AP United States History - Terms and People – Unit 6, Chapter 16 (12th Ed.)
HONOR PLEDGE: I strive to uphold the vision of the North Penn School District, which is to inspire each student to reach his or her highest potential
and become a responsible citizen. Therefore, on my honor, I pledge that I have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance on this work.
The South and Slavery Controversy: 1790 - 1860
Before studying Chapter 16, read over these “Themes”:
Theme: The explosion of cotton production fastened the slave system deeply upon the South, creating a complex,
hierarchical racial and social order that affected whites as well as blacks.
Theme: The economic benefit of an increasing production of cotton due to the cotton gin and slavery was shared between
the South, the North, and Britain. The economics of cotton and slavery also led to bigger and bigger plantations, since
they could afford the heavy investment of human capital.
Theme: The emergence of a small but energetic radical abolitionist movement caused a fierce proslavery backlash in the
South and a slow but steady growth of moderate antislavery sentiment in the North.
After studying Chapter 16 in your textbook, you should be able to:
1. Point out the economic strengths and weaknesses of the “Cotton Kingdom.”
2. Describe the southern planter aristocracy and identify its strengths and weaknesses.
3. Describe the non-slaveholding white majority of the South and explain its relations with both the planter
elite and the black slaves.
4. Describe the nature of African-American life, both free and slave, before the Civil War.
5. Describe the effects of the “peculiar institution” of slavery on both blacks and whites.
6. Explain why abolitionism was at first unpopular in the North and describe how it gradually gained strength.
7. Describe the fierce southern response to abolitionism and the growing defense of slavery as a “positive
good.”
Know the following people and terms. Consider the historical significance of each term or person.
Also note the dates of the event if that is pertinent.
A. People
+Harriet Beecher Stowe (see pages 5-6)
+William Lloyd Garrison
Denmark Vesey
David Walker
+Nat Turner
Sojourner Truth
Theodore Dwight Weld
+Frederick Douglass (see pages 3-4)
Arthur and Lewis Tappan
Elijah P. Lovejoy
+John Quincy Adams
+=One of the 100 Most Influential Americans of All Time, as ranked by The Atlantic. Go to Webpage to see all 100.
B. Terms:
fratricide / sorocide / patricide / matricide
oligarchy
abolitionism
“positive good”
Cotton Kingdom
cotton gin
The Liberator
AP United States History - Terms and People – Unit 6, Chapter 16 (12th Ed.)
HONOR PLEDGE: I strive to uphold the vision of the North Penn School District, which is to inspire each student to reach his or her highest potential
and become a responsible citizen. Therefore, on my honor, I pledge that I have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance on this work.
American Anti-Slavery Society
peculiar institution
Liberty party
Lane rebels
gag resolution
C. Sample Essays: Using what you have previously learned and what you learned by reading
Chapter 16, you should be able to answer an essay such as this one:
The textbook authors observe that “white southerners…liked the black as an individual but
despised the race. The white northerner…often professed to like the race but disliked individual
blacks.” What does this statement tell us about the treatment of free blacks in the North and
slaves in the South?
D. Voices from the past:
On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is
on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother
to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like
the present. I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL
BE HEARD….
William Lloyd Garrison in The Liberator (1831)
So you’re the little woman that wrote the book that made this great war.
Allegedly said by Abraham Lincoln when he met Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
Abraham Lincoln, 1865
E. Reading Graphs: What common myth of the South might the following graph refute?
AP United States History - Terms and People – Unit 6, Chapter 16 (12th Ed.)
HONOR PLEDGE: I strive to uphold the vision of the North Penn School District, which is to inspire each student to reach his or her highest potential
and become a responsible citizen. Therefore, on my honor, I pledge that I have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance on this work.
F. More voices from the past: Frederick Douglass, a former slave, talks about slavery:
Prologue: In slavery, the Southerners had a bear by the tail: to hang on was embarrassing: to let go
would he costly and seemingly dangerous. So situated, they put the best face they could on their
“peculiar institution,” and freely quoted the Bible to defend an archaic practice that both God and
Jesus had tolerated, if not sanctioned. The abolitionists, especially the Garrisonians, harped on the
evils of slavery; the white Southerners stressed its benefits. The truth lay somewhere between.
Certainly most slaveowners were not sadists. Self-interest, if not humanity, was a strong though not
infallible deterrent to mayhem. Yet slavery was a grave moral offense, especially in a free society,
even if the slaves did sometimes preserve their dignity and if some masters were kind. The slaves
were seldom beaten to death, and as a rule, families were not needlessly separated. Slaves were
discouraged from learning to read and encouraged to embrace the Christian religion, which is often
the solace of the oppressed. Despite the manifest immorality of slavery, countless Northerners, with a
financial stake in slave-grown cotton, deplored the boat-rocking tactics of the abolitionists.
A Slave Boy Learns a Lesson (c. 1827)
The amazing Frederick Douglass, sired by an unknown white father, was horn in Maryland to a
slave unman. He learned to read and write; and after suffering much cruel usage, he escaped to the
North, where, despite mobbings and beatings, he became a leading abolitionist orator and journalist.
A commanding figure of a man, he raised black regiments during the Civil War and in 1889 became
US. minister to the republic of Haiti. He showed impartiality in his two marriages: his first wife, he
quipped, was the color of his mother and his second (despite a storm of criticism) was that of his
father. From the following passage in his autobiography, ascertain why the slaveholders were willing
to have their slaves know the Bible but not read it.
The frequent hearing of my mistress reading the Bible aloud - for she often read aloud when her husband
was absent - awakened my curiosity in respect to this mystery of reading, and roused in me the desire to learn.
Up to this time I had known nothing whatever of this wonderful art, and my ignorance and inexperience of what
it could do for me, as well as my confidence in my mistress, emboldened me to ask her to teach me to read.
With an unconsciousness and inexperience equal to my own, she readily consented, and in an incredibly
short time, by her kind assistance, I had mastered the alphabet and could spell words of three or four letters. My
mistress seemed almost as proud of my progress as if I had been her own child, and supposing that her husband
would he as well pleased, she made no secret of what she was doing for me. Indeed, she exultingly told him of
the aptness of her pupil, and of her intention to persevere in teaching me, as she felt her duty to do, at least to
read the Bible. . . .
Master Hugh was astounded beyond measure, and probably for the first time proceeded to unfold to his
wife the true philosophy of the slave system, and the peculiar rules necessary in the nature of the case to he
observed in the management of human chattels. Of course, he forbade her to give me any further instruction,
telling her in the first place that to do so was unlawful, as it was also unsafe. “For,” said he, “if you give a black
man an inch, he will take an ell. Learning will spoil the best black man in the world. If he learns to read the
Bible, it will forever unfit him to be a slave. He should know nothing but the will of his master, and learn to
obey it. As to himself, learning will do him no good, but a great deal of harm, making him disconsolate and
unhappy. If you teach him how to read, he’ll want to know how to write, and this accomplished, he’ll he
running away with himself.”
AP United States History - Terms and People – Unit 6, Chapter 16 (12th Ed.)
HONOR PLEDGE: I strive to uphold the vision of the North Penn School District, which is to inspire each student to reach his or her highest potential
and become a responsible citizen. Therefore, on my honor, I pledge that I have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance on this work.
A Former Slave Exposes Slavery (1850)
Flogged without effect by his master Douglass was hired out for one year to a notorious “slave
breaker,” who also professed to be a devout Methodist. Worked almost to death in all kinds of
weather, allowed five minutes or less for meals, and brutally whipped about once a week, Douglass
admitted that “Mr. Corey succeeded in breaking me - in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity
was crushed, my intellect languished. the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that
lingered about my eye died out; the dark night of’ slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man
transformed to a brute!” In this abolitionist speech in Rochester, New York, Douglass spoke
from bitter experience. In what respects were the nonphysical abuses of slaves worse than the
physical ones? Where was the system most unjust?
More than twenty years of my life were consumed in a state of slavery. My childhood was environed by
the baneful peculiarities at the slave system. 1 grew up to manhood in the presence of this hydra-headed
monster - not as a master - not as an idle spectator - not as the guest of the slaveholder: but as A SLAVE, eating
the bread and drinking the cup of slavery with the most degraded of my brother bondmen, and sharing with
them all the painful conditions of their wretched lot. In consideration of these facts, I feel that I have a right to
speak, and to speak strongly. Yet, my friends, I feel bound to speak truly. . . .
First of all, I will state, as well as I can, the legal and social relation of master and slave. A master is one
(to speak in the vocabulary of the Southern states) who claims and exercises a right of property in the person of
a fellow man. This he does with the force of the law and the sanction of Southern religion.
The law gives the master absolute power over the slave. He may work him, flog him, hire him out, sell
him, and in certain contingencies kill him with perfect impunity.
The slave is a human being, divested of all rights - reduced to the level of a brute - a mere ‘chattel” in
the eye of the law - placed beyond the circle of human brotherhood - cut off from his kind. His name, which the
“recording angel” may have enrolled in heaven among the blest, is impiously inserted in a master’s ledger with
horses, sheep, and swine.
In law a slave has no wife, no children, no country, and no home. He can own nothing, possess nothing,
acquire nothing but what must belong to another. To eat the fruit of his own toil, to clothe his person with the
work of his own hands, is considered stealing.
He toils, that another may reap the fruit. He is industrious, that another may live in idleness. He eats
unbolted meal, that another may eat the bread of fine flour. He labors in chains at home, under a burning sun
and biting lash that another may ride in ease and splendor abroad. He lives in ignorance, that another may he
educated. He is abused, that another may he exalted. He rests his toil-worn limbs on the cold, damp ground. that
another may repose on the softest pillow. He is clad in coarse and tattered raiment, that another may he arrayed
in purple and fine linen. He is sheltered only by the wretched hovel, that a master may dwell in a magnificent
mansion. And to this condition he is bound down by an arm of iron.
From this monstrous relation there springs an unceasing stream of most revolting cruelties. The very
accompaniments of the slave system stamp it as the offspring of hell itself. To ensure good behavior, the
slaveholder relies on the whip. To induce proper humility, he relies on the whip. To rebuke what he is pleased
to term insolence, he relies on the whip. To supply the place of wages, as an incentive to toil, he relies on the
whip. To bind down the spirit of the slave, to imbrute and destroy his manhood, he relies on the whip, the chain,
the gag, the thumb-screw, the pillory, the bowie knife, the pistol, and the bloodhound. . . .
There is a still deeper shade to be given to this picture. The physical cruelties are indeed sufficiently
harassing and revolting; but they are as a few grains of sand on the sea shore, or a few drops of water in the
great ocean, compared with the stupendous wrongs which it inflicts upon the mental, moral, and religious nature
of its hapless victims. It is only when we contemplate the slave as a moral and intellectual being that we can
adequately comprehend the unparalleled enormity of slavery, and the intense criminality of the slaveholder.
AP United States History - Terms and People – Unit 6, Chapter 16 (12th Ed.)
HONOR PLEDGE: I strive to uphold the vision of the North Penn School District, which is to inspire each student to reach his or her highest potential
and become a responsible citizen. Therefore, on my honor, I pledge that I have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance on this work.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin – What is it all about?
Upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe for the first time, Abraham Lincoln is supposed to have said "So this is the
little lady who made this big war." Stowe was little - less than five feet tall - but what she lacked in height, she made up
for in influence and success. Uncle Tom's Cabin became one of the most widely read and deeply penetrating books of its
time. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies and was translated into numerous languages. Many historians have credited
the novel with contributing to the outbreak of the Civil War.
The daughter of an eminent New England preacher, Stowe was born into a family of eccentric, intelligent people.
As a child, she learned Latin and wrote a children's geography book, both before she was ten years old. Throughout her
life, she remained deeply involved in religious movements, feminist causes, and the most divisive political and moral
issue of her time: the abolition of slavery.
Stowe grew up in the Northeast but lived for a time in Cincinnati, which enabled her to see both sides of the
slavery debate without losing her abolitionist's perspective. Cincinnati was evenly split for and against abolition, and
Stowe wrote satirical pieces on the subject for several local papers there. She often wrote pieces under pseudonyms and
with contrasting styles and one can see a similar attention to voice in Uncle Tom's Cabin, in which dialects and patterns of
speech contrast among characters. Though Stowe absorbed a great deal of information about slavery during her Cincinnati
years, she nonetheless conducted extensive research before writing Uncle Tom's Cabin. She wrote to Frederick Douglass
and others for help in creating a realistic picture of slavery in the Deep South. Her black cook and household servants also
helped by telling her stories of their slave days.
Stowe's main goal with Uncle Tom's Cabin was to convince her large Northern readership of the necessity of
ending slavery. Most immediately, the novel served as a response to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which
made it illegal to give aid or assistance to a runaway slave. Under this legislation, Southern slaves who escaped to the
North had to flee to Canada in order to find real freedom. With her book, Stowe created a sort of exposé that revealed the
horrors of Southern slavery to people in the North. Her radical position on race relations, though, was informed by a deep
religiosity. Stowe continually emphasizes the importance of Christian love in eradicating oppression. She also works in
her feminist beliefs, showing women as equals to men in intelligence, bravery, and spiritual strength. Indeed, women
dominate the book's moral code, proving vital advisors to their husbands, who often need help in seeing through
convention and popular opinion.
Uncle Tom's Cabin was published in episodes in the National Era in 1851 and 1852, and then published in its
entirety on March 20, 1852. It sold 10,000 copies in its first week and 300,000 by the end of the year, astronomical
numbers for the mid 19th century. Today, analysis of both the book's conception and reception proves helpful in our
understanding of the Civil War era. Within the text itself, the reader finds insights into the mind of a Christian, feminist
abolitionist. For example, in the arguments Stowe uses, the reader receives a glimpse into the details of the slavery debate.
Looking beyond the text to its impact on its society, the reader gains an understanding of the historical forces contributing
to the outbreak of war.
Plot Overview
Having run up large debts, a Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby faces the prospect of losing everything he
owns. Though he and his wife, Emily Shelby, have a kindhearted and affectionate relationship with their slaves, Shelby
decides to raise money by selling two of his slaves to Mr. Haley, a coarse slave trader. The slaves in question are Uncle
Tom, a middle-aged man with a wife and children on the farm, and Harry, the young son of Mrs. Shelby's maid Eliza.
When Shelby tells his wife about his agreement with Haley, she is appalled, partly because she has promised Eliza that
Shelby would not sell her son.
However, Eliza overhears the conversation between Haley and his wife and, after warning Uncle Tom and his
wife, Aunt Chloe, she takes Harry and flees to the North, hoping to find freedom with her husband George in Canada.
Haley pursues her, but two other Shelby slaves alert Eliza to the danger. She miraculously evades capture by crossing the
half-frozen Ohio River, the boundary separating Kentucky from the North. Haley hires a slave hunter named Loker and
his gang to bring Eliza and Harry back to Kentucky. Eliza and Harry make their way to a Quaker settlement, where the
Quakers agree to help transport them to safety. They are joined at the settlement by George, who reunites joyously with
his family for the trip to Canada.
Meanwhile, Uncle Tom sadly leaves his family and Mas'r George, Shelby's young son and Tom's friend, as Haley
takes him to a boat on the Mississippi to be transported to a slave market. On the boat, Tom meets an angelic little white
girl named Eva, who quickly befriends him. When Eva falls into the river, Tom dives in to save her, and her father,
Augustine St. Clare, gratefully agrees to buy Tom from Haley. Tom travels with the St. Clares to their home in New
Orleans, where he grows increasingly invaluable to the St. Clare household and increasingly close to Eva, with whom he
shares a devout Christianity.
Up North, George and Eliza remain in flight from Loker and his men. When Loker attempts to capture them,
George shoots him, and the other slave hunters retreat. Eliza convinces George and the Quakers to bring Loker to the next
AP United States History - Terms and People – Unit 6, Chapter 16 (12th Ed.)
HONOR PLEDGE: I strive to uphold the vision of the North Penn School District, which is to inspire each student to reach his or her highest potential
and become a responsible citizen. Therefore, on my honor, I pledge that I have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance on this work.
settlement, where he can be healed. Meanwhile, in New Orleans, St. Clare discusses slavery with his cousin Ophelia, who
opposes slavery as an institution but harbors deep prejudices against blacks. St. Clare, by contrast, feels no hostility
against blacks but tolerates slavery because he feels powerless to change it. To help Ophelia overcome her bigotry, he
buys Topsy, a young black girl who was abused by her past master and arranges for Ophelia to begin educating her.
After Tom has lived with the St. Clares for two years, Eva grows very ill. She slowly weakens, and then dies, with
a vision of heaven before her. Her death has a profound effect on everyone who knew her: Ophelia resolves to love the
slaves, Topsy learns to trust and feel attached to others, and St. Clare decides to set Tom free. However, before he can act
on his decision, St. Clare is stabbed to death while trying to settle a brawl. As he dies, he at last finds God and goes to be
reunited with his mother in heaven.
St. Clare's cruel wife, Marie, sells Tom to a vicious plantation owner named Simon Legree. Tom is taken to rural
Louisiana with a group of new slaves, including Emmeline, whom the demonic Legree has purchased to use as a sex
slave, replacing his previous sex slave Cassy. Legree takes a strong dislike to Tom when Tom refuses to whip a fellow
slave as ordered. Tom receives a severe beating, and Legree resolves to crush his faith in God. Tom meets Cassy, and
hears her story. Separated from her daughter by slavery, she became pregnant again but killed the child because she could
not stand to have another child taken from her.
Around this time, with the help of Tom Loker—now a changed man after being healed by the Quakers—George,
Eliza, and Harry at last cross over into Canada from Lake Erie and obtain their freedom. In Louisiana, Tom's faith is
sorely tested by his hardships, and he nearly ceases to believe. He has two visions, however—one of Christ and one of
Eva—which renew his spiritual strength and give him the courage to withstand Legree's torments. He encourages Cassy to
escape. She does so, taking Emmeline with her, after she devises a ruse in which she and Emmeline pretend to be ghosts.
When Tom refuses to tell Legree where Cassy and Emmeline have gone, Legree orders his overseers to beat him. When
Tom is near death, he forgives Legree and the overseers. George Shelby arrives with money in hand to buy Tom's
freedom, but he is too late. He can only watch as Tom dies a martyr's death.
Taking a boat toward freedom, Cassy and Emmeline meet George Harris's sister and travel with her to Canada,
where Cassy realizes that Eliza is her long-lost daughter. The newly reunited family travels to France and decides to move
to Liberia, the African nation created for former American slaves. George Shelby returns to the Kentucky farm, where,
after his father's death, he sets all the slaves free in honor of Tom's memory. He urges them to think on Tom's sacrifice
every time they look at his cabin and to lead a pious Christian life, just as Tom did.
Character List
Uncle Tom - A good and pious man, Uncle Tom is the protagonist of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Even under the worst conditions, Uncle
Tom always prays to God and finds a way to keep his faith. As the novel progresses, the cruel treatment that Tom suffers at the hands
of Simon Legree threatens his belief in God, but Tom withstands his doubts and dies the death of a Christian martyr.
Aunt Chloe - Uncle Tom's wife and the Shelbys' cook. Chloe often acts like a jovial simpleton around the Shelbys to mask her more
complex feelings.
Arthur Shelby - The owner of Uncle Tom in Kentucky, Shelby sells Tom to the cruel Mr. Haley to pay off his debts
George Shelby - Called "Mas'r George" by Uncle Tom, George is the Shelbys' good-hearted son. He loves Tom and promises to
rescue him from the cruelty into which his father sold him. After Tom dies, he resolves to free all the slaves on the family farm in
Kentucky. More morally committed than his father, George not only possesses a kind heart but acts on his principles.
The Quakers - The Quakers, a Christian group that arose in mid-seventeenth-century England, dedicated themselves to achieving an
inner understanding of God, without the use of creeds, clergy, or outward rites. The Quakers have a long history of contributing to
social reform and peace efforts. In Uncle Tom's Cabin, many Quaker characters appear who help George and Eliza, as well as many
other slaves. Stowe uses them to portray Christianity free of hypocrisy, self-righteous display, or bigoted conventions. This kind of
Christianity, she implies, can play a crucial role in the abolition of slavery.
Senator and Mrs. Bird - Mrs. Bird is another example of the virtuous woman. She tries to exert influence through her husband.
Senator Bird exemplifies the well-meaning man who is sympathetic to the abolitionist cause but who nonetheless remains complacent
or resigned to the status quo.
Tom Loker - A slave hunter hired by Mr. Haley to bring back Eliza, Harry, and George, Tom Loker first appears as a gruff, violent
man. George shoots him when he tries to capture them, and, after he is healed by the Quakers, Loker experiences a transformation and
chooses to join the Quakers rather than return to his old life.
Mr. Haley - The slave trader who buys Uncle Tom and Harry from Mr. Shelby. A gruff, coarse man, Haley presents himself as a kind
individual who treats his slaves well. Haley, however, mistreats his slaves, often violently.
Topsy - A wild and uncivilized slave girl whom Miss Ophelia tries to reform, Topsy gradually learns to love and respect others by
following the example of Eva.
Simon Legree - Tom's ruthlessly evil master on the Louisiana plantation. A vicious, barbaric, and loathsome man, Legree fosters
violence and hatred among his slaves.
Cassy - Legree's slave mistress and Eliza's mother, Cassy is a proud and intelligent woman and devises a clever way to escape
Legree's plantation.
Emmeline - A young and beautiful slave girl whom Legree buys for himself, perhaps to replace Cassy as his mistress. She has been
raised as a pious Christian.