1793-1860
American slavery was rooted in both racism & economic
exploitation and depended on brutal repression for its survival.
Slavery remained a cancer on American democracy; a moral
outrage that mocked our nation’s claim to be a model of social
& political enlightenment.
The American slave populations had several unique
distinctions:
 The only enslaved population in world history which grew by its own
biological reproduction.
 Developed a distinctive & durable African-American culture which
flourished under slavery.
** Because of these TWO facts, some historians have WRONGLY suggested
that American slavery must have been less punitive than slavery in other
parts of the world.
The nation lived uneasily with slavery from the beginning.
In the early Republic, the Federal Government took
steps to slow the growth of slavery:
 Old Northwest Ordinance (1787)- banned slavery there.
 Prohibited the further importation of slaves after 1808.
 Missouri Compromise (1820)- forever banned slavery in
the Louisiana Purchase Territory north of the 36-30 Line &
Missouri.
 Many northern states began to abolish slavery
GRADUALLY after the Revolution also.
Antislavery attitudes even gained support in the South
following the American Revolution as citizens & state
governments debated limiting or ending slavery.
The Cotton Economy
 Before 1793, Slavery was on the decline until invention of
the cotton gin= short staple cotton becomes profitable
 1780’s- northern states were gradually abolishing slavery.
 1860- 4 million slaves in the US (quadrupled since 1800)=
worth $2 Billion = 90% illiterate
 Prime field hand= $1200- $1800 (1860 dollars)
 Northern bankers loaned $300 million for slaves
 Textile manufacturers in US depended 100% on Southern
cotton
 75% of whites in the south owned 0 slaves
 “Lords of the Loom tied to the Lords of the Lash”
Changes in
Cotton
Production
1820
1860
Southern Agriculture
Slaves Picking Cotton
on a Mississippi Plantation
“Cotton is King”
• As cotton became more profitable- planters drifted
down to the Gulf states= planters bought more slaves &
land to buy more slaves & land.
• Northern shippers made much profit from the cotton
trade
•Cotton accounted for ½ the value of all US exports after
1840
• Britain’s textile mills depended on southern cotton
(75% of their cotton came from the South).
• 1850’s- 1/5 of the British population directly or
indirectly got its living from Southern Cotton
•If Civil War between North & South occurredSoutherners believed that Britain would break any
Northern blockade & force recognition of the South=
“FALSE SENSE OF SUPERIORITY”.
Value of Cotton Exports
As % of All US Exports
The Planter Aristocracy
Before the Civil War, a planter aristocracy (oligarchy-a
government by the few) dominated Southern government
& society .
•1850- 1,733 Southern families owned 100 or more slaves
each= “cottonocracy”
•educated their children in private schools –many located
in the north
•had leisure time for study & statecraft= John C. Calhoun
(Yale), Jefferson Davis (West Point grad)= South produces
higher proportion of high rank statesmen before 1860
The “Cottonocracy”
Effects of the Planter Elite rule on the South:
 The South, dominated by cotton rich planter
class= undemocratic, widened the gap between
rich & poor
 Hampered the growth of tax-supported schools
Characteristics of the Planter Class:
 favorite writer of this class- Sir Walter Scott
(Ivanhoe)= southern chivalry= idealized feudal
systems
 Southern mistress– commanded large staff
(mostly slave women)
 almost no slaveholding women advocated for
abolition of slavery.
The Mistress of Belle Grove Plantation
Effects of the Slave System on the South
1.Plantation agriculture RUINED the soil; was wasteful= led to populations
moving West & Northwest
2. Increasingly monopolistic- as “land butchery” increased, small famers
sold their land to prosperous plantation neighbors = “the big got bigger &
the small got smaller”
3. Plantation system was financially unstable- over speculation in land &
slaves was common = planters went into more debt
4. Dependence on a one crop economy- discouraged agricultural
diversification (price was dependent on world conditions)
5. By the 1850’s Southerners increasingly resented the North- the North was
prospering at their expense (commissions & interest paid to bankers,
agents, shippers & middlemen).
6. Plantation Economy repelled immigration- by 1860- only 4.4% of the
Southern population was foreign-born= white south is most Anglo-Saxon
section of the nation.
The South & the White Majority
Only a handful of southern whites lived in fancy mansions.
Planter Elites= 1,733 families who owned a hundred or more slaves
(1850)
Less Wealthy Slave-owners= 345,000 Southern white families (1,725,000)
• Over 2/3 of these families (255,268) owned fewer than 10 slaves
***In all- only ¼ of white southerners owned slaves or belonged to a slave
holding family= made up a majority of slave owners
Small Farmers= typically small famers who worked hard in the fields
• households owned a slave or two-most likely a slave family
• lived in modest farm houses
Non-slave holding whites
• By 1860- 6,120,825 southern whites (3/4) of all whites owned no slaves
• made a living cultivating poor soil of backcountry or mountain valleys
• Resented the rich planter class (“snobocracy”)
• raised corn, hogs, -- not cotton
• lived isolated lives
Poor Whites=least prosperous non-slave holding whites = “poor white
trash”
Poor Whites
•called “hillbillies or crackers”
• probably suffered from malnutrition, parasites, hookworm
•Among the strongest defenders of slavery WHY??
1.Prospect of upward social mobility
2.Belief in their racial superiority
The Mountain Whites
•Isolated in the valleys of Appalachia Range from western Virginia
to northern Georgia & Alabama
• lived under meager frontier conditions
•Retained Elizabethan speech
•hated planters & slaves
• proved loyal to the Union during the war & the Republican Party
after the war
Slave Owning Families, 1850
Free Blacks “the Third Race”
• 1860- numbered about 250,000 in the South
• Upper South- free blacks were part of manumission after
Revolutionary War
•Deep South- many free blacks were malattoes- emancipated
children of white planter & his black mistress
• Some free blacks in the South earned freedom with their
earnings
Life of Free Blacks
• many owned property- William T. Johnson (New Orleans) even
owned black slaves
• prohibited from working certain occupations
• prevented from testifying against whites in court
• could be kidnapped back into slavery
• Free Blacks In the North
• 225,000• northern states forbade them entrance; forbade them the right
to vote, forbade them the right to attend public schools
Free blacks in the North –hated by the Irish
• anti-black feelings in the north stronger than in the south
•“ it was often observed
…white southerners, who were
often suckled and reared by black nurses, liked the
black as an individual but despised the race. The white
northerner, on the other hand, often professed to like
the race but dislike the individual blacks”
Plantation Slavery
4 million black slaves dwelt at the bottom of Southern
social society.
• 1808- legal importation of slaves to America ended=
slaves were smuggled into the US AFTERWARDS
• Most increases in the US slave population = natural
increase – distinguishes American slavery from all
others!!
1.Slaves were an investment- 1860 Southern investment
in slaves= $2 billion (1860 price $1800 for prime field
hand)
•Masters cared for slaves like most expensive property
2. Slavery hobbled the economic development of the
region as a whole (slaves from upper South drained to
deep south)= slave women in the Old South could earn
freedom by bearing up to 13 children.
White masters often forced themselves on slave women=
malatto children
Slave Auctions
•slaves sold alongside horses, cows & pigs
• families were separated- for bankruptcy or inheritance
The Life of Slaves
 There is no clear or simple answer to describe the life of
slaves. Treatment varied from master to master, mansion to
house, and region to region.
 hard grueling work, ignorance, oppression

 worked from dusk until dawn
 work & lives of slaves managed by a white “overseer” or
black “driver”.

 no political rights-only min. protection from arbitrary
murder
• the whip served as a reminder of white mastery &
substitute for wages (strong- willed slaves sent to a
“breaker”)
Life in the “Black Belt”
•area from SC and Georgia to Alabama, Mississippi, & Louisiana
• life was harder here than in the Old South
•
•majority of blacks lived on plantations in slave communities of 20
or more (75% of the population)
• maintained a fairly stable family life & African-American culture
African- American Culture & Family
 lived in stable two parent families

 named children after grandparents or forebear’s master
 Religious practices: influenced by preachers of the Second
Great Awakening (mix of African & Christian traditions)
 emphasized stories in the Bible- like captivity of Israelites
 call & response style of preaching- adapted from African
“ringshout”
Burden of Bondage
• most states passed laws which prohibited the education of slaves.
education leads to ideas=9/10 of adult slaves illiterate at start of
Civil War)
Slave Resistance
• slaves conduced work slow downs (led to myth of black
“laziness”)
• slaves stole goods produced by or purchased by their
labor
• conducted sabotage of tools.
Slave Rebellions:
1. Gabriel Prosser Rebellion (1800): planned slave revolt in Virginia;
foiled by informants—leaders were hanged.
2. Denmark Vesey Revolt (1822): Charleston SC; led by a free blackfoiled by informers= Vesey & 30 others hanged.
3.Nat Turner Rebellion (1831): a black preacher (Nat Turner) led an
uprising & killed 60 whites (mainly women & children)- Vesey &
others hanged
4. The Amistad (1839): enslaved Africans rebelled aboard
a Spanish Slave ship & seized the ship off the coast of
Cuba and attempted to sail back to Cuba but, ended up
at Long Island, NY.
• They were imprisoned for several years & tried
several times.
• John Q. Adams successfully argued their case before
the Supreme Court to gain their freedom. They were
sent back to Sierra Leone, Africa.
Black Slavery’s Toll on Whites
• Southern whites developed a “siege” mentality (surrounded by
potentially rebellious blacks angered by northern abolitionist
propaganda).
•Southern fear & paranoia bred theories of biological racial
superiority to blacks.
•The American South was one of the last strongholds of slavery in
the world.
“(Africans) are a distinct race of people, separated by strongly marked
lines of moral and physical condition from those among who they reside.
This difference is so strongly marked that there can be no spontaneous
amalgamation by intermarriage, and consequently no reciprocity of social
rights and privileges between the races…They must therefore continue to
exist as a separate race” 1858 , William A. Smith, Southern clergyman,
College President (DEFENDER OF SLAVERY)
“…that all persons of color who possess the qualifications which are
demanded of others ought to be admitted forthwith to the enjoyment of
the same privileges, and the exercise of the same prerogatives, as others;
and that the paths of preferment, of wealth, and of intelligence should be
opened as widely to them as persons of a white complexion.”
Declaration at the opening meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society,
1833
* Is there any common ground between the TWO positions?
1st emerged at the time of the Am. Revolution among
the Quakers. Northern states gradually abolished
slavery because of the “revolutionary spirit”.
• Early abolitionists wanted to transport free blacks
back to Africa= The American Colonization Society
(1817)= 1822 free African-American founded Liberia
(capital-Monrovia)
• Over 40 years- 15,000 freed blacks colonized back to
Africa
• * Most blacks did not wish to be sent back to Africa
• Colonization remained a popular but non-practical
solution- espoused by prominent Americans like
former president James Monroe…and Abraham
Lincoln
Abolitionism Gains Steam
Before the 1830’s- abolition was not seen as much of a threat to the
South (example: Benjamin Lundy (Quaker) & James Birney (slave
holder) gave speeches in south pushing GRADUAL emancipation.
• By the 1830’s- abolitionism gained new energy
• Influenced greatly by the Second Great Awakening admonition
to rid America of the sin of slavery
Impact of the British Abolitionist:
William Wiberforce (British member of Parliament, Evangelical
Christian…inspired by George Whitefield) led the Britain to free
slaves in the West Indies
• Theodore Weld: evangelized by Charles Grandison Finney in NY’s
“Burned Over District”; spoke to the mass of rural uneducated
farmers to end slavery.
• Arthur & Lewis Tappan ( richNY merchants): 1832 paid Weld’s way
to Lane Theological Seminary (Ohio) headed by Lyman Beecher=
Weld & “ Lane Rebels” expelled in 1834.
•Weld & rebels went across the Old Northwest preaching antislavery &published “American Slavery as It Is” (1839)= influenced
Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.
Radical Abolitionists
1. William Lloyd Garrison: 1831- published the Liberator
(abolitionist newspaper) at age 27.
•Waged a 30 year war on slavery in the US (MOST
MILITANT)= demanded the north secede from the South.
• Helped found the American Antislavery Society
(1833)
• co-collaborator: Wendell Phillips (the “golden trumpet”
of abolitionism)- wore no cotton cloth/ate no cane sugar.
“I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as
justice…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
David Walker who wrote Appeal to the Colored Citizens of
the World (1829)
 Encouraged readers to take active role in fighting their own
oppression; Spoke out against theories of racial prejudice
 Advocated a bloody end to white superiority
.
Martin Delaney- one of the few blacks who supported of black
colonization back to Africa
Sojourner Truth, a freed black woman in NY who fought
for black emancipation (freedom) & women’s rights.
**Frederick Douglas: greatest black abolitionist;
escaped slavery in 1838 at age 21; lectured to anti-slavery
groups.
• Wrote his own autobiography- Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglas (1848)
Frederick Douglas & some Abolitionists turned to
POLITICS to help bring an end to slavery.
Political Abolitionists supported:
 The Liberty Party (1840)
 The Free Soil Party (1848)
 The Republican Party (1850’s)
Most Abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison (pacifist)
supported bloody violence as the price to end slavery.
“I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice…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
Antislavery sentiment was not unknown in the South.
• In the 1820’s Antislavery Societies more popular in the
South (below Mason-Dixon Line) than in the North
The last gasp of southern questioning of slavery was:
 1831-1832- The Virginia legislature debated
emancipation & eventually defeated proposals to end
slavery.
• 1831-The Nat Turner Revolt occurred
• Southern states passed laws forbidding emancipation & tightened
slave codes & began to build up state militias
• Post –slave revolts- Abolitionist Garrison party blamed by
Southerners
• 1832 Nullification Crisis: heightened southerners fears &
suspicions
• Southern paranoia, fear = brutal beatings, lynchings
Southerners Defend Slavery
1. **“Positive Good”- Southerners argued that slavery was
supported by the Bible & Aristotle
•Slavery rescued Africans from barbaric conditions of
Africa
• master-slave relationship was like family
• black slavery vs. wage slavery of the north
2.**1836 The Gag Rule: Southern politicians pushed a
resolution that all anti-slavery appeals submitted to the
House of Representative would be shelved.
• a clear limit on right to petition the government
• John Quincy Adams- ex-president fought this for 8
years=finally repealed.
3. 1835- US Government Postal Service- ordered
postmasters to destroy abolitionist newspapers being
delivered South & allowed the South to arrest postmasters
who refused.
This 1839 cartoon provides a satire on the "gag rule" in the
House of Representatives. Representative John Quincy
Adams of Massachusetts is featured pinned to the ground
protecting petitions against slavery.
Image courtesy of Library of Congress
Abolitionist Impact in the North
Extreme abolitionists (Garrisonians) were resented for a long time in
many parts of the North as EXTREMISTS.
• Northerners respected the Constitution’s proclamations on property
rights.
• Northerners were owed $300 million by 1850’s by Southerners
• Northern textile mills would shut down= unemployment for many.
(“Doughface” –any northern politician who sided with the south)
• 1835- William Lloyd Garrison- WAS attacked & almost hanged by a
mob (Boston) “Broadcloth Mob” BUT HE ESCAPED.
•
•1837- *Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy: His abolitionist Printing Press was
destroyed 4 times; killed by an ANTI-ABOLITIONIST mob in Illinois in
1837.
• Most respectable politicians like Lincoln tended to avoid contact
with strict abolitionists
• By 1850’s- abolitionism started to touch many northerners; even
though many northerners did not want to end slavery many began to
support limiting the spread of slavery any further west (Lincoln)=
became known as FREE SOILERS
Elijah P. Lovejoy
Wood engraving of the pro-slavery mob burning
down Winthrop Sargent Gilman's warehouse