOT want to do away with Constitution

37. Sojourner Truth (1787-1883)or Isabella Baumfree • Ain’t I a woman? 1850 The Narrative of Sojourner Truth R2-10

38. Harriet Tubman(1820-1913) • Helped over 300 slaves to freedom. • Known as the “Black Moses” • $40,000 bounty on her head. • Served as a Union spy during the Civil War. “Moses”

39. Leading Escaping Slaves Along the Underground Railroad

40. The Underground Railroad

41. The Underground Railroad • “Conductor”==== leader of the escape • “Passengers” ==== escaping slaves • “Tracks” ==== routes • “Trains” ==== farm wagons transporting the escaping slaves • “Depots” ==== safe houses to rest/sleep

42. Events securing Southern support of slavery: • Defeat of VA’s emancipation proposals (1831) • Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831) • Nullification Crisis (1832) • Proslavery efforts to defend the “peculiar institution” • Christianity arguments • Defense of master-slave relationship as father-child relationship • Myth of happy slave vs. the oppressed N industrial worker • Government crackdown on free speech (Jackson) • 1835 Postmasters restrict transmission of abolitionist literature through the mails – in response to rioting in SC where mob burned abolitionist propaganda • 1836 Gag Rule in House – all anti-slavery appeals tabled

43. SLAVE CONCENTRATION BY 1860

44. What is the Mason-Dixon Line?