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Chapter 9

Chapter 9. The Old South, 1790-1850. Web. Old Farms: The Southeast. The Chesapeake In 1790, chief crop was tobacco Slaves Tobacco depleted soil, forced planters to try other crops Tenant farmers Switch to grain crops increased need for male and artisan slaves

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Chapter 9

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  1. Chapter 9 The Old South, 1790-1850 Web

  2. Old Farms: The Southeast • The Chesapeake • In 1790, chief crop was tobacco • Slaves • Tobacco depleted soil, forced planters to try other crops • Tenant farmers • Switch to grain crops increased need for male and artisan slaves • Slave women performed other farm and domestic work • Chesapeake farmers needed less slaves • Birth rate offset any emancipation of slaves

  3. Old Farms: The Southeast (cont) • The Lowcountry • South Carolina and Georgia • Rice coast • Needed many slaves • Task System • Rice coast population was 80 to 90% slave • Tasks were assigned, slave’s time was their own upon completion of tasks • Worked for hire, tended “own” garden plots or livestock

  4. New Farms: The Rise of the Deep South • Short-staple cotton • Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793 • Allowed for expansion of Cotton Belt • By 1815, Cotton Belt expanded into uplands of Georgia and South Carolina • Native peoples driven out • Jeffersonian republicans ended Indian resistance and secured access to international markets for cotton planters • Interstate Slave Trade • By 1820, slave trade was well organized • Middle passage

  5. Rise of the Deep South (cont) • Cotton plantation very profitable • Slaves did back-breaking work in gangs under an overseer • Plantations commercialized, grew nothing but cotton • Slaves worked from dawn to dusk • None of the freedom of task labor • Material conditions for slaves improved • Plantation masters were elite of the South • Number of slaves as measure of success • Successful southern ladies did not work • Southern families • Distrusted outsiders and defended rural neighborhoods • Code of honor

  6. Southern Yeomanry • Cotton profitable only for largeplantations • In 1830, only 1/3 of southern whites owned any slaves • Taxes drove poor whites out of good land • Many settled in areas unsuitable for plantation crops • Some yeoman produced livestock over plantation crops, a larger group practiced mixed farming • “Subsistence plus” agriculture • Yeoman neighborhoods • Farms self-sufficient, traded labor and goods with each other • Marketed surplus at country stores • Lived simple life with few luxuries • Relied a great deal on family labor

  7. Private Lives of Slaves • Plantation success rested on slave-master accommodation • Slave privileges helped to ensure obedience and order • Slave marriages encouraged and respected • Broad wives • Still, slave families were vulnerable • Children often spread their affection across a broad extended family

  8. Private Lives of Slaves (cont) • Southern Evangelicals embraced slaves and considered their souls worth saving • Difficulty was that many slaves refused to accept the legitimacy of slavery • Led slaves to form their own churches • Utilized conjuring, folk magic, root medicine, and other occult knowledge, most of it passed down from Africa • Gave slaves sense of themselves as a historical people

  9. Religion and Revolt • Escapes and other forms of resistance more common than revolts • Slave Christianity tempered resistance • Gabriel’s Revolt • Working covertly • Planned to gather a slave army to seize Richmond • Weather, white terror, and black betrayal foiled revolt • Denmark Vesey conspiracy, 1822 • Slaves would rise up and seize Charleston • Then commandeer ships and make their escape • Betrayed by slaves themselves • Nat Turner revolt, 1831 • Received notice in vision that God wanted him to lead revolt in Southampton County, Virginia • Bloody, but unsuccessful, revolt ensued • Southern whites deeply troubled by slave revolts

  10. Plantation and Southern Growth • Plantations were profitable • In 1860, slaves alone were worth $3 billion dollars • Land and slaves provided esteem in the South • Purchased outside goods at a lower rate than North • South did not take advantage of new technologies • Slaves used instead of new technology • Southern governments made little internal improvements • Commercial and manufacturing developed far less than in the North

  11. Discussion Questions • What is the task system and how does it differ than the plantation slavery of the cotton belt? • What affect did short staple cotton and the cotton gin have on Southern society? • Examine the conditions of slaves on the plantations. Contrast these conditions with that of yeoman farmers in the South. • Examine the major slave rebellions noted in this chapter. What level of success did each have, why did the fail, and how did they affect Southern society?

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