I' Slavery

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I. Slavery
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A. The Un-United States

• After the Revolutionary War, the country was
  divided by a single issue Slavery
• Post-war attitude toward slavery
• North wanted free states (no longer needed
  slaves)
• South Needed slaves (economy)
• North Loved the group, but hated the individual
• South Hated the group, but loved the individual
• Sectionalism develops within the country
• Most slaves are brought from Africa and sold to
  the south by northerners
• Most common port was NYC

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B. Slavery and the Constitution

• Does the Constitution recognize slavery?
• Does the Constitution protect slavery?
• 3/5 Compromise
• Settled a census dispute on how slaves were
  counted
• Each slave would count as 3/5 of a person
• Why was this such a big deal?
• Commerce Compromise (international slave trade)
• Congress would re-evaluate the IST in 20 years
• IST outlawed in 1808
• Fugitive Slave Law
• State governments responsibility to return
  escaped slaves to their owners
• Why was this not effective?

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C. Plantations of the Upper Lower South

• Upper South
• Soil Exhaustion (cotton, tobacco, food)
• Needed fewer slaves
• Older slaves were freed
• Laws were passed to protect the slaves and
  restrict emancipation

• Lower South
• Sugar and Rice were mainly grown. Some cotton.
• Conditions were worse in the lower south
  (heat/work)
• Being sold south was very bad for a slave.
  Could be used as punishment or threat

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D. Plantation Heirarchy
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E. Two event that solidified slavery

• Invention of the Cotton Gin - 1793
• Eli Whitney (CT)
• Before the Gin, only Long-staple cotton grown
• Needed wet areas on the coast (GA SC)
• After the Gin, short staple cotton (lint) was
  grown
• Deseeding
• Before gin 1 lb in 10 hours
• After gin 1000 lbs in 10 hours

• Outlawing of the International slave trade
• Escalates the value of slaves
• Value of slaves
• 1810 900
• 1860 1500
• Breeding instead of buying

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F. Evils of Slavery

• Treated humans as animals
• Slave auctions
• No respect for family units
• Children Marriages
• No political rights
• No legal rights
• Cruelty by masters and overseers
• Adults treated as children
• Intolerable working conditions
• Intolerable living conditions
• Morally wrong (Lincoln and Republican Party)

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G. Defenses for Slavery

• Better off in America than the jungles of Africa
• Receive better care
• Christianization
• Civilized
• Slaves dont want to leave
• Especially house workers
• Biblical approval of slavery
• Philemon
• Slaves were biologically and mentally inferior

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H. Slave Codes

• Illegal for slaves to learn to read and write
• Illegal to attend church without a white person
  present
• Must have a written pass to leave home
• Restrictions on manumissions
• Manumissions granting a slave freedom for
  serving in the military
• Enforced by Slave patrols

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I. Nat Turner

• Learned to read and write became very
  intelligent (was a slave preacher)
• Believed he was a prophet for God against slavery
• Had several visions that led to his revolt
• After an eclipse atmospheric disturbance,
  Turner rose up to fight
• August 21, 1831 Turner 6 men raided his
  masters house and killed the family
• Turners force grew to 40 slaves
• In all 55 white people were killed

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• 200 slaves were killed because of Turners revolt
• Most had nothing to do with the revolt
• Turner was captured on October 30
• He was tried convicted on November 5
• November 11 Turner was hanged and skinned then
  put on public display

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J. The Underground RR

• Led slaves to freedom from the south
• Primarily the work of the Quakers
• Levi Coffin was the unofficial President
• Thomas Garrett
• Ran through 14 states
• 3,000 conductors rescued over 100,000 slaves
• They followed the north star
• What type of terrain would they use
• Waterways were hard for dogs to track

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Railroad Vocabulary

• Slaves
• Routes
• Safe house
• Guides
• Safe house owners

• Freight
• Lines
• Stations
• Conductors
• Brakemen

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K. Harriet Tubman

• Nicknamed Moses
• Freed over 300 slaves including her parents
• 40,000 offered for her capture
• She carried a pistol to keep slaves moving
• Youll be free, or youll die
• During the war, she served as a nurse spy

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L. Two Different Worlds South

• Purely agricultural
• Cotton gin southern expansion made slavery
  profitable
• 5 ½ Million southerners
• Only 26 owned slaves
• 46,000 owned 20 or more
• Less than 3000 owned 100 or more
• 12 owned 500 or more (10 in the same district in
  MS)
• Slave owners were the political and social power
  in the south
• Owning slaves was the road to status and success
• Southern American Dream

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Two different worlds North

• Immigration and technology make slavery obsolete
• Immigrants become cheap labor
• By 1820 only 3,000 slaves in the north
• Textile mills ran on southern cotton
• 140,000 factories employed 1 ½ million workers
• Produced 2 billion worth of goods
• Slavery goes from a political to a moral issue