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1820-1860. The Slave South. Cotton Kingdom. The South’s climate and geography ideally suited to grow cotton The South’s cotton boom rested on slave labor who grew 75% of the crop, under supervision of whites. Southerners pushed Westward, a million square miles , much of it planted in cotton.
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1820-1860 The Slave South
Cotton Kingdom • The South’s climate and geography ideally suited to grow cotton • The South’s cotton boom rested on slave labor who grew 75% of the crop, under supervision of whites
Southerners pushed Westward, a million square miles, much of it planted in cotton
Plantation Masters • “Christian guardianship” they saw themselves; historians call it paternalism • Paternalism was not good will, it was a way to improve bottom line
Values of the Big House • Slavery, honor, male domination • Economically shrewd to define slavery as a set of “reciprocal obligations” (part propaganda part delusion) • Defending honor became a passion in the Old South • Slavery buttressed the power of white men
Smaller Planters • Most slave owners owned fewer than five • Smaller planters supervised slave labor • Larger planters hired overseers to manage labor and they concentrated on marketing, finance
Mistresses • Chivalry, the South’s romantic idea; the glorified and subordinated southern woman • Proslavery claimed that slavery freed white women from drudgery; in reality, plantation women often worked long hours managing households • Miscegenation—sexual mixing of races, this was one of white women’s grounds for discontent
Marriage • Slave marriages not legally recognized, although they were often long-lasting • At least 300,000 marriages were ended upon the sale of the husband or wife
Religion • Slaves created an African American Christianity that served their needs, not those of the masters; traditional African beliefs sometimes incorporated
Population ratios • 4 million blacks to 8 million whites • one in every three Southerners was black • one in every 76 Northerners was black
Slave population By 1860 the South contained 4 million slaves, more than all other slave societies in the world combined
Who Owned Slaves? • Only one-fourth of white population lived in slaveholding families • Most slaveholders owned fewer than five slaves • Planters—those 12 percent of slave-owners who owned twenty or more slaves—dominated the southern economy
Odd Allies in White Supremacy • Intellectuals joined legislators to strengthen slavery as a “positive good” rather than a ‘necessary evil’ • Champions of slavery defended it by turning to law, history, and biblical interpretation • Heart of defense was the claim of black inferiority • The system of Black slavery encouraged whites to unify around race rather than to divide by class
No Diversification • Plantation slavery benefited northern merchants, but the north developed a mixed economy—agriculture, commerce, manufacturing—the South remained overwhelmingly agriculture • Without economic diversification, the South developed fewer factories and fewer cities; therefore it attracted fewer immigrants from Europe
excessive dependence on cotton and slaves, and the lack of factories • Northerners claimed that slavery was an outmoded and doomed labor system; few Southerners perceived economic weakness in their region
Cultural Influence • Large numbers of people of African descent had profound influence on Southern culture—language, food, music, religion
