Slavery: A
Peculiar
Institution
APUSH - Spiconardi
Do Now:
•
Read and interpret the quote below. What is Thomas
Jefferson stating about the issue of slavery?
But as it is we have
the wolf by the ears,
we can neither hold
him, nor let him safely
go. Justice is in one
scale, and self
preservation in the
other.
King Cotton
•
King Cotton  Expression used by Southern authors and orators
before the Civil War to indicate the economic dominance of the
Southern cotton industry, and that the North needed the South's
cotton.
 In a speech to the Senate in 1858, James Hammond declared, "You
daren't make war against cotton! ...Cotton is king!"
Statistics
Slaveholding, 1850
1
68,000
2–4
105,000
5–9
80,000
10 – 19
55,000
20 – 49
30,000
50 – 99
6,000
100 – 199
1,500
200+
250
Where are the majority of large
slaveholdings located?
How does this graph prove that cotton was king?
A Peculiar Institution
Peculiar Institution  a term used to explain away the seeming
contradiction of legalized slavery in a country whose Declaration of
Independence states that "all men are created equal"
A Peculiar Institution
The peculiar institution of the South--that, on the maintenance of which
the very existence of the slaveholding States depends, is pronounced to be
sinful and odious, in the sight of God and man; and this with a systematic
design of rendering us hateful in the eyes of the world--with a view to a
general crusade against us and our institutions. This, too, in the
legislative halls of the Union; created by these confederated States, for
the better protection of their peace, their safety, and their respective
institution; --and yet, we, the representatives of twelve of these sovereign
States against whom this deadly war is waged, are expected to sit here in
silence, hearing ourselves and our constituents day after day denounced,
without uttering a word; for if we but open our lips, the charge of
agitation is resounded on all sides, and we are held up as seeking to
aggravate the evil which we resist. Every reflecting mind must see in all
this a sate of things deeply and dangerously diseased.
Source: John C. Calhoun, Speech on the Reception of Abolition Petitions
(1837)
A Peculiar Institution
•
The Gag Rule (1836) – The House of Representatives adopted a gag
rule prohibiting antislavery petition from being read or acted upon.
Repealed in 1845
 Members of Congress were flooded with petitions to abolish slavery in
Washington, D.C.
Pro-Slavery
Documents
• How do the two
images compare?
• Why do you think
the artist chose to
compare the
conditions of
slaves with that of
English, not
American, free
laborers?