The Slave South
1820-1860
Cotton Kingdom
• The South’s climate and geography ideally
suited to grow cotton
• The South’s cotton boom rested on slave labor
who grew 75% of the crop, under supervision
of whites
Southerners pushed Westward,
a million square miles, much of it planted in cotton
Plantation Houses
Plantation Masters
• “Christian guardianship” they saw themselves;
historians call it paternalism
• Paternalism was not good will, it was a way to
improve bottom line
Values of the Big House
• Slavery, honor, male domination
• Economically shrewd to define slavery as a set of
“reciprocal obligations” (part propaganda part
delusion)
• Defending honor became a passion in the
“Old South”
• Slavery buttressed the power of white men
Smaller Planters
•
Most slave owners owned fewer than five
•
Smaller planters supervised slave labor
Larger planters hired overseers to manage
labor and they concentrated on marketing,
finance
•
Mistresses
• Chivalry, the South’s romantic idea; the glorified
and subordinated southern woman
• Proslavery claimed that slavery freed white
women from drudgery; in reality, plantation
women often worked long hours managing
households
• Miscegenation—sexual mixing of races, this was
one of white women’s grounds for discontent
Slave cabins
Slave Quarter
Slave laborers
Slave family life
Marriage
• Slave marriages not legally recognized,
although they were often long-lasting
• At least 300,000 marriages were ended upon
the sale of the husband or wife
Religion
•
•
Slaves created an
African American
Christianity that
served their needs,
not those of the
masters;
traditional African
beliefs sometimes
incorporated
Plantation life
Population ratios
4 million blacks to 8 million whites
– one in every three Southerners was black
– one in every 76 Northerners was black
–
Slave population
By 1860 the South contained 4 million
slaves, more than all other slave societies
in the world combined
Who Owned Slaves?
• Only one-fourth of white population lived in
slaveholding families
• Most slaveholders owned fewer than five
slaves
• Planters—those 12 percent of slave-owners
who owned twenty or more slaves—
dominated the southern economy
Odd Allies in White Supremacy
• Intellectuals joined legislators to strengthen
slavery as a “positive good” rather than a
‘necessary evil’
• Champions of slavery defended it by turning to
law, history, and biblical interpretation
• Defense was the claim of black inferiority
• The system of black slavery encouraged whites
to unify around race rather than to divide by
class
No Diversification in Economy or
Society
• Plantation slavery benefited northern
merchants, but the north developed a mixed
economy—agriculture, commerce,
manufacturing—the South remained
overwhelmingly agriculture
• Without economic diversification, the South
developed fewer factories and fewer cities;
therefore it attracted fewer immigrants from
Europe
North Vs. South
•
•
•
Northerners claimed that slavery was an outmoded
and doomed labor system;
Few Southerners perceived economic weakness in
their region
Excessive dependence on cotton and slaves, and the
lack of factories
Cultural Influence
Large numbers of people of African descent had
profound influence on Southern culture—
language, food, music, religion
Eli Whitney
The Plain Folk
• Plantation Belt Yeomen
• Small Farmers—grew mainly food
crops, but also devoted a portion of
their land to cotton;
– farms ran only on family labor; tied to
planters because they could not afford
cotton gins or baling presses and had no
link to urban merchants.
Class Politics
• A dense network of relationships laced
small farmers and planters together in
patterns of mutual obligation;
– planters hired out surplus slaves;
– yeomen helped police slaves on slave
patrols;
– plantation belt yeomen may have envied,
and at times even resented, wealthy
slaveholders, but in general, small farmers
learned to accommodate; they did not
want to overthrow the planter regime;
instead, they wanted entry into it.
Upcountry Yeomen
• Geography—Hills and mountains of
the South resisted the penetration of
slavery and plantations; higher
elevation, colder climate, rugged
terrain, and poor transportation
made it difficult for commercial
agriculture; yeomen dominated
these isolated areas, making planters
and slaves scarce.
The Family Farm
• At the core of upcountry society was
the independent farm family working its
own patch of land; raised hogs, cattle,
and sheep; sought self-sufficiency and
independence; all members of the
family worked, but the domestic sphere
was subordinated to the will of the
father; production for home
consumption was more important than
production for the market.
Defending Slavery
• With so few slaves, slaveholders had
much less social and economic power
in the upcountry; but people in the
upcountry did not oppose slavery; as
long as upcountry yeomen were free
to lead their own lives, they
defended slavery and white
supremacy just as staunchly as did
other white Southerners.