THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH, 1800-1860 APUSH Lecture 3C (covers Ch. 11 & 12) Mrs. Kray Some slides taken from Susan Pojer.

THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH, 1800-1860

APUSH Lecture 3C

(covers Ch. 11 & 12)

Mrs. Kray

Some slides taken from Susan Pojer

“THE SOUTH”

Include

d any

state that

permitte

d slavery

THE COTTON ECONOMY

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

Primarily agrarian – “Cotton is King!”Economic power shifted to the “lower South”Limited industrializationRudimentary financial systemInadequate transportation system

KING COTTONCotton became the most important crop in the South as tobacco prices declined & economic factors limited the growth of rice and sugar. Invention of the cotton gin + demand for cotton in textile factories = increasing cotton production

COTTON PRODUCTION

COTTON BOOM REINFORCES THE NEED

FOR SLAVES

WHITE SOCIETY IN THE SOUTH

THE SOCIAL HIERARCHY

Planter Elites

Small farmers

Poor whites andMountain people

Freed Blacks/Slaves

Dominated the South socially & politically

THE SLAVE-OWNING

SOUTH

Very few Southerners actually owned slaves

Even though 75% of Southerners owned no slaves at all, they defended the slave system.

THE SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN

Southern chivalry• Gentleman should be chivalrous, leisurely,

and elegant• Public dignity, morality, and bravery were

badges of honor• Defense of women

Only acceptable professions: soldier, farmer, lawyer

• Commerce was frowned upon

THE SOUTHERN BELLE

Household-centered lives paralleled women in the North

• Southern ideas of chivalry however placed women in an even more subordinate role b/c viewed women as defenseless

• Reality: women lived on isolated farms and participated actively in household production

Education was not emphasizedDefenders of the slave system

SLAVERY: THE “PECULIAR INSTITUTION”Slavery created a bond between black and white

and also created two distinct cultures based on racial separation

AFRICAN AMERICAN POPULATION IN THE

SOUTH

1 million slaves in 1800 by 1860 4 millionHigh Birth Rate

• 1808: Asiento system outlawed

In Deep South slaves made up more than 50% of the population of some states

THE “PECULIAR INSTITUTION”

Wealth in the South measured in terms of slaves

• 1800-1860: cost of slave labor rose sharply• Slaves treated as a form of property

2 common slave stereotypes• Sambo: slow, obsequious, deferential slave• The rebel

• Slave codes regulated both slave and free behavior by law, and served to maintain a superior position for whites• Enforcement of these codes varied widely

THE LEDGER OF JOHN WHITE

J Matilda Selby, 9, $400.00 sold to Mr. Covington, St. Louis,

$425.00

J Brooks Selby, 19, $750.00 Left at Home – Crazy

J Fred McAfee, 22, $800.00 Sold to Pepidal, Donaldsonville,

$1200.00

J Howard Barnett, 25, $750.00 Ranaway. Sold out of jail, $540.00

J Harriett Barnett, 17, $550.00 Sold to Davenport and Jones,

Lafourche, $900.00

SLAVE AUCTION IN SOUTH CAROLINA, 1856

With new cotton lands

opening in the Southwest the trade in slaves between the

upper and lower South

flourished.

THE LIFE OF A SLAVE

Slaves were employed doing whatever their owners demanded of them

• Majority worked in the field

• Many became skilled craftsmen

• Others worked as house servants, in factories, or on construction gangs

Many slaves sold from the Upper South to the cotton-rich Deep South

SLAVES WORKING IN A SUGAR BOILING HOUSE,

1832

SLAVE LIFE: ON THE PLANTATION

Size of the plantation often the main factor in determining the relationship between master and slave

Large plantations: overseers or drivers employed to supervise slaves; the master was remote

• Task system -- slaves given a task to accomplish in a certain period

• Gang system – slaves worked in groups overseen by a driver who determined when work began and ended**

SLAVE RESISTANCE

Vast majority of slave resistance was subtle

• Slow work, breaking tools, performing task incorrectly

• Fed Sambo stereotypeEscape via the Underground RailroadSlave revolts

• Very rare

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Secret messages in the quilts

1800: Gabriel Prosser in

VA

1822: Denmark Vessey

in SC

SLAVE REVOLTS

1831: Nat Turner’s Revolt • Killed 60 whites in VA• 100 of his followers were

executed

IMPACT OF SLAVE REVOLTS

All revolts were quickly & violently suppressed

Gave hope to enslaved African Americas

Drove southern states to tighten already strict slave codes

Demonstrated to many, especially Northerners, the evils of slavery

FREED BLACKS IN THE SOUTH

By 1860, as many as 250,000 • Emancipated during the Am. Rev.• Mulatto children whose white fathers liberated

them (manumission)• Purchased their freedom

Most lived in citiesThey were not equals w/southern whites

• State laws barred them fr. voting & certain jobs• In constant danger of being kidnapped • had to show legal papers to prove free status

THE CULTURE OF SLAVERY

SLAVE CULTURE

Creating their own culture was a survival mechanismPidgin or Gullah languagesMusic played an important role in their livesBlack Christianity (Baptist or Methodist)

• Black churches held illegal services at night• More emotional worship service• Negro Spirituals – imbued faith, combined hope for

freedom, and a lament of servitude

FAMILY LIFE

Nuclear family with extended kin links when possible

• The family was central to black culture• Illegal for slaves to marry• Families could be separated at any

time

Women subject to sexual exploitation

• Miscengenation

THE CRUSADE AGAINST SLAVERY

SOUTHERN THOUGHTS ON SLAVERY

Colonial Times slavery justified as an economic necessityAntebellum Era used historical and religious arguments

• Bible justified slavery• Slavery good for the slave

(paternalism)• Relations between slave and

master were complex

THE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

Abolitionist movement did not gain prominence in the U.S. until after 1830

• Abolitionists were always a minority in ALL regions of the country

• 2nd Great Awakening turns slavery into a moral issue

Provoked a powerful reaction by those who feared the political consequences of growing sectionalism and those who feared the social consequences of a great number of free blacks

EARLY ABOLITIONIST EFFORTS

1816: American Colonization Society founded

1830: Liberia founded

• Few freed slaves every settled there

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON

Radical abolitionist• favored immediate emancipation of slaves with no

compensation for slave owners• “Let Southern Oppressors tremble…I will be as

harsh as truth and as uncompromising as Justice…I am in earnest – I will not retreat a single inch – and I WILL BE HEARD

1831: Began publication of The Liberator1833: Founded American Anti-Slavery Society

“THE TREE OF SLAVERY, LOADED WITH THE SUM OF

VILLAINIES”

MODERATE ABOLITIONISTS

Founded the Liberty Party

Pledged to end slavery by political and legal means

Lewis TappanArthur Tappan

James Birney

FREDERICK DOUGLASS,1817 - 1895

Radical Black Abolitionist

Early follower of Garrison

1845: Published Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass

1847: Began publishing North Star

• Anti-slavery journal

SOJOURNER TRUTH,1 7 8 7 - 1 8 8 3

Freed slave

Eloquent anti-slavery advocate

1850: Published Narrative of Sojourner Truth

VIOLENT BLACK ABOLITIONISTS

Black Abolitionists David Walker Henry Highland Garnet

Argued slaves should not wait for whites, instead should rise up in revolt against their masters

1829 – Walker wrote Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World

ABOLITIONIST SUCCESSES

Personal Liberty Laws passed in Northern states

• Forbid officials to assist in the capture and return of runaway slaves

1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Novel changed the nature of the slavery debate

• Sold more than 300,00 copies• Expanded the abolitionist audience

SOUTHERN REACTION TO ABOLITIONIST

MOVEMENT

Southerners alarmed to see northern reformers join forces to

support the anti-slavery movement

Increasingly, viewed social reform as a northern conspiracy

against the southern way of life

No longer argued slavery was a necessary evil but a moral good• Paternalism and biblical implications

Attacked capitalist system of the Industrial Revolution as worse

than slavery – wage slaves

“So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war”

- Abraham Lincoln

“So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war”

- Abraham Lincoln

Helped over 300 slaves to freedom.$40,000 bounty on her head.Served as a Union spy during the Civil War.

“Mose

s

”

“Conductor” ==== leader of the escape

“Passengers” ==== escaping slaves

“Tracks” ==== routes

“Trains” ==== farm wagons transporting the escaping slaves

“Depots” ==== safe houses to rest/sleep