From Slavery to Freedom
th
9 ed.
Chapter 7
Southern Slavery
The Domestic Slave Trade
 King Cotton
 Technology supported expansion of slave labor
 Eli Whitney’s 1794 invention of the cotton gin
 Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama rapidly
grew with demand for cotton and sugarcane
 Growing prosperity in new states caused wave
of migrants and greater demand for slaves
 Insatiable demand for cotton resulted in:
acquisition of Florida; admission of Missouri as
slave state; annexation of Texas; war with Mexico
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The Cotton Gin
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The domestic slave trade 1808-1865
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The Domestic Slave Trade
 The Interstate Slave Trade
 Domestic slave trade augmented westward
movement
 After 1808 illegalization of Atlantic slave trade,
interstate trade became increasingly profitable
 Slaves brought overland; mostly chained and
on foot
 Slaves a “product” sold by business firms,
lottery, and by slave-trading firms
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1835 advertisement for slaves
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The Domestic Slave Trade
 Speculation integral to slave-trading business
 Slaves gathered in pens for direct shipment to
New Orleans or for resale to other long-distance
traders
 Until ended by Congressional action in 1850,
District of Columbia seat of slave trade
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Alexandria slave pen
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The Domestic Slave Trade
 A Capitalist Enterprise
 Slave trade financially driven; mostly seen as a
capitalistic enterprise
 Families separated because slaves brought higher
prices when sold individually
 Separation of Families by Sale
 Harriet Tubman
 Large number of single slaves on market
evidence of constant separation of families
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The Domestic Slave Trade
 Market Prices
 Prices of slaves responded to market factors
 As demand increased, so did the price of slaves
 After financial turmoil, price and demand slumped
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Insert Table: Average Prices of
Prime Field Hands (young slave
men, able-bodied but unskilled)
Average Prices of Prime Field Hands (young slave
men, able-bodied but unskilled)
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Persistence of the African Trade
 Extent of the Illegal Trade
 Atlantic slave trade continued despite its
illegality
 The Movement to Reopen the African Trade
 Between 1854 and 1860, every southern
commercial convention considered proposals to
reopen Atlantic slave trade
 1808 federal law so weak and lax, repeal not
really necessary
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Insert Map: The illegal slave
trade to the United States, 18081860
The illegal slave trade to the
United States, 1808-1860
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The Slave Codes
 The Slave Codes
 Passage of slave codes accompanied expansion
of slavery
 Codified viewpoint that slaves were not people but
property
 Slaves denied most rights and freedoms
 Laws often made stricter in response to insurrections
 Enforcement
 Machinery set up for enforcement of slave codes
 Reluctant to imprison because it meant taking
away an owner’s investment
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The Slave Codes
 The Patrol System
 A type of militia; free white men expected to
serve on patrol for period of time apprehending
runaway slaves and returning them to masters
 In quiet times, slave codes disregarded, and
slaves given more freedoms
 Masters tended to prefer taking matters regarding
their slaves into their own hands
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On the Plantation
 On the Plantation
 Work of slaves primarily agricultural
 In 1860, ¾ of white people in South did not own
slaves
 Slaves concentrated in hands of relatively few
 Bulk of staple crops produced on large plantations
 Owners dominated political and economic thinking
 Field Hands
 Large plantations had two groups of workers:
house servants and field hands
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On the Plantation
 Work regimen for cotton demanding
 Gang-labor system used
 Believed that one slave needed for every 3 acres
of cotton
 Work hours longest during harvest time
 Gender Division of Labor
 Certain jobs indentified by sex
 Slave women integral to plantation economy
 Ranked each other’s status according to creative ability
 Also worked in fields alongside men
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Cotton and slaves,
1820 and 1860
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On the Plantation
 Overseers and Brutality
 Overseers employed on farms of more than 20
slaves where owner was an absentee landlord
 No personal interest in slaves’ welfare
 Owners demanded overseers get most out of
slaves; often treated slaves with brutality
 Some plantations employed driver slaves who
assisted overseer and compelled work from
fellow slaves
 Often viewed as a traitor by other slaves
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On the Plantation
 The Slave Diet
 Each slave household received ration of meal
and salt pork
 Sometimes allowed to maintain own gardens
 Some even allowed to market their produce
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Urban and Nonagricultural
Slavery
 Black Artisans and Inventors
 Slaves demonstrated diversity of talent in skilled
trades
 Slaves used in pottery and textile mills, iron
furnaces, and tobacco factories
 Slaves proved value as inventors
 Not allowed to get patent; after 1861 slave owner
could be issued patent for his or her slave’s invention
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Haywood Dixon, slave carpenter
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Urban and Nonagricultural
Slavery
 Slave Hiring
 Owners put slaves out for hire in period between
harvest and new planting
 Some urban slaves allowed to self-hire; although
illegal under southern law
 Self-hire gave dual sense of freedom and its limits
 Slaves could not legally contract for their
services; contract was between master and hiring
employer
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Social and Cultural Life
 Social and Cultural Life
 Slaves’ personal expression and recreation a
rejection of chattel principle
 Religious Activity
 Worship services held on larger plantations and
in towns
 With rise of abolition movement and rumors of
slave conspiracies, slaves increasingly made to
attend owners’ churches
 Sat in separate sections; earliest example of segregation
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Slave wedding in Virginia 1838
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Social and Cultural Life
 The Slave Church
 Blended Christianity and folk beliefs
 Slave Families
 Permanency of slave marriage depended on
opportunity to live and work together
 Childbearing difficult; inadequate medical care
 Interracial Relationships
 Children born of slave women and white men
visible throughout South
 Most often the result of physical coercion
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Social and Cultural Life
 Mulatto Slaves
 Treatment by white fathers varied
 Some emancipated their slave children
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Resistance
 Slave Market Gambits
 Slaves used tricks in order to gain control over
would-be purchasers
 Exhibited behavior appealing to a master of their
choosing; pretended to be sick or weak in front of
undesirable master
 Sabotage and Suicide
 Engaged in sabotage like breaking farm tools
 Suicide widespread
 Also performed acts of self-mutilation to render
themselves ineffective workers
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Resistance
 Running Away
 Most common form of overt resistance was
running away
 Federal and state legislation sought to aid in
recovery of runaway slaves
 Violent Resistance
 Owners feared violent resistance
 Use of poison against masters; Murder of masters
 Slave Revolts
 Slaves emboldened by Haitian revolution
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Reward handbill for a
runaway slave, 1837
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Major American Slave Rebellions
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Resistance
 Denmark Vesey
 Freed black who plotted slave revolt
 Whites caught wind of conspiracy and rounded
up suspects
 Nat Turner
 Believed he had been selected by divine power to
deliver his people from slavery
 Began revolt by killing his master and family;
revolt spread rapidly until overpowered by state
and federal troops
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Nat Turner exhorting his followers
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