Cotton, Slavery and the South
Chapter 11
The Cotton Economy
•
Crop Shifts
– Tobacco
– Rice
•
Sugar
•
Long-Staple (Sea Island) Cotton
•
Short-Staple Cotton
“King Cotton” Emerges
•
advent of the cotton gin made ShortStaple cotton much easier to produce
•
Social Demand
•
Spread
– by 1820
– by 1850
– by 1860
– at the start of the Civil War Cotton constituted nearly
two thirds of the total export trade of the USA and
was bringing in $200 million a year
•
Social impact
–
whites
–
Blacks
Southern Trade and Industry
•
Other business areas
•
Commercial sector
•
Transportation
Southern Society and Culture
•
Philisophical Grandations
•
Actual Gradations
*Fake Smile*
Social Stratification among whites
–
most farmers were dependent on the system
The “Peculiar Institution”
•
Slave Codes
–
forbade slaves
Slave Codes Cont’d
– If a master killed a slave, the act was generally
not considered a crime
Size Mattered
•
Large vs. Small Plantations
•
Slave Life
–
Workday
•
(in house) slaves lived/worked closely to master
•
slave women
•
Slave Life Cont’d
– “Enough”
– Health
•
Slave Life Cont’d
– Slavery in the Cities
– rare
•
Slave Life Cont’d
–
Free African Americans
•
–
250,000 free African Americans in slaveholding
states at the start of the Civil War
Slave Trade
•
professional business of slave traders
•
Slave Life Cont’d
–
Slave Trade Cont’d
–
Acceptance and Rebellion
•
at two extremes, slavery could produce two very different
reactions
The Culture of Slavery
•
Language and Music
– language sometimes incorporated African
speech patterns into English
Jennifer Ong
•
Religion
– Slaves became Christian (Baptist or Methodist)
due to missionary efforts
• Family Structure
– marriage not legal
Jennifer Ong