 Essential Question:
– What was life like in the
antebellum South?
RQ Ch 10B (328-340)
Ante means “before”
Bellum means “the war”
The Southern
Antebellum Economy:
King Cotton & Slavery
Southern
cottonoffueled
both
the English
The Rise
“King
Cotton”
& American Industrial Revolutions
 “King Cotton” was the dynamic
force driving the American
economy from 1790-1840:
– The South provided ¾ of
world’s cotton
– Southern cotton stimulated the
growth of Northern textile
industry, shipping, & marketing
– Slave population grew 300%
The Value of Cotton Exports as a
Percentage of All U.S. Exports
The Rise of “King Cotton”
 The introduction of short-staple
cotton strengthened the economy
– Cotton could now be grown
anywhere in the South
– The cotton gin (1793) made
seed
extraction
easy
“Southern
way of life”
– White
The potential
forperceived
profits led
Southerners
theirto a
economic
be tied
to slavery of
cotton interests
boom &tothe
expansion
slavery in the South
Slaves Using the Cotton Gin
Cotton expansion
led to
Southern
Agriculture
“Alabama Fever” from 1816 to 1820
Southern expansion boomed again from 1832 to
1838 into Mississippi, Louisiana, & Arkansas
…and again in the mid-1850s into Texas
Slave Concentration, 1820
Slave Concentration by 1860
The Internal Slave Trade
 The Upper South grew tobacco &
was less dependent on cotton &
slave labor
 As slave prices rose, Upper South
developed an internal slave trade
to provide “surplus” slaves to the
Lower South
 Virginia, Maryland, & Kentucky
began to take on characteristics of
the industrializing North & became
divided in their support of slavery
Slavery in a Changing World
The
South laggedregional
by choice differences:
because these
 Antebellum
were risky investments, but cotton was safe
– By 1820, all Northern states
abolished
slaveryfeared being
Southern politicians
Congress
–permanently
The Southoutvoted
laggedinbehind
the
North in cities, industry, &
railroads
population
grew
By– Southern
1860, only 35%
By 1860,
only 15%
of railroads
U.S. factories
slower were
thaninin theofNorth
& West
the South
were in the South
Antebellum
Southern Society:
Whites
The Divided Society of the Old South
 American slavery was deeply
rooted in the Southern economy;
but slavery divided the South:
– By “caste”—black or white
– By “class”—ownership of slaves
– By region—slavery was more
deeply entrenched along the
“Black Belt” from GA to TX
Southern Society in 1850
“Slave-ocracy”
(plantation owners)
6,000,000
The “Plain Folk”
(small slave-owners
& yeoman farmers)
250,000
Black Freemen
3,200,000
Black Slaves
U.S. population in 1850 was 23,000,000
9,500,000 lived in the South (40%)
Southern White Class Structure, 1860
White Society in South
 Only a small percentage of whites
owned large plantations:
– Less than 1% of the white
population owned 50+ slaves
– Most whites were yeomen
farmers who supported slavery
because they hired slaves or felt
reassured that there was a lower
class than them
Small Slaveholders
 Only about 25% of the Southern
white population owned slaves
– 88% of slave owners had fewer
than 20 slaves (most 1-2 slaves)
– But slave conditions were worse
because slaves shared their
master's poverty
– Most slaves would have
preferred the economic stability
& kinship of the plantation
If these
were the
living
conditions
for slaves
on a
plantation,
what were
conditions
like on
small
farms?
Yeomen Farmers
 About 75% of Southern whites
were small, yeoman farmers who
did not own slaves:
– Most yeomen resented the
aristocratic planters but hoped
to become wealthy planters
– Many saw slavery as a way of
keeping blacks “in their place”
– Many saw abolition as a threat
to their Southern way of life
Antebellum
Southern Society:
Slaves
The World of Southern Blacks
slaves
worked
on large
 While2.4%
veryoffew
whites
were
plantations with 200+ slaves
plantation owners, most slaves
lived on plantations:
– 90% of slaves lived on farms in
which owner had 20+ slaves
– 15% of slaves served as “house
slaves” (domestic servants)
– 10% of slaves worked in
industry, lumbering, construction
Distribution of Slave Labor, 1850
55%
Cotton
Domestic Work
Rice or Sugar
Tobacco
Mining, Industry,
or Construction
10%
10%
15%
10%
“HaulingSlaves
the Whole
Week’s
Picking
CottonPickings”
William
Henry Brown,
1842
on a Mississippi
Plantation
Slaves Working
in a Sugar-Boiling House, 1823
Some slaves could hire out
their overtime hours for pay
(“Underground Economy”)
Slave Families & Community
 Normal family life was difficult:
– Families were vulnerable to
breakup by their masters
– On large plantations, slaves
were able to retain their African
cultures & were mostly part of
two-parent families
– But on smaller farms, extended
families provided support or
“adoption” of unrelated slaves
A Slave Family
African American Religion
 Black Christianity was the center
of African-American culture
 Richard Allen created African
Methodist Episcopal (AME)
Church but was largely composed
of free & urban African-Americans
 On plantations, whites supervised
religious messages, but the “real”
slave religion was practiced at
night in secret; preached about
the inevitable day of liberation
Supervised Plantation Religion
Free Blacks in the Old South
 Southern free blacks were
severely restricted:
– Had to register with the state &
carry “freedom” papers
– Were excluded from certain jobs
– Subjected to re-enslavement &
fraudulent “recapture”
 By 1860 some states proposed
laws to force free blacks to leave
the state or be enslaved
Defending Slavery?
Defending Slavery
 Southern planters feared revolts &
the growth of abolitionism & used
a new defense slavery:
– It was sanctioned in the Bible
– Constitution did not prohibit it
– Slavery was a “natural” way of
life for “inferior” Africans
– Slavery was more humane than
Northern industrial exploitation
Pro-Slavery Propaganda
Defending Slavery
 Proslavery Southerners protected
South against anti-slavery ideas:
– Feared abolitionist propaganda
would inspire slave rebellions or
inspire the yeoman to support
abolition
– Increased restrictions on blacks
by making it illegal to teach
slaves to read & write
– Banned church services &
meetings without supervision
Slavery
In 1787, the
Articles in the
By North:
1804, nine states
Before
the American
Revolution,
ofEarly
Confederation
emancipated
slaves
Emancipation
Movements
outlawed
in
or
slavesslavery
were present
in adopted
each of gradual
the
the northwest
emancipation plans
13 American colonies
In 1817, a group of ministers & politicians
formed the American Colonization Society
to resettle free blacks in West Africa
In 1808, the USA &
Britain in outlawed the
African slave trade
Anti-Slave Arguments
Leg
Irons
Slave
ID
Tag
Slave muzzle
Resistance & Rebellion
 The most common form of slave
rebellion was passive resistance:
– Work slowdowns & sabotage
– Poisoning of masters
 Running away was common
among slaves; Runaway slaves
were aided by the Underground
Railroad
Quilt Patterns
The
Drunkard
Path
design
Showed
Secret
Messages
warned escapees not to
follow a straight route
The Monkey Wrench pattern
told slaves to gather up tools
and prepare to flee
Resistance
and the
Rebellion
At
the last minute,
plan failed,
 Between
1800-1831,
3 major
Prosser was
captured, & no
whites died
slave revolts occurred:
A change discovery revealed
– Gabriel
(1800)
the plotProsser
& no whites
died planned
a violent march on Richmond
– Denmark Vesey (1822) created
an extensive plot to arm & free
slaves in SC (no white deaths)
– Nat Turner (1831) led a band of
slaves from farm to farm &
killed 60 whites
Slave Rebellions in the South:
Nat Turner, 1831
Conclusions:
Worlds in Conflict
Conclusions
 The post-1793 cotton boom
transformed the American
economy & Southern society:
– Cotton facilitated westward
expansion & the entrenchment
of African slavery in the South
– In the 1830s, the South became
increasingly defensive about
perceived Northern attempts to
end slavery
Discussion Questions
 How did American agriculture
change from the colonial era to
the Era of Good Feelings?
 Which early 19th century change
will have the greater impact on
American history: Eli Whitney’s
cotton gin OR Jefferson’s
Louisiana Purchase? Explain