The South’s Peculiar Institution

1. The South’s Peculiar Institution John Sacher University of Central Florida jsacher@mail.ucf.edu

2. How do we define the South?

3. Where did slaves live?

4. Slave Population—1860 Slaves Total Population Slave % Virginia 490,865 1,596,318 31% Georgia 462,198 1,057,286 44% Mississippi 436,631 791,305 55% Alabama 435,080 964,201 45% South Carolina 402,406 703,708 57% Louisiana 331,726 708,002 47% North Carolina 331,059 992,622 33% Tennessee 275,719 1,109,801 25% Kentucky 225,483 1,155,684 20% Texas 182,566 604,215 30% Missouri 114,931 1,182,012 10% Arkansas 111,115 435,450 26% Maryland 87,189 687,049 13% Florida 61,745 140,424 44% Delaware 1,798 112,216 2%

5. Slave Population—1860 Slaves Total Population Slave % South Carolina 402,406 703,708 57% Mississippi 436,631 791,305 55% Louisiana 331,726 708,002 47% Alabama 435,080 964,201 45% Georgia 462,198 1,057,286 44% Florida 61,745 140,424 44% North Carolina 331,059 992,622 33% Virginia 490,865 1,596,318 31% Texas 182,566 604,215 30% Arkansas 111,115 435,450 26% Tennessee 275,719 1,109,801 25% Kentucky 225,483 1,155,684 20% Maryland 87,189 687,049 13% Missouri 114,931 1,182,012 10% Delaware 1,798 112,216 2%

6. Some Figures: • In 1860, in the slave states, there were 8 million whites who owned 4 million slaves. • The number of slaveholders in 1860—approx. 387,000 • In other words, only approximately 5% of all whites owned slaves. • Wait a second, only 5% of all whites living in slave states owned slaves, that doesn’t sound right….

7. How many families owned slaves? (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

8. How Many People Owned Slaves?

9. How Many Slaves Did They Own?

10. Slave Owning—1860 Number of Slaves Percent of Owners >100 .6% 50-100 2.1% 20-50 9.3% 10-20 16.0% 5-10 17.0% 1-5 55.0%

11. Cotton4.5 million bales (1860)

12. Cotton Gin

13. Slave Crops

14. Strikingly Similar . . .

15. Size of Southern Crops • Tobacco 1849 106 million lbs. 1859 347 million lbs. • Rice 1849 215 million lbs. 1859 187 million lbs. • Sugar 1849 $60 million 1859 $180 million • Cotton 2.5 million bales to 4.5 million bales

16. PLANTATION ORGANIZATION A. Gang System • Owner—Planter (owns 20+ slaves) • Overseer—Day-to-day authority figure • Driver—Slave Foreman • Field Hands—Men and women B. Task System

17. Task System

18. Plantation Layout

19. Where did slaves work? They worked in . . . • Cotton 55 percent • Tobacco 10 percent • Sugar/rice/hemp 10 percent • Servant positions 15 percent • Trades/industry 10 percent

20. Tredegar Iron Works

21. Slave Codes

22. The Whip

23. Slave Prices

24. Slave Trade

25. Some comparative figures…. To United States To 1790 275,000 1790-1807 75,000 French & Spanish Territories 30,000 Illegal 50,000 430,000 1800 1 million, 1860 4 million in US To Saint Domingue: Total 860,000 Alive 1791=480,000

26. The Second Middle Passage

27. Slave Coffle

28. Mary ChesnutSouth Carolina Plantation Mistress • “Every lady tells you who is the father of all the mulatto children in everybody's household, but those in her own she seems to think drop from the clouds, or pretends so to think."