Chapter 10: The South & Slavery, 1790s-1850s
APUSH
Name: ___________________
Date: ___________________
Page 1 of 4
Key Topics
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The domination of southern life by the slave system
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The economic implications of "King Cotton"
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The creation of African American communities under slavery
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The social structure of the white South and its increasing defensiveness
King Cotton & Southern Expansion
 Slavery had long dominated southern life
 Slaves grew ___________, ___________ & _________ while the slave owners made fortunes
 Slave system waned until cotton entered & became highly profitable
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Dominant crop in MD, DE, VA, NC, SC, GA, KY, TN, MO, AL, MS, LA, AR, FL, & TX
 Created a regional culture quite different from that of the North
Cotton Gin
 Cotton had one drawback: the seeds were so difficult to remove
 Took 1 _______ to hand-clean 1 _____ of cotton
 Eli Whitney, Yale graduate, northerner
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Hired as a tutor for a southern plantation
 Catherine Greene, widow, plantation owner
 1793, built the cotton engine, or “gin”
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Catherine suggested making the teeth out of wire
 Suddenly you could clean __________ of cotton per day
Southwest Expansion
 New land was wanted because cotton rapidly depleted the soil
 “____________ Fever”
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Southern farmers rushed to the exceptionally fertile lands of Alabama & Mississippi
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One of the swiftest migrations
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Slaves cleared the land, drained swamps, built houses & barns, & planted the first crops
 Settlement of the Old Southwest took place at the expense of the region’s Indian population
The Economics of Slavery
 Worldwide demand for cotton supported slavery
 Export of cotton a dynamic part of American economy
 Financed _____________ industrial development
 Northern industry directly connected to slavery
 Cotton & slavery tied up capital leaving the South lagging behind the North in urban pop., industrialization, canals, & __________
The Industrial Revolution
 The demand for cotton was a result of the technological & social changes that we know today as the Industrial Revolution
 A Series of inventions resulted in the mechanized _______________________________ of cloth
 The ability to produce large amounts of cotton cloth revolutionized the world economy
 By the time of the Civil War, cotton accounted for nearly ________ of the US’s exports
 As cotton boomed, it provided capital for the new factories in the North
A Slave Society in a Changing World
 After the Rev. War, the northern states abolished slavery & many slave owners in the Upper South freed their slaves
 Jefferson thought that a “total emancipation with the ____________________________________” wasn’t too far in the future
 January 1, 1808 – _______________ was constitutionally abolished in the US
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A small number of slaves continued to be smuggled in from Africa
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But, for the most part, now depended on _____________________
 The South was being consumed by cotton
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Did not see the need to invest in risky businesses like canals & railroads
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Did not industrialize as quickly as the North did
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Cotton created a distinctive regional culture.
 Slave states were losing political dominance because their ___________________was not keeping up with that of the North
Chapter 10: The South & Slavery, 1790s-1850s
APUSH
Name: ___________________
Date: ___________________
Page 2 of 4
To Be a Slave
 In 1850, 55% of all slaves were engaged in cotton growing
 75% of slaves worked as field hands, from sunup to sundown, performing the heavy labor needed for getting out a cotton crop
 Some slaves worked as house servants.
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About ________ of the female slave pop. in ________ were servants
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Needed them to maintain their newly “______” lifestyles
 Some slaves were skilled workers.
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Weavers, seamstresses, carpenters, blacksmiths, mechanics
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Lumberjacks, miners, & deckhands
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The wages of the slave belonged to the __________, not the slave
 Not surprisingly, many suffered from poor health
Internal Slave Trade
 As the expansion in the Southwest accelerated, so did the demand for slaves in the newly settled regions
 Upper South (DE, KY, MD, VA, & TN) slave owners sold slaves “______________________”
 More slaves – est. 1 million – were uprooted by this internal slave trade & forced to migrate than were brought to N. America during
the entire time the international slave trade was legal
Coffles
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If they weren’t traveling down the Mississippi River on steamboat, slaves travelled by _________
They were often chained together in groups of ______ or more
Were a common sight on southern roads
Once they arrived at their destination, they were carefully inspected by potential buyers & sold at auction to the highest bidder
Many owners sold slaves & separated slave families not out of _____________ but to increase their _____________
The sheer size & profitability of the internal slave trade made a mockery of southern claims for the benevolence of the slave system
The African American Community
 African American values & attitudes, and especially their own forms of Christianity, played a vital part in shaping a culture of
endurance and resistance
 Most lived on plantations with _______ slaves
 Even though slaves were considered property, only the most brutal masters refused to see the humanity of their slaves
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White masters learned to live w/ the 2 key institutions of African American communities: The Family & Church
The Price of Survival
 Growth of slave pop. was due to the high __________ rates of African American women (though not as high as white women)
 ____________rates of slave children under five twice that of white counterparts
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Due to the mothers being inadequately ________________, working too hard, & were too frequently ____________
 Infectious diseases endemic in the South
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Life expectancy for whites __________ years
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Life expectancy for blacks __________ years
 Malnutrition & lack of basic _____________ took a high toll on slaves
From Cradle to Grave
 Slavery was a ______________ labor system
 Owners argued that by feeding & housing them from birth to death, they were more humane than their northern counterparts
 Children lived with their parents
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Would play with one another & the white children of the plantation until they were about 7 years old
 At age 12, they were considered ____________________ & put to work on the fields or in their designated occupation
Slave Families
 Marriage not ___________ recognized but ______________ among slaves
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frequently not respected by masters
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a haven of love and intimacy for the slaves
 Parents gave children a supportive and protective kinship network.
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Parents made great efforts to teach & protect their children
 The internal slave trade made separation a constant danger
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Slave families were often split up
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Separated children drew upon supportive networks of family and friends.
Chapter 10: The South & Slavery, 1790s-1850s
APUSH
Name: ___________________
Date: ___________________
Page 3 of 4
African American Religion
 Slaves were not permitted to practice African religions, though numerous survivals did work their way into the slaves’ folk culture.
 The first and second _____________________________ introduced Christianity to many slaves.
 In the 1790s, African American churches began emerging.
 Whites hoped religion would make the slaves ________________
 Slaves found a liberating message that strengthened their sense of community and offered them spiritual freedom.
Freedom & Resistance
 Most slaves understood that they could not escape bondage.
 About 1,000 per year escaped, mostly from the upper South.
 Running away and hiding in the swamps or woods for about a week and then returning was more common
 ________________________ – gained fame by serving as a scout & nurse during Civil War
Slave Revolts
 A few slaves organized revolts.
 Gabriel Prosser and Denmark Vesey organized large-scale conspiracies to attack whites in Richmond and Charleston that failed.
 ________________ led the most famous slave revolt in Southampton County, _________ in 1831.
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Turner used religious imagery to lead slaves as they killed ______ whites.
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After Turner’s revolt, white southerners continually were reminded by the threat of slave insurrection.
Free African Americans
 By 1860, there were nearly 250,000 free African Americans, mainly working as __________ or farm laborers.
 In cities, free African American communities flourished but had a precarious position as their members lacked basic civil rights.
 Throughout the South, state legislatures tightened ________________
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Laws passed by states & municipalities denying many rights of citizenship to free black people
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Could not carry firearms, purchase slaves (unless members of their own _________), liable to criminal penalties meted out
to slaves, could not __________ against whites
The White Majority
 The Middle Class
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A commercial middle class of ________________, bankers, factors, and lawyers
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arose to sell southern crops on the world market
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lived in cities that acted as shipping centers for agricultural goods
 Poor White People
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Between 30 to 50 percent of southern whites were ___________
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These poor whites lived a marginal existence as laborers and tenants
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They engaged in complex and sometimes clandestine relations with slaves
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Some yeomen hoped to acquire slaves themselves, but many were content with self sufficient non-market agriculture.
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Yeomen supported slavery because they believed that it brought them _________________
 Yeoman
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__________ of all southern whites lived in non-slaveholding families.
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Most yeomen were self-sufficient farmers.
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Their goal was economic independence
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The strong sense of community was reinforced by close kin connections and bartering.
Planters
 Small Slave Owners
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Most slaveholders owned only a few slaves.
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Bad crops or high prices that curtailed or increased income affected slave-holding status
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Middle class professionals had an easier time climbing the ladder of success.
 The Planter Elite
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Most slaveholders ____________ their wealth but sought to expand it.
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As slavery spread so did the slave-owning elite
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The extraordinary concentration of wealth created an elite lifestyle.
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Most wealthy planters lived fairly _________lives
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Some planters cultivated an image of gracious living in the style of English ____________, but plantations were large
enterprises that required much attention to a variety of tasks.
Chapter 10: The South & Slavery, 1790s-1850s
APUSH
Name: ___________________
Date: ___________________
Page 4 of 4
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Plantations aimed to be ______________
The Plantation Mistress
 Following southern _____________, in theory, each plantation was a family with the white master at its head.
 The plantation mistress ran her own household but did not ___________ her husband’s authority.
 With slaves to do much of the labor conventionally assigned to women, it is no surprise that plantation mistresses accepted the
system
 Were responsible for arrangements for ______________
Coercion & Violence
 The slave system rested on coercion and violence.
 Slave women were vulnerable to sexual _____________, though long-term relationships developed.
 Children of master-slave relationships seldom were publicly acknowledged and often remained in___________
The Defense of Slavery: Proslavery Arguments
 Slavery gave rise to various pro-slavery arguments including:
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in the post-Revolution era, Southern whites found justifications in the ________ or classical Greece and Rome
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the ______________ recognized slavery and that they were defending ___________ rights
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by the 1830s arguments developed that slavery was _______ for the slaves.
 George Fitzhugh contrasted slavery, which created a community of interests, with the heartless individualism that ruled the lives of
northern factory workers.
Defense of Slavery: Southern Anti-Slavery
 Despite efforts to stifle debate, some southern whites objected to slavery
 The growing cost of slaves meant that the percentage of slaveholders was declining and class divisions widening
 Hinton Rowan Helper denounced the institution.
Population Patterns
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In six southern states, slaves comprised over 40 percent of the total population.
Review Questions
1. Why did the introduction of the cotton gin cause such a change in the Southern economy? How did it lead to the expansion into new
areas?
2. Who were the yeomen farmers? What was their interest in slavery?
3. Slaveholders claimed they treated slaves better than factory owners treated their workers. Is this true? Is this a valid comparison?
4. How did slaves manage to "survive" slavery?
5. How did slaveholders justify slaver? How did that defense change over time?
6. How did attitudes in the South towards slavery change after the invention of the cotton gin?
7. What was life like for the typical slave in the American South?
8. What role did religion play in African-American slave communities?
9. What were the values of yeoman farmers?
10. Who made up the planter elite?
11. What proslavery arguments were developed in the first half of the nineteenth century?