Credits: Ms. Susan M. Pojer/ Mr. Mark Temple
OVERVIEW:
Despite its contradiction of the
Republic’s democratic ideals,
the slave plantation system
became firmly entrenched in
the South, underscoring its
sectional distinctiveness
Early Emancipation in the North
Missouri Compromise, 1820
NATIONAL REACTIONS
Slavery increasingly DIVIDED the nation.
1. 1842: Supreme Court
decided fugitive slave law
was constitutional but
states did not have to
enforce it (many Northern
states passed personal
liberty laws)
2. Methodist and Baptist
churches split sectionally
over slavery (Quakers led
abolitionist movement)
3. Fear increased over a
slave-power conspiracy to
expand slavery in the new
territories (Fugitive Slave
Act 1850 - stricter runaway
laws)
HW: question 1&2
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.
5. Rudimentary financial system.
6. Inadequate transportation system.
Southern Society (1850)
6,000,000
“Slavocracy”
[plantation owners]
The “Plain Folk”
[white yeoman farmers]
Black Freemen
250,000
Black Slaves
3,200,000
Total US Population --> 23,000,000
[9,250,000 in the South = 40%]
The Three South’s
A. Generalizations
1. The further North, the cooler the climate, the fewer the
slaves, and the lower the commitment to maintaining
slavery..
2. The further South, the warmer the climate, the more the
slaves, and the higher the commitment to
maintaining
slavery.
3. Mountain whites along Appalachian Mountains would
mostly side with the Union during the Civil War.
W. Virginia, E. Tennessee, NE Kentucky, W. South
Carolina, N. Georgia & Alabama.
4. Southward flow of slaves (from sales) continued from
1790 to1860
5. Not a unified South except resistance to outside
interference (federal gov’t)
B. Border South: Delaware, Maryland,
Kentucky, & Missouri
1. Plantations scarcer; cotton cultivation almost nonexistent;
Tobacco main crop (as in Middle South); More grain production
(as in Middle South)
2. Unionists would overcome Disunionists during and after the
CivilWar.
3. 1850, Slaves = 17% of population.; Avg. 5 slaves per slaveholder
4. 1850, over 21% of Border South’s blacks free;
46% of South’s free blacks
5. 22% of white families owned slaves
6. Those who owned more than 20 slaves in South: 6%; Ultrawealthy = 1%
7. Produced over 50% of South’s industrial products
C. Middle South: Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, and Arkansas.
1. Each state had one section resembling the Border South and
another resembling the Lower South.
-- Some industrial production:
Tredegar Iron Works in Virginia used slave labor
2. Unionists prevailed after Lincoln elected; Disunionists
prevailed after war began
3. Many plantations in eastern Virginia and western Tennessee
4. 1850, slaves = 30% of population; Avg. 8 slaves per
slaveholder
5. 36% of white families owned slaves
6. Of all who owned more than 20 slaves in South: 32%;
Ultra-wealthy = 14%
D. Lower South: South Carolina, Florida, Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas
1. Most slaves located in the “cotton belt” or "black belt"
of Deep South along river valleys
2. Plantations prevalent; cotton was king; grew 95% of
South's cotton & almost all sugar, rice, and indigo.
3. Disunionists (secessionists) would prevail after Lincoln
was elected
4. 1850, slaves = 47% of population; Avg. 12 slaves per
slaveholder
5. Less than 2% of blacks free; only 15% of South’s free
blacks
6. 43% of white families owned slaves
7. Of all who owned more than 20 slaves in South: 62%;
Ultra-wealthy = 85%
8. Produced less than 20% of South’s industrial products
Southern Population (1860)
HW: question 3
Graniteville Textile Co.
Founded in 1845, it was the South’s first
attempt at industrialization in Richmond, VA
Southern Agriculture
Slaves Picking Cotton
on a Mississippi Plantation
Slaves Using the Cotton Gin
Changes in Cotton Production
1820
1860
Value of Cotton Exports
As % of All US Exports
“Hauling the Whole Week’s
Pickings”
William Henry Brown, 1842
Slaves Working
in a Sugar-Boiling House, 1823
HW: question 4
SLAVERY
Was gradually abolished in the North after the Revolution
and was fading in the South but then dramatically revived.
1. Congress ended foreign slave
trade (1808), but illegal
smuggling continued
2. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin
(1793) produced new
incentives for growing cotton
3. Cotton eventually represented
over 50% of U.S. export
values
4. As the Cotton Belt moved to
the Gulf States, the Upper
South provided a domestic
supply of slaves
SLAVERY AS A SYSTEM
Varied with the owner and type of work. Narratives by
former slaves provide accounts of conditions.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
sexually exploited
(large mulatto
population)
Slave marriages were
not recognized
Sale of slaves did not
respect family ties
Slaves were treated as
property and deprived
of their African names,
culture, & religion
Slave women were
abused
5. Usually illegal to teach
slaves to read and write
6. African-American subculture
in music, religion, folklore
7. Wealth, social class, &
political power in white
South determined
increasingly by the number
of slaves owned
Slave Auction Notice, 1823
Slave Auction: Charleston, SC-1856
Slave Accoutrements
Slave Master
Brands
Slave muzzle
Anti-Slave Pamphlet
Slave Accoutrements
Slave leg irons
Slave shoes
Slave tag, SC
HW: Question 6
Slave-Owning Population (1850)
Slave-Owning Families (1850)
Slaves posing
in front of
their cabin on
a Southern
plantation.
Tara – Plantation Reality or Myth?
Hollywood’s Version?
A Real Georgia Plantation
Scarlet and Mammie
(Hollywood Again!)
A Real Mammie & Her Charge
The Southern “Belle”
A Slave Family
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
US Laws Regarding Slavery
1. U. S. Constitution:
* 3/5s compromise [I.2]
* fugitive slave clause [IV.2]
2. 1793 --> Fugitive Slave Act.
3. 1850 --> stronger Fugitive Slave Act.
Southern Slavery--> An Aberration?
 1780s: 1st antislavery society created in Phila.
 By 1804: slavery eliminated from last
northern state.
 1807: the legal termination of the slave
trade, enforced by the Royal Navy.
 1820s: newly indep. Republics of Central &
So. America declared their slaves free.
 1833: slavery abolished throughout the British
Empire.
 1844: slavery abolished in the Fr. colonies.
 1861: the serfs of Russia were emancipated.
Slavery Was Less Efficient
in the U. S. than Elsewhere

High cost of keeping slaves from
escaping.

GOAL --> raise the “exit cost.”
u
Slave patrols.
u
Southern Black Codes.
u
Cut off a toe or a foot.
HW: question 5 & 7
SLAVE RESISTANCE
Took a variety of forms.
1. Some “played” servile roles
but slowed & sabotaged their
work (or feigned illness)
2. Escape was difficult
- risked beating, family
-Underground RR
(Levi Coffin/Harriet Tubman)
3. Slave insurrections were rare
but caused panic for
slaveowners
-Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner
Slave Resistance
4. “SAMBO” pattern of behavior used as a
charade in front of whites [the innocent,
laughing black man caricature – bulging
eyes, thick lips, big smile, etc.].
Slave Resistance
5. Refusal to work hard.
6. Isolated acts of sabotage.
7. Escape via the Underground Railroad.
Frederick Douglass
“Slaves sing when
they are most
unhappy . . . The
songs of the
slaves represent
the sorrows of
his heart.”
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.
William Lloyd Garrison - The Liberator
(1831)
“Immediate emancipation, w/o
compensation to owners”
Slave Rebellions Throughout the Americas
Slave Rebellions
in the Antebellum South
Gabriel Prosser
1800
1822
Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South:
Nat Turner, 1831
NAT TURNER’S Rebellion (Virginia, 1831)
Turner and conspirators hanged
The Culture of Slavery
1. Black Christianity [Baptists or Methodists]:
* more emotional worship services.
* negro spirituals.
2. “Pidgin” or Gullah languages.
3. Nuclear family with extended kin links,
where possible.
4. Importance of music in their lives. [esp.
spirituals].
Southern Pro-Slavery
Propaganda