The South

The SouthWrite a 3-5 sentence description of what is going on in this picture.

Cotton Boom•The Cotton gin could process tons of cotton much faster than hand processing•Southern farmers abandoned other crops to grow cotton. • Cotton production spread throughout the

south all the way west to Texas (Cotton Belt)

•Advantages to cotton:

• Cost little to market• Could be stored for a

long time• Cost less to transport

•Disadvantages to cotton:

• Rapidly used up the nutrients from the soil

What was the Effect?• Growing and harvesting cotton required many field hands• rather than pay people to work, planters began to

use more slave labor

•The cotton boom made the South a major player in world trade. • Great Britain became the South’s most valued

foreign trading partner.• They also sold tons

of cotton to the growing textile industry in the NE United States• Led to the

growth of the major port cities

Cotton is King!

Food Crops:Corn was the primary food crop

rice, sweet potatoes, wheat and sugarcane

Cash Crops:Tobacco

Time consumingHemp & Flax

fibers were used to make rope and sackcloth

Other Crops & Industry

• Very small part of the South’s economy• Saw mills, Cotton mills

•Most of the cotton was shipped to textile mills in the North or over to Great Britain

Industry

Southern Society

Middleton Place, on the Ashley River which provided access to the outside world, is a carefully preserved 18th-century rice plantation.Henry Middleton owned a total of 800 slaves, 50,000 acres, and 20 plantations; Middleton Place was only one of them.The 1741-started gardens in the French and English traditions were created by 100 slaves over 10 years (in the off-season).

The one 900-year old life oak and the many trees over 400 years old were incorporated into the design of the gardens.

Slave quarters at Boone Plantation

Slave CabinSlave Cabin

Slave KitchenSlave Bedding

Yeomen Farmers

•They were individualistic, hard working, self reliant and often isolated, and were always absorbed in the work of their farms. •Yeomen pioneered the southern wilderness, moving to undeveloped or isolated regions.

Free African Americans•There were more than 250,000 free

African Americans in the South in 1860 • Free African Americans were usually

descendants of slaves who were freed after the American Revolution

• Some were refugees from the Haitian Revolution in the 1790s

•Most free blacks lived in rural areas and worked as paid laborers on plantations or farms. •They faced constant discrimination• Couldn’t own a gun • buy liquor• violate curfew• assemble except in church• testify in court• vote

Slave SystemSlaves and Work

Work in the Fields•gang labor system: all field hands worked on the same task at the same time.•Sickness & poor weather rarely stopped the work

Work in the Home•Worked as butlers, cooks, or nurses•Usually had better clothing, food and shelter•Worked longer hours than the field hands

Skilled Jobs•Blacksmith or carpentry

Some slaves were able to buy their freedom• Planters let them sell

their services to others. The planter would take a portion of the $$ but allowed slaves to keep the rest.

Life as a Slave•Slaveholders viewed slaves as property•They were bought and sold to make a profit•Families were separated•Slave traders would kidnap free African Americans and sell them

Solomon Northup was a free man living in Washington D.C. He was kidnapped and enslaved for 12 years on a cotton plantation in Louisiana.

Punishment & Slave Codes•Some planters offered more food or better living conditions to encourage slaves to obey•Most would punish instead - often in front of others

“The punishments were whipping, putting you in the stocks [wooden frames to lock people in] and making you wear irons and a chains at

work. Then they had a collar to put round your neck with two horns, like cows’ horns, so that you could not lie down… Sometimes they dug a hole like a well with a door on top. This they called a dungeon keeping you in it two or three weeks or a month, or sometimes till you died in there” –Harry

McMillan

Rebellion•Gaining freedom by escaping to the North was hard•If discovered, they were captured and sent back to their slaveholders• faced punishment or even death

Nat Turner’s Rebellion -

1831•Nat Turner ~ a slave from Virginia, believed that God had told him to end slavery•On an August night in 1831, Turner led a group of slaves to kill all of the slaveholders and their families in the county.•They killed about 60 white people in the community•More than 100 innocent slaves were killed in an attempt to stop the rebellion•Turner hid for 6 weeks•He was caught and brought to trial•“I am willing to suffer the fate that awaits me.”

•Turner was executed on November 11, 1831

Resulted in stronger Slave Codes - placing stricter control on slaves