Chapter 12
Essential Questions
How did northerners’ image of the Old
South differ from the way in which
southerners saw themselves?
 What major social divisions segmented the
white South?
 How did slavery affect social relations in
the white South?
 What conditions in the Old South made it
possible for a distinctive culture to develop
among the slaves, and what were the
predominant features of that culture?

King Cotton
1790 South’s economy stagnanttobacco not prosperous
 By 1850 South was the “Cotton
Kingdom” from South Carolina to Texas
 “No power on earth dares to make war
upon it. Cotton is king.”

- Senator James Henry Hammond
South Carolina
A History of Slavery

1619
 First blacks arrive at Jamestown, NOT

 Haitian Revolt
slaves

of indentured servants seen as an
advantage
 tobacco



1800s


Nature of slavery changes
Age of Jackson

Rise of Abolitionism
 Word “Slave” appears
○
1676
○
 VA, MD, NC, SC legalize slavery
○
1739



 60,000 dead, republic of free slaves
1660s
 New “black codes”

 Toussaint L’Ouverture
1640s-1650s
 View of using black “free” workers instead
1790s
Stono Rebellion in SC
= harsh new slave laws
1776-1789

Blacks participate in revolution
○
○

1900
William Lloyd Garrison
Quakers
Sarah and Angelica Grimke
Sojourner Truth
Frederick Douglas
Lure of Cotton

South had
 Warm climate, wet springs/summers, dry autumns

Advantages
 Didn’t require expensive irrigation or costly
machinery (unlike sugar)
 Profitable on any scale
 Compatible with production of corn

Slavery
 Gave an advantage
 Doubled 1810-1830
Diverges

North

 urbanizing

 Tobacco, vegetable, hemp,
wheat
South
 Rural
 Banks existed only to finance
plantations
 Lack of industries
 Southern factories small
 Slavery
○ Limited investment in Industry
○ South profitable, no reason to
change
 Rejection of compulsory
education
○ High illiteracy
○ Middle class had “no need”
Upper South

Lower South
 Sugar, Cotton cash crops

United
 Many settlers of lower south
from upper south
 All white southerners benefitted
from 3/5ths clause
 All stung by abolitionist criticism
of slavery
 Economic ties
Social Groups

4 main groups
 Planters
○ + 20 slaves
○ Plantation society
 “little nation itself”
 Plantation mistresses
○ High degree of division of labor
○ Most wealth in slaves
○ Psychological strains
 Slave mistresses
 Mulatto children
 Slaveholders (small)
○ -5 slaves
○ Not all farmers
○ Conflicting loyalties + ambitions
○ Younger than planters
 Yeoman
○ Family farmers, livestock
○ Non-slaveholders
○ Largest group of white southern
males
○ Subsistence farmers
 Reason for lack of industry in south
○ Piedmont region
○ “poor white trash”
 Pine barrens
○ Non-slaveholders
○ Squatted on land
○ Self-reliant, independent
○ choice
North Carolina Yeomen
Conflict

Planters

 Decreasing slave-holding
 Whigs
 Needed credit
 Urban commercial allies

Slavery
population
 “Impending Crisis of the South”
1857
 Civil War:
Yeomen
○ Wanted to own slaves
○ Racism
○ No one knew where slaves
 Democrats
 Economically self-sufficient
 Economically dependent

Unity
 Whites didn’t work for whites
 Lived in different geographic
areas
would go

Pro-Slavery






Compared to Athenian slavery
“wage slavery” in North
Bible- St. Paul
Natural submission
Church supported slavery
racism
Violence in Old South

Dirty fighting
 Eye gouging
 Ear biting
 Murder rate 10X that in North

Code of Honor/dueling
 Conception of “good society”
diverged more from northern
egalitarian and individualistic
idea
 Southern pride
○ Especially in front of slaves
 Sensitivity to reputation
 How gentlemen dealt without
results
○ Law was cowardly, shameful
○ Only “gentlemen” dueled

Southern Evangelicals and
White values
 Baptists, Methodists,
Presbyterians
 Against dueling
 Reached out to women, slaves,
poor
 Soon absorbed gentry values
and vice versa
○ Ex. Stonewall Jackson
The “Peculiar Institution”


An institution unique to southern society
North depended on it too






Cotton helped finance industrial development, internal improvements
Cotton carried to New York, Europe
Northern bankers financed plantations, insured slave property
Northern factories manufactured cotton into cloth
Slavery concentrated in areas with most fertile soil and easiest
access to national and international markets
2nd middle passage
 1808 international slave trade abolished
 Internal trade developed

“White Gold”




Manufactured in Mass, Great Britain, France, Russia
Most important US export by 1803
Eve of civil war represented over HALF of total value of US exports
1860: economic investment in slaves exceeded value of nation’s
factories, railroads, and banks COMBINED
Life under Slavery



Oppressive institution
Appropriated the life and
labor of one race for the
material benefit of another
Plantation System

 Typical to work on large
farm, plantation
 Routine
 Slave drivers, overseers
 Social hierarchy of slaves
 Significant changes between
1780 and 1830
 Paternalist ethos
 Average Slave:
○ 1700: male, 20s, African, no
real family life
○ 1830: male or female, spoke
English, born in US, family
life
Work and Discipline of
Plantation Slaves
○ House vs field slaves

Slave Family
 Planters encouraged
weddings for procreation
 Buying/selling disrupted
family
 Tight-family bonds, kinship
Life under Slavery

Longevity, Diet, Health
 Lived longer and reproduced
faster in US
 Why?
○ Gender ratio equalized
○ Plenty of food
○ Great immunities

Free Blacks
 More likely to live in cities
○ 1/3 in Upper South
○ ½ in Lower South
 Why?
○ Specialized economies
 Carpenters, coopers, barbers,
traders

Slaves off Plantations
 Greatest opportunities
○ Laborers, extractive industries
 Shortage of labor in
nonagricultural sectors
○ Lumbering, stevedores, black
engineers, iron workers
 Tolerable working conditions
○ Fraternal orders
○ churches
 Rate of free blacks slowed after
1810
○ Nat Turner Rebellion 1831
 Exceptions
○ New Orleans, Natchez
 Contradictions
○ Mixed blacks
Life under Slavery

Slave Resistance
 Lots of talk, little action
 Nat Turner 1831
○ Only main significant rebellion
 Why lack of rebellion?
○ Formidable white presence in
south
○ Feared risking family ties
 Escape to North
○ Fugitive slaves
○ Underground railroad
 Reality
○ Escape not reality
 “Non-violent resistance”
○ Poisoning
○ Leaving tools out
○ Not working hard

Amistad
 1839
 53 slaves that took control of a
slave ship
 Forced navigator to steer it to
Africa
 Opposition
○ President Van Buren wants to
return it to Africa
○ Abolitionists want Supreme
Court
 Decision
○ John Quincy Adams defense
○ Captives released to Africa
 Consequences
○ Creole 1841
○ British gave refuge
Emergence of African-American
Culture

Language
 Pidgin
○ No native speakers
○ Learned on slave ships
○ Contained African words
○ No genders, no instead of not
 Gullah

Religion
 Early slaves mainly practiced
Native African religions or Islam
 Very naturalistic/spiritual
 Accepted Christianity
○ Water- baptism sacrament
○ Like revivalists
 Cane Ridge, KY
 Highlighted contradictions
 Protestant missionaries
○ conversion = obedience

Music and Dance
 Culture extremely expressive
 Religious services
○ Singing
○ Dancing
○ spirituals
 Rhythm clapping
○ Patting juba
 Instruments
○ banjo
Questions



Given that by 1860 the economic investment
represented by the slave population exceeded
the value of the nation’s factories, railroads,
and banks combined, explain how important
slavery was to the national economy and the
emergence of the United States as a great
power.
Why did many white southerners support
slavery even when they did not actually own
any slaves?
What forms of slave resistance were practiced
in the American South?
Slavery Jigsaw Activity

1st questions:
 What was the most interesting thing you
discovered about this subject's life?
 What was their overall experience like?
 Did they discuss daily life or family life?
 Does their narrative reinforce or challenge
your conceptions of slavery?
Jigsaw Activity

2nd Questions
 What aspects of slavery were shared in
common by these men and women?
 What was working life like for them?
 What major differences do you see?
 Is there an overall commonality to these
narratives in the description of their
experiences?
Planters
Industrialization
Political Parties
slavery
Education
Honor Code
Slave Family
Small
Slaveholders
Yeomen
Pine Barrens