The Old South and Slavery, 1830-1860
Early Emancipation in the North
Missouri Compromise, 1820
Define:
• In 1775, slavery had known no sectional
boundaries. But as Northern states
embraced emancipation. The “Old
South” became distinguished because it
had slavery
– Upper South: Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, and Arkansas
*diversified economy (didn’t rely on cotton)
– Lower (Deep) South: South Carolina,
Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana and Texas (slavery & cotton)
Introduction
• The Upper South relied less on slavery and
cotton than the Lower South
• Upper South seceded from the Union more
hesitantly
• From 1832 on, what united and created the
region the “Old South” was its defense of
slavery
– Its “peculiar institution”
Questions
We will cover the economy and society of the Old
South from 1800 to 1860
• 1.) How did the rise of cotton cultivation affect
the society and economy of the Old South?
• 2.) What major social divisions segmented the
white South?
• 3.) Why did nonslaveholding whites feel their
futures were tied to the survival of slavery?
• 4.) What were the distinctive features of AfricanAmerican society and culture in the South?
Characteristics of the Antebellum South
1. Primarily agrarian.
2. Economic power shifted from the
“upper South” to the “lower South.”
3. “Cotton Is King!”
* 1860 5 mil. bales a yr.
(57% of total US exports).
4. Very slow development of industrialization. *4th
largest producer of iron products (Tredegar
Iron Works)
5. Rudimentary financial system.
6. Inadequate transportation system.
Graniteville Textile Co.
Founded in 1845, it was the South’s first
attempt at industrialization in Richmond, VA
King Cotton
– The main cash crop of the colonial South was
tobacco
• Tobacco declined in the late 1700’s
– Cotton culture revived southern agriculture
• Encouraged rapid expansion southward and
westward
– Cotton growing was stimulated by:
• the growth of the British textile industry
• Development of the cotton gin
• Removal of Indians from southern and western
lands
Changes in Cotton Production
1820
1860
Value of Cotton Exports
As % of All US Exports
Lure of Cotton
• The climate of the Lower South was ideal for
growing cotton
• Intense demand in Britain kept prices high
– Cotton could be grown profitably on any scale
• With or without slave labor
• Cotton cultivation and the institution of slavery did
increase side by side
• Cotton and corn were often grown together so
that the South did not have to spend money on
imported food
Southern Agriculture
Slaves Picking Cotton
on a Mississippi Plantation
Slaves Using the Cotton Gin
Ties Between the Lower and
Upper South
• The Upper South identified with the Lower South
rather than the free states:
– Many of the Lower South residents had migrated from
the Upper South
– All southern whites benefited form the 3/5’s clause in
the Constitution
– Almost all southerners resented the criticism form
northern abolitionists
– The residents of the Upper South enjoyed a large,
profitable business in the sale of slaves to the Lower
South
The North and South Diverge
• While the North was rapidly industrializing and
urbanizing, the South remained primarily rural and
agricultural
• Slaves could be and were employed in southern
factories
• Much of the South’s capital was tied up in slave
ownership
– Not available for investment in industrial development
The North and South Diverge
• Southerners believed that raising cash crops through
slave labor would continue to be profitable
• They lacked the incentive to switch their capital from
land and slaves to financing industry
• The South’s slave economy did not require a high rate
of literacy
• The Old South made less provision for public schools
than the North
– School attendance was not compulsory for
southern whites
– The law forbade teaching slaves to read and write
The Social Groups of the White
South
– In 1860
• 1/4 of southern whites owned slaves
• 1% of southern whites owned 100 or more
– The whites of the Old South fit into 4 classes:
• 1.) planters
– Owners of more than 20 slaves
• 2.) small slaveholders
• 3.) yeoman
– Nonslaveholding small family farmers
• 4.) people of the pine barrens
Southern Society (1850)
6,000,000
“Slavocracy”
[plantation owners]
The “Plain Folk”
[white yeoman farmers]- Family farmers
Black Freemen
250,000
Black Slaves
3,200,000
Total US Population  23,000,000
[9,250,000 in the South = 40%]
Southern Population
Slave-Owning Families (1850)
Slave-Owning Population (1850)
Planters and Plantation
Mistresses
• The plantation was almost a factory in the field
– High degree of division of labor
• The pursuit of profit led planters to:
– look constantly for additional and more fertile land
– Organize their slave crews as efficiently as possible
– Seek favorable merchant-banker connections
• To supplement their income
– Many opened their homes to visitors
• Responsibility of hospitality falling to their wives
Planters and Plantation
Mistresses
• Psychological strains that plantation agriculture placed on
planters and their wives included:
– Isolation from other whites of their class
– Frequent moves
– Crude living conditions
• Especially those who lived on the new frontier
– Responsibilities of running a major economic enterprise
• An additional stress on planters’ wives was the sexual
double standard
– Accepted illicit sexual relations between masters and
their bondswomen
– Demanded absolute sexual purity from white females
Plantation Reality or Myth?
Hollywood’s Version?
A Real Georgia Plantation
The Southern “Belle”
The Small Slaveholders
• By 1860, 88% of all
slaveholders owned
less then 20 slaves
• In the lower south
these farmers saw # of
slaves as measure of
success.
• Many pushed
Westward to get more
land. Therefore they
could put more slaves
to work.
The Yeoman
• Nonslaveholding family
farmers.
• *comprised the largest
single group of southern
whites.
• Would hire slaves at
harvest time.
• Smaller landholdings and
ranged between
subsistence farming and
commercial
• * goal was self-sufficiency
with modest profit
People of the Pine Barrens
•
•
•
•
Made up about 10% of white population
Did not own land or slaves
Squatted on unfenced land
Subsistence farming
– Grazed hogs and cattle
– Grew corn
• Refused to work as hired help for others
• Survived in this manner
Social Relations in the White
South
• Introduction
– Southern white society showed a mixture of
aristocratic and democratic elements
– There were great differences in wealth between
classes
– Most whites did own land
– Planters were overrepresented in state legislatures
– Did not always pass laws that only benefited
themselves
Conflict and Consensus in the
White South
• Planters leaned towards the Whigs
• Yeomen towards the Democrats
• Other characteristics of the Old South were minimized in conflict
– The 4 main social groups were clustered in different regions and
had little contact
– Yeomen and planters were independent landowners
– Whites rarely worked for other whites
• Many worked side by side with their slaves
• Planters dominated state legislatures
• All white men had the right to vote by 1820’s
– The planters could not ignore the desires of the yeomen
majority
Conflict over Slavery
• Whites complained that the slave took away jobs.
• Plantation owners took most of the South’s wealth
(some suggested even reopening slave trade!) *envy
rather than sympathy
• 1857 The Impending Crisis of the South- Called for
people to abolish slavery for the own interest
So why didn’t the majority (non
slaveholders) fight the institution?
• 1. some hoped to become slaveholders
• 2. accepted racial assumptions
• 3. fear of what would happen if there was
equality!
The Proslavery Argument
–pg349
• The proslavery argument was also used as a tool to unite
southern whites behind the institution
• Southern Whites constructed a defense of slavery as a
positive good rather than a necessary evil.
• Citing the history of slavery and the impact on Western
civilization
• Northern United States were “wage slaves”
• Quoted the Bible, “slaves obey their masters” and natural
submission of children to parents, wives to husbands.
• ***Destroy the family!!!
• Important Christian values such as humility and self control.
Don't interrupt the “superior” social arrangements of the
South
• Southerners persuaded themselves of the
righteousness of their “peculiar institution”
• They also increasingly suppressed all public
criticism of slavery
– They seized and destroyed abolitionist
literature mailed to the South
– Smashed the presses of southern antislavery
newspapers
Southern Pro-Slavery
Propaganda
Violence, honor, and Dueling in
the Old South
• Throughout the Antebellum period violence deeply
colored the daily lives of southerners.
• Fighting consisted of biting, gouging, kicking and eye
gouging.
• Root of violence was the intensified feelings of
personal pride. *didn’t want to be like slaves
• SOUTHERN CODE OF HONOR- Gentlemen would
duel. (save their honor) This bought time between
insult and fight and most times confrontations ended
peacefully
• The murder rate was as much as 10 times
higher in the South
The Southern Evangelicals and
White Values
• The code of honor was potentially in conflict with
the values preached by southern evangelical
churches
– Humility and self-restraint
• From the 1830’s on, evangelical religion grew in
influence to the point that some southern
gentlemen did denounce drinking, gambling, and
dueling as un-Christian practices
• On the other hand, southern churches partly
endorsed the gentry’s code of honor
Life Under Slavery
• Southern clergyman emphasized the
Christian responsibilities of masters towards
their slaves
• Some masters were kind and other cruel
(wanted to get the most out of their slaves)
• Three things determined the slaves’
experience:
– The kind of agriculture they worked
– Resided in urban or rural areas
– What century they lived in
The Maturing of the Plantation
System
1700 Slavery
1830 Slavery
• Young man in his twenties
brought from Africa
• Worked on small isolated
farms (many didn’t speak
the same language)
• More men then women so
difficult to find a partner
• Malnutrition led to fewer
children
• *without importation,
slavery would have
naturally declined
• Born in America, spoke
English and worked with
numerous slaved on a
plantation
• As many women as men
• Marriage rates rose
• Importation from Africa
declined after 1760 and in
1808 Congress banned it
Work and Discipline of
Plantation Slaves
•
•
•
•
•
Task System: each slave had a daily or weekly quota of tasks to
complete (smaller units)
Gang Labor: closely supervised and regimented (large cotton and
sugar plantations)
Day began with the sounding of a horn/bell, breakfast, then slaves
marched off to the fields
Slaves completed many tasks from fieldwork, housework, child rearing,
carpentry, butchering animals
*Slaves skilled in indoor work were greatly valued and treated
accordingly
• Regardless of the season, the slaves’ day stretched from dawn
to dusk
• Long hours and harsh discipline
• Discipline was usually given by overseers and not masters. (the
fall of the whip)
The Slave Family
• Slave owners encourage marriage. (discourage slaves from
running away and to have children)
• Law didn’t recognize or protect slave families and on average, a
slave would witness the sale of eleven family members “until
death of distance do you part.”
• Buying and selling disrupted the stable family life
• Mothers were separated from children by day and often were
forced into relations with masters. The kin of this would be
mistreated by master’s wife.
• Despite all this, relationships were intimate and when possible,
long-lasting.
• Broad kinship ties between many generations marked the West
African culture.
• “Fictive” kin networks. Protected themselves from involuntary
disruption
The Longevity, Diet, and Health
of Slaves
• Slaves in the United Stated reproduced faster and lived longer
than slaves taken other places
– Gender ration equalized quicker than in other places
– Old South produced plenty of food (corn and livestock)
• Immunity to disease such as malaria and yellow fever were
higher than whites but because there was no restrooms, drinking
water became contaminated.
• Cholera, dysentery and diarrhea were common
• Came up with solutions to stomach ailments such as eating white
clay (contains kaolin)
• Suffered higher mortality than whites. Infant mortality was double
of whites. 1 in 3 children dies before ten years of age.
Slaves in Town and Free Blacks
pg- 359
Slaves in town
• Slaves had more
opportunities for freedom in
the Southern cities. Men
worked in lumbering and
sawmills and women/
children worked in textile mills
• Easier to get skilled work in
the South vs. the North
because you weren’t
competing with the
immigrants
• Working conditions were
safer because masters didn’t
want their slaves
harmed/disabled
Free Blacks
• Most free blacks lived in
cities
• Carpenters, barrel
makers, barbers, and
even small traders.
• Organized their own
churches, literary journals
and operas.
• More than 250,000 free
blacks in 1860
Slave Auction Notice & Sale, 1823
Slave Accoutrements
Slave Master
Brands
Slave muzzle
Anti-Slave Pamphlet
Slave Accoutrements
Slave leg irons
Slave shoes
Slave tag, SC
Slaves posing in
front of their
cabin on a
Southern
plantation.
A Real Mammie & Her Charge
The Ledger of John White

Matilda Selby, 9, $400.00 sold to Mr.
Covington, St. Louis, $425.00

Brooks Selby, 19, $750.00 Left at Home –
Crazy

Fred McAfee, 22, $800.00 Sold to Pepidal,
Donaldsonville, $1200.00

Howard Barnett, 25, $750.00 Ranaway. Sold
out of jail, $540.00

Harriett Barnett, 17, $550.00 Sold to
Davenport and Jones, Lafourche, $900.00
Slave Resistance
Constant fears of slave resistance haunted the Old South.
-Many areas blacks outnumbered the whites and there
was constant talk of rebellion
-Gabriel Prosser (1800) planned an uprising but was
betrayed by other slaves and hung
-Denmark Vesey (1822)- bought freedom and created a
plan to seize Charleston, SC. Betrayed and executed
-In the South whites could come together quickly to end a
rebellion and they all had guns and soldiers
-Family ties also made it reluctant to risk death and their
their children parentless.
-Some mulattos passed as whites, some forged/stole
passes from plantations. All leading to their escape to
the Free North
Nat Turner’s Rebellion and the
Consequences
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A religious preacher with many followers, Nat Turner decided to lead
his people against slavery by killing slaveholders
8/22/1831 Turner and six others broke into a home in Virginia.
Murdered entire family before moving on through the countryside
collecting muskets, horses and recruits.
Whites came from everywhere and followed path of destruction.
Blacks were killed and Turner and his followers were either jailed or
killed instantly
Turner was an educated man who claimed vision and interpretations
from the Bible.
Caught and hung on 10/30/1831
Before Turner, white Virginians had worried little about a slave
rebellion
Many believed the to solve the problem emancipation was needed
Proposals were defeated and over time opposition to slavery
weakened.
Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South:
Nat Turner, 1831
Slave Rebellions Throughout the Americas
Slave Rebellions
in the Antebellum South
Gabriel Prosser
1800
1822
Slave Resistance
2. Refusal to work hard.
3. Isolated acts of sabotage.
4. Escape via the Underground Railroad.
Runaway Slave Ads
Quilt Patterns as Secret Messages
The Monkey Wrench pattern, on the left,
alerted escapees to gather up tools and
prepare to flee; the Drunkard Path
design, on the right, warned escapees not
to follow a straight route.
An Escape!
• Harriet Tubman and Josiah Henson made repeated
trips back to the South to help other slaves escape
• Underground Railroad- organized network of safe
houses owned by white abolitionists who spirited
blacks to freedom in the North and Canada.
• Escape was more of a dream than a reality. Out of
millions of slaves only around 1,000 escaped to the
North.
• Most ran away to avoid punishment or to visit family,
but stayed in the South
• Instead of escape some slaves sought vengeance
• Arson, poisoning, work stoppages, and negligence
were alternatives to violent rebellion
The Emergence of AfricanAmerican Culture
– American blacks under slavery developed a
distinctive culture
• Drew on African and American cultures
– But was “more than a mixture of the two.”
The Culture of Slavery
1. Black Christianity :
* more emotional worship services.
* negro spirituals.
The first Africans brought to the South were
Muslims or followers of a variety of indigenous
African religions
By 1800 many had been converted to Christianity
Methodists and Baptists
2. “Pidgin” or Gullah languages. This was an
indispensable tool for communication
A bridge to a distinctive black culture
•3. Nuclear family with extended kin
links,
where possible.
•4. Importance of music in their lives
*the culture of blacks was “extremely expressive”
•Expressed their feelings in shouts, music, and dance
•They composed work songs and religious songs (spirituals)
Conclusion
• Slavery is what unified the Old South
• Though the majority of white southerners owned no
slaves, they had become convinced that the
perpetuation of the “peculiar institution” was in the
best interests of the entire South
• Northerners believed that slavery made the South
backward and bankrupt
• Southern whites reacted to outside criticism by
defending slavery as a benevolent way to handle the
innate inferiority of the black race
– Few slaves agreed