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Ch 16 The South and the Slavery Controversy, 1793-1860 from The American Pageant (12 th edition). Slavery 1793-1860. The following quote, “I think we must get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom.” was said by: – Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ralph Waldo Emerson.
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Ch 16 The South and the Slavery Controversy, 1793-1860fromThe American Pageant(12th edition)
Slavery 1793-1860 The following quote, “I think we must get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom.” was said by: – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Slavery Gets New Life(Money for Some – Misery and/or Death for Others) As a result of the introduction of the cotton gin (Eli Whitney 1793) slavery was reinvigorated. [Why?] {Think $$$, King Cotton, & Labor} Members of the planter aristocracy dominated society and politics in the South. {An aristocracy of elites in control} In the American economy under the Cotton Kingdom: cotton accounted for half the value of all American exports after 1840, the South produced more than half the entire world’s supply of cotton, and 75% of the British supply of cotton came from the South quick profits from cotton drew planters to its economic enterprise; but the South did not reap all of the profits from the cotton trade. {Consider how did the northern and middle states benefit as well as the world economy – consider the global sugar economy as well}
Slavery and “King Cotton!” The invention of the cotton gin came just at the right time. British textile manufacturers were eager to buy all the cotton that the South could produce. The figures for cotton production support this conclusion: from 720,000 bales in 1830, to 2.85 million bales in 1850, to nearly 5 million in 1860. Cotton production renewed the need for slavery after the tobacco market declined in the late 1700s. The more cotton grew, the more slaves were needed, to keep up with the demand of cotton.
Slavery 1793-1860 continued Plantation agriculture was wasteful largely because its excessive cultivation of cotton despoiled good land. Plantation mistresses commanded a sizeable staff of mostly female slaves. Plantation agriculture was economically unstable and wasteful. The plantation system of the Cotton South was increasingly monopolistic.
Slavery 1793-1860 continued All the following were weaknesses of the slave plantation system: it relied on a one-crop economy, it repelled a large-scale European immigration, it stimulated racism among poor whites, and it created an aristocratic political elite; but it was not a weakness that its land continued to remain in the hands of the small farmers. [Why?]
Slavery 1793-1860 continued By the mid-nineteenth century most slaves lived on large plantations. Most slaves in the South were owned by plantation owners (the largest numbers total).
Slavery 1793-1860 continued Only about one-fourth (1/4th) of white southerners owned slaves or belonged to a slaveholding family. {I was taught that the number was higher, ~36% maximum is what I usually remember, but The American Pageant uses 1/4th (25%), so for the Chapter 16 test, know 1/4th (25%).} The majority of southern whites owned no slaves because they could not afford the purchase price.
Slavery 1793-1860 continued The great increase of the slave population in the first half of the nineteenth century was largely due to natural reproduction (plus owner induced slave breeding as well). Regarding work assignments, slaves were generally spared dangerous work. [Why?] {Growth of the Negro Population in the Southern States 1810-1860}
Slave economies are not good for the economy! {Why?} The profitable southern slave system hobbled the economic development of the region as a whole. {Why?} {Lack of economic diversity, dependency on a cash crop agriculture, scarcity of low paying jobs for poor whites causing friction with the planter aristocracy in charge, fluctuations of the market, lack of industrial development, etc….}
Slave Demographics By 1860, slaves were concentrated in the “black belt” located in the Deep South states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. [Why? Cotton of course!] As a substitute for the wage-incentive system, slave owners most often used the whip as a motivator. [Yes & No – many slaves were whipped, but most were not as it was not necessary to control them in most cases] By 1860, life for slaves was most difficult in the newer states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana (Cotton country). Forced separation of spouses, parents, and children was most common on small plantations and in the upper South.
All of the following were true of slavery in the South: slave life on the frontier was harder than that of life in the more settled areas, a distinctive African American slave culture developed, a typical planter had too much of his own prosperity riding on the backs of his slaves to beat them on a regular basis, and by 1860 most slaves were concentrated in the “black belt” of the Deep South. Contrary to what one might think of the horrible effects of slavery and the separation of families, which in fact occurred with devastating consequences, most slaves were raised in stable two-parent households. The “Deep South” is red and dark red. Slave Demographics continued
Map of the Slave Trade from Africa to the Americas 1650-1860
Slave Resistance Slaves fought the system of slavery in all the following ways: slowing down the work pace, sabotaging expensive equipment, pilfering goods that their labor had produced, and running away when possible (often multiple times); refusing to get an education was not a way they fought slavery (in fact, they opposite is true; they sought education in valiant defiance of white authority)
Slaves Were Property! As a result of white southerners’ brutal treatment of their slaves and their fear of potential slave rebellions, the South developed a theory of biological racial superiority. The idea of re-colonizing blacks back to Africa was supported by the black leader Martin Delaney. Slaves were: regarded primarily as financial investments by their owners, the primary form of wealth in the South, and profitable for their owners. {In addition: They were treated in varying degrees, they were considered property, they had no legal recourses, they were at the mercy of the masters, they were considered inferior and second-class, they endured many more and countless untold hardships.}
Slavery was obviously cruel and brutal! Obviously, this is cruel, brutal, inhumane, heinous, nefarious (evil), and even sadistic behavior on the part of slave owners, who usually were misguided Christians. [Apparently they missed the message that Jesus taught, which was tolerance and the “golden rule” of treat people the way that you would want to be treated – too bad that many people, often Christians or other people whose religions taught the “golden rule” – as all religions teach and often use cognitive dissonance to rationalize and justify their Machiavellian approach to slavery and war and enact the “Viking mentality” – “You have what I want; therefore, I will kill you and take it.” ]
Slave Culture & “Slavery As a Positive Good” The slave culture was characterized by: a hybrid religion of Christian and African elements, widespread illiteracy among slaves, and subtle forms of resistance to slavery. The South’s (John C. Calhoun's) “positive good” argument for slavery claimed that: slavery was supported by the authority of both the Bible and the Constitution, slavery was good for the barbarous Africans because enslavement introduced them to Christianity, slaves were usually treated as members of the family, and slaves were better off then most northern wage earners. [Remember John C. Calhoun from Ch 13, Jackson’s son-in-law]
Slave Insurrections In the pre-Civil War South, the most uncommon and least successful form of slave resistance was armed insurrection. [Ex. the Stono Rebellion in 1739 South Carolina from Ch 5?] [Ex. La Amistad] Most Slave insurrections ended this way for the slaves.
The Stono Rebellion 1739 (South Carolina) September 9th, 1739, in Stono, SC, on Stono River about 20 miles from Charleston – the first mass slave revolt (in America) – led by a slave named Jemmy – apparently encouraged by Spanish missionaries and promised liberation, a group of 20 slaves attacked a store and killed the two storekeepers – now armed with guns and powder, they set off for St. Augustine, Florida, and as they marched through the country, the armed slaves in insurrection set fire to plantations and cried “Liberty.”
The Stono Rebellion 1739 (SC) continued The slaves gathered recruits as they went along, increasing their numbers to approximately 100. In a ten-mile march, they killed approximately 30 white people before an armed militia caught up with them in a field. The militia killed 44 of the slave insurrectos in the aftermath with the white planters having the rebellious slaves’ heads off and placing them at every mile post along the roads meant as warning to other rebellious slaves – very much like Spartacus (they were crucified along the Apian Way into Rome.
Gabriel Prosser Gabriel (October 10th, 1800), today commonly if incorrectly known as Gabriel Prosser, was a literate enslaved blacksmith who planned and led a large slave rebellion in the Richmond, VA, area in the summer of 1800. Governor James Monroe (future President) and the state militia suppressed the rebellion. Gabriel and 26 other enslaved people who participated were hanged. In reaction, the Virginia and other legislatures passed restrictions on free blacks, as well as the education, movement and hiring out of the enslaved.
