Baltimore Polytechnic Institute
December 3, 2012
A/A.P. U.S. History
Mr. Green
Objectives:
Describe the economic strengths and weaknesses of the Cotton
Kingdom and its central role in the prosperity of Britain as well as the
United States.
Outline the hierarchical social structure of the South, from the
planter aristocracy to African American slaves.
Describe the non-slaveholding white majority of the South, and
explain why most poorer whites supported slavery even though they
owned no slaves.
AP Focus
The South in the antebellum period is dominated by the planterslaveholder class, which comprises only a small percentage of the
South’s white population—approximately two-thirds of southern whites
own no slaves.
So important is cotton to the South’s—and, some contend, the
nation’s—economy that it is referred to as King Cotton.
The life of freed slaves, while appreciably better than that of their enslaved
brethren, is precarious. Freed slaves did not find a panacea to their
problems and treatment in the North either.
CHAPTER THEMES
The explosion of cotton production
fastened the slave system deeply upon the South,
creating a complex, hierarchical racial and social
order that deeply affected whites as well as
blacks.
The economic benefits of an increasing
production of cotton due to the cotton gin and
slavery were 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.
Election and Decades Chart will be completed
this week and submitted for a grade
Northern shippers-profits from cotton shipped
to England
Half the value of all American exports after
1840
South produced ½ the world’s cotton
Southerners in the cotton industry believed
that it gave them an advantage over England
and the North
Widened gap between rich and poor
Hampered tax-supported public education
Rich planters sent children away to school
Quickly exhausted the soil-soil butchery
Financial instability of the plantation system
over-speculation of land
slave costs/runaways
Limited diversification of
agriculture/manufacturing/ethnicities
¼ of white southerners owned slaves or
belonged to a slave-owning family
Small farmers worked alongside slaves
Non-slave owners were subsistence farmers
removed from the Cotton life.
Poor whites-staunchest supporters of slavery,
even though they owned no slaves.
status
American Dream
Mountain whites-completely removed from the
heart of the Cotton Kingdom
250,000 Free Blacks in 1860 in the South
250,000 Free Blacks in 1860 in the North
Denied basic rights such as voting,
employment, public school
As the international slave trade ended in the US
in 1808, a vibrant internal slave trade
boomed.
Treated as property and sparred dangerous
jobs as roofing and swamp clearing
Mulatto population increased as slave owners
fostered affection to the female slave
Slaves denied an education-education brought ideas and
discontent
Slaves utilized tactics to upset owners
slow work
sabotage of equipment
poison owners
Rebellions
Denmark Vesey-Charleston, SC
Nat Turner-slaughtered 60 Virginians, mostly women and
children
Amistad (1839)
seized control of Spanish slave ship and driven ashore on
Long Island
Former President John Q. Adams secured their freedom
with their return to Sierra Leone
Quakers
American Colonization Society-return slaves to
Africa
Liberia-established for former slaves, capital
named after a U.S. President
only foreign capital named after a U.S.
President
William Lloyd Garrison-The Liberator
David Walker-Appeal to the Colored Citizens of
the World-advocated a bloody end
Sojourner Truth
Martin Delany –re-colonization theory
Frederick Douglass
political response to end slavery
Missouri Compromise of 1820
Virginia tightens slave codes and others join
a response to Nat Turner’s rebellion
Nullification crisis of 1832
Slavery as a positive good
Owners encouraged religion
This support of slavery further widened the gap
between the North and South
Explain how the North and the South were
connected. Be sure to include finance,
cotton, and commerce.
OR
Compare and contrast the lives lived by free
blacks to that of plantation slaves. Be sure to
include all aspects of society. You may use a
Venn Diagram to organize your thinking, but
you are required to submit this in standard
writing from.
Finish reading all of Chapter 16