ANTEBELLUM SLAVERY Southern Economy King Cotton Plantation Life Non-Gentry Class Slave Family

ANTEBELLUM SLAVERYSouthern EconomyKing CottonPlantation LifeNon-Gentry ClassSlave Family

Southern Economy Upper South: Tobacco, diversified cropsLower South: rice, indigo, sugar, cottonCotton Growth: Cotton Gin, short stapleShift South 1830s: Cotton Belt, King Cotton: 1840 1.35 m bales, 1860 4.5 of worlds cotton, over 50% US exportsHuge Profits: 10% year over year

Southern Economy IISecond Middle Passage: 1 million soldinto Deep South, many families split-upPrice of male slave increases up to $2,000 Concentration of Plantations: 1860: 25% of South whites owned slavesOnly about 3% had 20 to 50 slavesGreat Planters political control of SouthTransportation: relied on rivers, few railsEducation: much less than north

Plantation

Slave Auction

Auction Posting

Plantation Life and CultureChivalry: English aristocracy the modelPaternalism: Father of extended familyThe plantation was an independent unitSlave Hierarchy: house slave, field slaveGang Labor: Overseer, Driver, task systemPunishment & Reward:Stick: whipping and threat of saleCarrot: own plot, less hours, rent out

Non Gentry ClassSmall slave owner: 88% below 20 slavesMost 2 or 3 slaves; worked, ate, slept w slaveYeoman Farmer: 75% whites no slavesHills, backwoods, rented land, diverse cropspoor white trash, Ozarks, AppalachiansWhy support Gentry? 1) racial hierarchy2) had many rights, 3) dreamed of owning slaves 4) did not want to compete with freed slaves

Slave Houses

4% Africans to N. America (pg 75) 500,000 /11 million, 4 m in 1860

Slave FamilyStandard of Living: lower than north, but not much lower than N. working classFamily: over 50% nuclear family, child worked at 10, plantation familyReligion: Christianity(after 1840s)& Africaninfluences, black church source of strength Slave economy: garden, home man. Slave Resistance: open and clandestineNat Turner 1831,