1793-1860. Before 1793, Slavery was on the decline until invention of the cotton gin= short staple cotton becomes profitable 1780’s- northern states were.

1793-1860

The South and the Slavery Controversy

The Cotton Economy Before 1793, Slavery was on the decline until

invention of the cotton gin= short staple cotton becomes profitable

1780’s- northern states were gradually abolishing slavery.

1860- 4 million slaves in the US (quadrupled since 1800)= worth $2 Billion = 90% illiterate

Prime field hand= $1200- $1800 (1860 dollars)

Northern bankers loaned $300 million for slavesTextile manufacturers in US depended 100% on

Southern cotton75% of whites in the south owned 0 slaves“Lords of the Loom tied to the Lords of the Lash”

Changes in Cotton Productio

n

Changes in Cotton Productio

n

1820

1860

Southern AgricultureSouthern Agriculture

Slaves Picking Cottonon a Mississippi

Plantation

Slaves Picking Cottonon a Mississippi

Plantation

“Cotton is King”• As cotton became more profitable- planters

drifted down to the Gulf states= planters bought more slaves & land to buy more slaves & land.

• Northern shippers made much profit from the cotton trade

• Cotton accounted for ½ the value of all US exports after 1840

• Britain’s textile mills depended on southern cotton (75% of their cotton came from the South).

• • If Civil War between North & South occurred-

Southerners believed that Britain would break any Northern blockade & force recognition of the South= “FALSE SENSE OF SUPERIORITY”.

Value of Cotton Exports As % of All US Exports

Value of Cotton Exports As % of All US Exports

The Planter Aristocracy• a planter aristocracy dominated Southern

government & society (oligarchy) • 1850- 1,733 Southern families owned 100 or

more slaves= “cottonocracy” • educated their children in private schools –

many located in the north • had leisure time for study & statecraft= John

C. Calhoun (Yale), Jefferson Davis (West Point grad)= South produces higher proportion of high rank statesmen before 1860

The “Cottonocracy” The South, dominated by cotton rich

planter class= undemocratic, widened the gap between rich & poor

favorite writer of this class- Sir Walter

Scott (Ivanhoe)= southern chivalry= idealized feudal systems

Southern mistress– commanded large staff (mostly slave women)

almost none advocated for abolition

Effects of the Slave System on the South1.Plantation agriculture was wasteful= led to

populations moving West & Northwest

2. Increasingly monopolistic- as “land butchery” increased, small famers sold their land to prosperous plantation neighbors = “the big got bigger & the small got smaller”

3. Plantation system was financially unstable- over speculation in land & slaves was common = planters went into more debt

4. Dependence on a one crop economy- discouraged agricultural diversification (price was dependent on world conditions)

5. By the 1850’s Southerners increasingly resented the North- the North was prospering at their expense

6. Plantation Economy repelled immigration- by 1860- only 4.4% of the Southern population was foreign-born= white south is most Anglo-Saxon section of the nation.

The White Majority• In 1850- 345,000 Southern white families

(1,725,000)• Over 2/3 of these families (255,268) owned fewer

than 10 slaves• In all- only ¼ of white southerners owned slaves=

made up a majority of slave owners• typically small famers who worked hard in the fields • households owned a slave or two-most likely a slave

family• lived in modest farm houses

Non-slave holding whites • By 1860- 6,120,825 southern whites (3/4) of all

whites owned no slaves• made a living cultivating poor soil of backcountry or

mountain valleys• Resented the rich planter class (“snobocracy”)• raised corn, hogs, -- not cotton• lived isolated lives• least prosperous non-slave holding whites = “poor

white trash”

• called “hillbillies or crackers”• probably suffered from malnutrition, parasites,

hookworm• Among the strongest defenders of slavery WHY??1.Prospect of upward social mobility2.Belief in their racial superiority

The Mountain Whites • Isolated in the valleys of Appalachia Range from

western Virginia to northern Georgia & Alabama• lived under meager frontier conditions• Retained Elizabethan speech• hated planters & slaves• proved loyal to the Union during the war & the

Republican Party after the war

Free Blacks “the Third Race” • 1860- numbered about 250,000 in the South• Upper South- free blacks were part of manumission

after Revolutionary War• Deep South- many free blacks were malattoes-

emancipated children of white planter & his black mistress

• Some free blacks in the South earned freedom with their earnings

Life of Free Blacks • many owned property- William T. Johnson (New

Orleans) even owned black slaves • prohibited from working certain occupations• prevented from testifying against whites in court• could be kidnapped back into slavery• Free Blacks In the North• 225,000-• northern states forbade them entrance; forbade

them the right to vote, forbade them the right to attend public schools

Free blacks in the North –hated by the Irish• anti-black feelings in the north stronger than in

the south

• “ it was often observed …white southerners, who were often suckled and reared by black nurses, liked the black as an individual but despised the race. The white northerner, on the other hand, often professed to like the race but dislike the individual blacks”

Plantation Slavery4 million black slaves dwelt at the bottom of Southern social society.• 1808- legal importation of slaves to

America ended= slaves were smuggled into the US AFTERWARDS

• Most increases in the US slave population = natural increase – distinguishes American slavery from all others!!

1.Slaves were an investment- 1860 Southern investment in slaves= $2 billion (1860 price $1800 for prime field hand)

• Masters cared for slaves like most expensive property

2. Slavery hobbled the economic development of the region as a whole (slaves from upper South drained to deep south)= slave women in the Old South could earn freedom by bearing up to 13 children.

White masters often forced themselves on slave women= malatto children Slave Auctions• slaves sold alongside horses, cows & pigs • families were separated- for bankruptcy or

inheritance

The Life of SlavesThere is no clear or simple answer to describe

the life of slaves. Treatment varied from master to master, mansion to house, and region to region.

hard grueling work, ignorance, oppression worked from dusk until dawn

work & lives of slaves managed by a white “overseer” or black “driver”.

no political rights-only min. protection from

arbitrary murder

• the whip served as a reminder of white mastery & substitute for wages (strong- willed slaves sent to a “breaker”)

Life in the “Black Belt” • area from SC and Georgia to Alabama, Mississippi, &

Louisiana

• life was harder here than in the Old South• • majority of blacks lived on plantations in slave

communities of 20 or more (75% of the population)

• maintained a fairly stable family life & African-American culture

African- American Culture & Family

lived in stable two parent families named children after grandparents or forebear’s

master

Religious practices: influenced by preachers of the Second Great Awakening (mix of African & Christian traditions)

emphasized stories in the Bible- like captivity of Israelites

call & response style of preaching- adapted from African “ringshout”

Burden of Bondage• most states passed laws which prohibited the

education of slaves. education leads to ideas=9/10 of adult slaves illiterate at start of Civil War)

Slave Resistance• slaves conduced work slow downs (led to

myth of black “laziness”)• slaves stole goods produced by or purchased

by their labor• conducted sabotage1.Denmark Vesey Revolt (1822): Charleston

SC; led by a free black- foiled by informers= Vesey & 30 others hanged.

2.Nat Turner Rebellion (1831): a black preacher (Nat Turner) led an uprising & killed 60 whites (mainly women & children)- Vesey & others hanged

Black Slavery’s Toll on Whites• Southern whites developed a “siege” mentality

(surrounded by potentially rebellious blacks angered by northern abolitionist propaganda).

Abolitionism• 1st emerged at the time of the Am. Revolution

(Quakers)• Early abolitionists wanted to colonize

blacks= The American Colonization Society (1817)= 1822 free African-American founded Liberia (capital-Monrovia)

• Over 40 years- 15,000 freed blacks colonized back to Africa

• * Most blacks did not wish to be sent back to Africa

• Colonization remained a popular but non-practical solution- espoused by men like Abraham Lincoln .

Abolitionism Gains SteamBefore the 1830’s- abolition was not seen as much of a threat to the South (example: Benjamin Lundy (Quaker) & James Birney (slave holder) gave speeches in south pushing gradual emancipation.• By the 1830’s- abolitionism gained new

energy• Influenced greatly by the Second Great

Awakening admonition to rid America of the sin of slavery

• 1833 Britain freed slaves in the West Indies • Theodore Weld: evangelized by Charles

Grandison Finney in NY’s “Burned Over District”; spoke to the mass of rural uneducated farmers .

• Arthur & Lewis Tappan (NY merchants): 1832 paid Weld’s way to Lane Theological Seminary (Ohio)= Weld & “ Lane Rebels” expelled in 1834.

• Weld went across the Old Northwest preaching anti-slavery

• published American Slavery as It Is (1839)= influenced Harriet Beecher Stowe

Radical Abolitionists1. William Lloyd Garrison: 1831- published the

Liberator (abolitionist newspaper).• Waged a30 year war on slavery in the US

(MOST MILITANT)= demanded the north secede from the South.

• Helped found the American Antislavery Society (1833)

• co-collaborator: Wendell Phillips (the “golden trumpet” of abolitionism)- wore no cotton cloth/ate no cane sugar.

Black Abolitionists1. Frederick Douglas: greatest black

abolitionist; escaped slavery; lectured to anti-slavery groups.

• Wrote his own autobiography- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas.

• Douglas turned to politics to end slavery2. Sojourner Truth: freed black woman; fought for abolition & women’s rights.

3. David Walker: Appeal to Colored Citizens of the World (1829)advocated a bloody revolt.4. Martin Delaney- advocate of black colonization

• 1820’s Antislavery Societies more popular in the South (below Mason-Dixon Line) than in the North

• 1831-1832 Virginia legislature debated emancipation

• Southern states passed laws forbidding emancipation & tightened slave codes

• Post –slave revolts- Abolitionist Garrison party blamed by Southerners

• 1832 Nullification Crisis: heightened southerners fears & suspicions

Southerners Defend Slavery1. **“Positive Good”- Southerners argued that

slavery was supported by the Bible & Aristotle• Slavery rescued Africans from barbaric

conditions of Africa • master-slave relationship was like family• black slavery vs. wage slavery of the north2.**1836 The Gag Rule: Southern politicians

pushed a resolution that all anti-slavery appeals submitted to the House of Representative would be shelved.

• a clear limit on right to petition the government

• John Quincy Adams- ex-president fought this for 8 years=finally repealed.

3. 1835- US Government Postal Service- ordered postmasters to destroy abolitionist newspapers being delivered South & allowed the South to arrest postmasters who refused.

This 1839 cartoon provides a satire on the "gag rule" in the House of Representatives.  Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts is featured pinned to the ground protecting petitions against slavery.Image courtesy of Library of Congress

Abolitionist Impact in the NorthExtreme abolitionists (Garrisonians) were resented for a long time in many parts of the North.• Northerners respected the Constitution’s proclamations

on property rights• Northerners were owed $300 million by 1850’s by

Southerners• Northern textile mills would shut down= unemployment

for many. (“Doughface” –any northern politician who sided with the south)

• 1835- William Lloyd Garrison- attacked & almost hanged by a mob (Boston) “Broadcloth Mob”

•

• 1837- *Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy killed by a mob (Ill.)

• Most respectable politicians like Lincoln tended to avoid strict abolitionists

• By 1850’s- abolitionism started to touch many northerners;

Many saw the South’s position differently= want to limit the spread of slavery any further.

Elijah P. Lovejoy

Wood engraving of the pro-slavery mob burning down Winthrop Sargent Gilman's warehouse