Slavery in the Antebellum South Chapter 16 · Slavery in the Antebellum South Chapter 16 Unit 5(?) ... – Northwest Ordinance ... Chapter 17 –Manifest Destiny. Title:

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Slavery in the Antebellum SouthChapter 16

Unit 5(?) – Chapters 16-19

How did we get from this:

To This: Outline:

• The Cotton Revolution

– The 2nd Middle Passage

• Plantation Slavery in the 19th Century

– Defense

– Slave Resistance

• Freedmen in the North and South

• Abolitionism

The Cotton Revolution

• 1793- Eli Whitney develops the Cotton Gin

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By the 1850s the

U.S. was producing

almost 75% of the

world’s cotton

supply

The 2nd Middle Passage

• 1808 – Congress

declares the

international slave

trade illegal in the

U.S.

– Does nothing to the

domestic trade

– Slaves began to be

sold to plantations

in the deep Cotton

South.

– 1 Million slaves

made the journey

Consequences of 2nd Middle Passage

• Slaves became more valuable

• Freed blacks kidnapped and sold back into slavery

• Additional Social Control:

– To be “sold down the river”

Antebellum Plantation Slavery

Slavery in the 19th Century• While slavery was

insignificant as a labor force in the North:– Slave trade was large part of

Northern economy in 18th

century

– Slavery began to disappear in Northern states

– Legacy of slavery in the North: segregation

– Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery in NW territories

– Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery above 36’30

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The Constitution – A Slave Document

• U.S. Constitution

permitted slavery

through compromise

– 3/5 compromise

– No Slave Trade Ban

until 1808

– Fugitive Slave Law

In the North…• By 1860

– 450,000 Freed blacks lived in the North

• North was very racist

– Minstrel shows stereotyping black culture

– Segregation

Meanwhile in the South…• Slavery became further

codified in the South

• Slave codes:

– Limited mobility, activities, literacy

– Forced manumitted slaves to leave state

– Made manumission difficult

– Established food, clothing, and shelter standards

• Routinely ignored on Plantations

Slavery Debilitates Southerners

• Slavery destroyed everything

– The Slave

– The Owner

– The Poor Farmer with No

Slaves

• Slavery established an

Oligarchy

– Only 25% of White

Southerners owned slaves

• Slavery and Slave codes

established a caste system

centered on the racial divide

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Slavery’s Debilitating Consequences

• Lack of Internal

Improvements

• Lack of Education

• Lack of Industrialization

• Lack of Cities and Ports

• Lack of Social Mobility

– Mountain Whites

(hillbillies)

Southern School House

Southerners Rationalize Slavery

• As slavery grew and the international

abolitionist movement grew, Southerners

began to rationalize their “peculiar

institution”:

– “necessary evil”

– Racial and Religious rationale

– “positive good”

– Southern Paternalism

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Southern PaternalismEven in the Afterworld

Scientific/Religious Rationale

Slave Resistance• Slaves found ways to resist their lack of human dignity

and their station in society:

– Soft Resistance:

• Families and Extended Families

• Vandalism

• Theft

• Folk Tales

• Religion

• Songs

• Slower work pace

• “cooperation”

• RUNAWAY

– Hard Resistance:

• Rebellion

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Folktales

Go Down Moses “Sambo”• Some slaves reacted to

slavery through deception/flattery

– In front of whites:

• Act docile

• Act like you like slavery

• Be Funny

• This quickly became a Southern stereotype:

– Sambo (clownish)

– Nat (rapist)

– Jack (deferential)

Runaways

Very Few ran away permanently

Avg. about 100 permanent annually

Most for 1-2 months and would return

Rebellions

• Rarely did slaves resort to violence or rebellion

– Slaves codes kept slaves from organizing, reading and writing, and owning firearms

• 4 Noteworthy Rebellions/Conspiracies:

– Stono Rebellion - 1739

– Gabriel Prosser

– Denmark Vesey

– Nat Turner

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Gabriel Prosser - 1800

• Attempted to start large slave rebellion in Virginia

• Found out and caught before rebellion could begin

• Excecuted

Denmark Vesey - 1822

• Free black

• Conspired to start

large slave rebellion

• Caught before

rebellion could begin

• Tried and executed

Nat Turner

Abolitionism

• Causes of Abolitionist movement

– Declaration of Independence

• “all men are created equal”

– 2nd Great Awakening

• Moral reform of Country

• Need to rid the U.S. of “sin” of slavery

– International Pressures

• Britain

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American Abolitionism• Quakers

• Moderate/Racist Abolition– Gradual emancipation

– Compensation

– Colonization• American Colonization Society

• Liberia

• Radical Abolition– William Lloyd Garrison

– Frederick Douglass

– The Liberator

– David Walker

– Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Southern Response to Abolitionism

• Growing Paranoia

– Called for increased fugitive slave law

– Called for the gag resolution (1836)

• Renewed urge for territorial expansion

– Texas

– Cuba

– Nicaragua

– Kansas/Nebraska

• Growing entrenchment and stubbornness…

In Conclusion

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In Conclusion• As the North committed more and more to commercial

agriculture, manufacturing, ‘free’ labor, and industrialism

• Southern leadership entrenched itself into tradition, way of life, and slave-based labor

• As these 2 societies formed and the cultural gap widened… the Civil War became more and more inevitable…

• All that was needed was a catalyst:

– Territorial Expansion!

• HENCE: Chapter 17 – Manifest Destiny