 In 1790 south economically stagnant
 Primary cash crop tobacco used up the
soil
 Unviable in long term
 3 out of 4 southerners lived on the coast
 1 in 3 in Virginia alone
 Slavery appeared to be an institution that if
not already dead
 Would soon die
Cotton Gin revitalized the
south
 Cotton spurred growth and redistribution of
slavery and slaves
 The region known as the lower south
suited to cotton
 Warm climate, wet springs and summers
and dry autumns – suited cotton growth
 In addition
 Cotton was not, or did not have to be, a
rich mans crop
 This combined with the removal of Native
American s west after 1830 created a
 Cotton Kingdom
 Cotton grew well across the region
 Cotton Farmer did not even need to buy a
Gin
 Commercial gin’s were available
 Did not necessarily have to own slaves
 1860 30 – 40% of cotton farmers did not
own slaves
 But their desire often was to own slaves
and increase their profitability
 More slaves = more acreage = more
profits
 Cotton became a major factor in Americas
economy
 In the south it also fitted well with corn
 Corn could be planted and raised chronologically
around cotton
 By 1860 more acreage devoted to corn the cotton
 Corn fed people and
animals
 South had 2/3rds of
nations pigs
 Cotton made profit
 Corn and hogs
reduced money
spent of food
imports
 1860 twelve
wealthiest counties
in US all in the south
 Upper south had a more mixed economy
 less reliance upon slaves
 Several factors linked it to lower south
1. Many settlers of the lower south came
from upper south
2. All benefitted from 3/5 clause in
constitution
3. All southerners attacked by abolitionist
4. Upper south sold slaves south
International slave trade ended in 1808
Without sale of slaves south “Virginia
will be a desert”
 All these changes contributed to the
divergence of north and south
 Cash crops provided incredible wealth for the
south and kept economy rural
 North became more industrial
 South did have factories
 Tredgar Iron Works in Richmond Virginia forth
largest in US by 1860
 But these were exceptions rather than the rule
 Northern factories looked to provide for
external markets
 Southern factories looked to provide for
internal markets
 Lack of factories was due more to
lack of money than labor
 To raise capital for factories
southerners had to sell slaves – Why
do that?
 Cotton was high profit and proven
 Industry was remote and doubtful
 Factories would also bring anti
slavery white immigrants
 Threaten social order
 South also put less
emphasis on
education
 Did not want an
educated black
population
 Affected white
population also
 60% north
Carolinians who
enlisted in
confederacy illiterate
 30% illiteracy in
northern ranks
 Potential for disunity between slave
holders and non slaveholders
 In 1831 36% of population held slaves
 1860 25% of population held slaves
 Slave holding was becoming less common
in the south
 Winter 1830-31 debate over banning
slavery in Virginia
 Shortly after Turner’s Rebellion
 Only narrowly defeated




1849 Kentucky
put forward calls for
emancipation in
referendum
 Defeated
 Norfolk, Virginia, 1853
 Mrs. Margaret Douglass
 Arrested, Tried, and Convicted
of
 “Teaching Negro Children to
Read”
 1857 Hinton R. Helper
 A southerner, publishes
 The Impending Crisis of the
South
 Hinton’s book was based
in empirical evidence
 Claimed to show that
non –slave holders
should abolish slavery in
their own interest
 But it was another book
 published in 1852
 which changed many
peoples attitudes
 Harriet Beecher Stowe’s
Uncle Toms Cabin
 In fact slavery in many ways united
whites
 Non-slaveholders hoped to become
slaveholder and share in wealth
 Acceptance of racist basis of slavery
 fear that emancipation would break down
social system
 And remove them from a position of power
 Fear of where slaves would go
 All led to a unity of the importance of
continuing slavery
 Ideas aided by a Pro-slavery argument
 Athens
 A slave state
 Produced Plato and Aristotle
 Slave holding Rome laid the basis of
modern western civilization
 “Wage slaves” of the industrial north were
discarded went to old to work
 Old slaves continued to be clothed and fed
by “conscientious masters”
 Slavery affected Northerners view of the
south
 Didn’t matter if they liked or disliked slavery
 Believed that slavery had made the south
backwards
 But for the south the industrial northeast
was the problem
 Most of America, and the world, still
practiced agriculture
 Slavery was a time-honored, benevolent
response to the natural inequality of races
 Whereas white southerners saw
slavery as benevolent
 Slaves did not
 Clear example in religion
 Whites – St Paul’s message to
obey your master
 Slaves - promise of final
salvation
 New Mexico and
Utah pop. Sov.
 Slave trade
abolished in
District of
Columbia, slavery
still permitted.
 California admitted
as a free state.
 To pacify slavestate politicians,
 Fugitive Slave Act
was passed.
Political Shifts
Compromise of
1850
Fugitive Slave
Act
 Required citizens to assist in
recovery of fugitive slaves.
 Denied fugitive's right to a jury
trial.
 Cases handled by special
commissioners
 $5 if an alleged fugitive were
released
 $10 if sent away with the
claimant
 Act made process easier for
slave owners.
 Federal officials responsible
for enforcing the law.




For slaves attempting to build lives in North
new law was disaster
Many left homes and fled to Canada
next 10 years estimated 20,000 blacks moved
to the neighboring country
 Act made abolitionists more resolved to end to
slavery.
 brought the subject of slavery before the nation.
 Many who had previously been ambivalent
about slavery now took a definitive stance
against the institution.
 Scott v. Sandford .
Dred Scott
 Dred Scott, a slave in Missouri, Decision
filed suit against his master
1857
 Claimed he and his wife, Harriet,
had been occupants of states
and territories that prohibited
slavery
 Therefore actually free.
 Court returned verdict
 Scotts were not free but slaves.
 Did not have right to file suit
 Weren’t citizens of the United
States.
Lincoln Douglas Debates
1858
 `A house divided against
itself cannot stand. I believe
this Government cannot
endure permanently half
slave, half free.
 I do not expect the Union to
be dissolved.
 I do not expect the house to
fall; but I do expect it to
cease to be divided. It will
become all one thing or all
the other.’
Admin
 Watch out for an e-mail later today
 Details on reading for this week
 Will also be posted on-line
 Details on Research Proposal
Reconstruction
 Some of the language in this
presentation is offensive
 Where such language occurs
it is taken from an original
source
 It does not reflect my views
 Thought of Reconstruction began during the
war
 Initially, Lincoln encouraged black emigration
 Haiti
 Africa
 December 8, 1863
 Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
 Required oath of allegiance and abolition of
slavery
 Implemented in Louisiana, Arkansas,
Tennessee in 1864
 Reconstruction began in earnest elsewhere
in 1865
 Many Republicans
opposed Lincoln’s
plans as too lenient
 Didn’t seem to
provide for black
equality
 Thaddeus Stevens
in the House
 Charles Sumner in
the Senate
 Louisiana laws
pushed more in that
direction
 Radical Republicans came up with
their own plan
 Wanted to give freed slaves real economic and
political power
 Wade-Davis Reconstruction Bill, 1864
 Strict requirements for Confederate loyalty oaths
 Vetoed by Lincoln
 Threatened Lincoln’s reelection
 Two days after Appomattox Lincoln
promised new policy
 Three days later shot
 Radical Republicans
initially thought he
would go along with
their plans
Andrew Johnson and
Presidential
Reconstruction
 Southerner but, hated
planters
 “Treason is a crime and
must be made odious”
 “Traitors must be
impoverished . . . They must
not only be punished, but
their social power must be
destroyed”
 Expected Johnson to
call a special congress
 Instead Johnson pursued his own policy
May 29, 1865
 Blanket amnesty for all but the highest-ranking
Confederates
 Proclamation for drafting of new state constitutions
 Planned to exclude both blacks and upperclass whites from Reconstruction
 “I know that damned Douglass; he’s just like any
nigger and he would sooner cut a white man’s throat
than not”
 Congressional Republicans not fond of
Johnson’s plans
 Wanted blacks to be involved in the political
process
 Non of new state constitutions
enfranchised blacks
 Some states even balked at ratifying
Thirteenth amendment
 Abolished slavery
 Issued pardons to virtually all Southerners
 Former Confederates deeply involved in
new state governments
 Southern states passed “Black Codes” in
the autumn of 1865
 Instead of weapons used flattery and
politics to take control of South
Congressional Reconstruction
 End of 1865, Republicans determined to
take control of process to reintegrate
southern states
 Special committee to investigate abuse
and terrorism in south
 Southern Unionists and US Army testified
 Refused to recognize new state
governments or their leaders
 Determined to institute stronger federal
controls to protect black rights
 Could not at this stage push for full
enfranchisement
 North still racist
 Conflict ensued between Congress and the
president
 Congress passed two laws
 Extended life of Freedmen’s Bureau
 Defined freedmen as citizens with equal legal
rights
 Johnson Vetoed laws and attacked
republicans in racist terms
 Congress overruled veto
 Fourteenth Amendment
 submitted April 30, 1866
 proposed with 2/3rd majority to states June 13,
1866
 Far-reaching consequences
 “1. All persons born or naturalized in the United
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are
citizens of the United States and of the State
wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce
any law which shall abridge the privileges or
immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall
any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law; nor deny to
any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection
of the laws.”
 One of most import important provision for defining
and enforcing civil rights
 Debate over Reconstruction carried over
into elections of 1866
 Republicans swept the elections
 Three to one majority in congress
 Set the stage for stringent reconstruction
terms
 Reconstruction Acts of 1867
 10 states into 5 military districts
 Enfranchised all people over 21
 inc African Americans
 Disallowed some whites from voting
 For that election only
A True Revolution
 1862
 Southern Whites
masters of 4 million
slaves
 1867
 Southern Elite
disenfranchised
 Former slaves freed
and enfranchised
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
 Johnson’s determination to block radical
reconstruction stepped up after 1867
 Violated Tenure of Office Act in February
1868
 Removed Secretary of War from office
 Ostensible reason for impeachment
 In reality actions against reconstruction
 Impeachment trial long and complicated
 President acquitted (by one vote)
 But damage had been done to Johnson’s
relationship with Congress
 New state constitutions in winter and
spring of 1867–1868 were very progressive
 Enacted Universal Male Suffrage
 Ahead of the north
 Seven states had been readmitted by the
spring of 1868
 Three remaining states readmitted by 1870
 Fourteenth Amendment included into
Constitution in 1868
 Fifteenth Amendment – ratified in 1870
 Protected voting rights
 Constitution truly colorblind for the first
time
 Referendum on Republican
reconstruction policy
 Republicans ran Ulysses S.
Grant
 Democrats nominated Horatio
Seymour
 Campaign involved intimidation
of black voters
 Grant won easily on electoral
vote
 Seymour had majority of White
votes
 African Americans voted
republican
Election of
1868
The Grant Administration
“The era of good steeling”
 Grant great military commander
often branded failure as President
 Partially true – inexperienced, trusting
and with poor judgment
 Subordinates involved in scandals
 Whiskey ring and Credit Mobilier
 Cause of problem
 Increase in bureaucracy during civil
war
 Relaxing of oversight after war
Carpetbaggers and Scalawags
 Carpetbaggers
 Named after a style of bag
 Northerners who came south and
“took all the money”
 In reality often ex Union Army officers
who brought both cash and drive
 Scalawags
 Southerners who took on Yankee ideals
 Or who thought Republican “progress” was
good
 The opposite of what many southerners
believed
1877 strike
 It began in Baltimore, on July 16th 1877
were a spontaneous action led to a walk
out of employees on the B + O railway.
 Demands for fair wages
and safe working
conditions
 Railroad executives had
issued across-the-board
pay cuts in response to
an economic downturn
 At least 100 people were
killed.
 The troops used to put down the strike were those
government brought back from the south under the
compromise of 1877
 Rutherford Hayes into power in exchange for removing
southern troops
 The Railway also became the conduit for the news
of the strike.
 Further strikes in
 Pittsburgh
 Chicago
 St Louis
 San Francisco.
 80,000 workers out in all
 The removal of troops from the south
allowed for a resurgence of white
dominance and control
 Segregation became in many ways
more rigidly enforced
 1890s Jim Crow Laws
 Legal rights subject to
 Residency requirements
 Literacy requirements
 Poll taxes
Introduction of Jim Crow Laws
 1890 Mississippi
 1895 South Carolina
 Over the next twelve
years all southern states
bring them in
 Racial segregation was
not limited to the South.
 This 1889 engraving
depicts a man being
expelled from a “white”
railroad car in
Pennsylvania.
Racial Violence
 Along with the rise of legal punishments
we see the rise of illegal actions
 Lynching
 1882-1890 – at least 1000 African
Americans killed
 1892 – 162 killed in this year alone
 The racial violence
of lynching
 Graphically
portrayed by
 Billie Holliday
 In the song
 Strange Fruit
SOUTHERN TREES BEAR A STRANGE
FRUIT
BLOOD ON THE LEAVES AND BLOOD AT
THE ROOT
BLACK BODY SWINGING IN THE
SOUTHERN BREEZE
STRANGE FRUIT HANGING FROM THE
POPLAR TREES
PASTORAL SCENE OF THE GALLANT
SOUTH
THE BULGING EYES AND THE TWISTED
MOUTH
SCENT OF MAGNOLIA SWEET AND FRESH
AND THE SUDDEN SMELL OF BURNING
FLESH!
HERE IS A FRUIT FOR THE CROWS TO
PLUCK
FOR THE RAIN TO GATHER, FOR THE
WIND TO SUCK
FOR THE SUN TO ROT, FOR THE TREE TO
DROP
HERE IS A STRANGE AND BITTER CROP.
 A lynched man with
onlookers, Arkansas,
c1890
 George Meadows,
hanged by a lynch-mob,
Pratt Mines, Alabama,
Jan. 15, 1889
Ida B. Wells (1862-1931),
a vigorous campaigner against
lynching in the 1890s and later
among the founders of the
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP).
Ida B. Wells, A Red Record
(1895)
 LYNCHINGS BY STATES - 1893
 Alabama, 25; Arkansas, 7; Florida, 7;
Georgia, 24; Indian Territory, 1; Illinois, 3;
Kansas, 2; Kentucky, 8; Louisiana, 18;
Mississippi, 17; Missouri, 3; New York, 1;
South Carolina, 15; Tennessee, 10; Texas, 8;
Virginia, 10.