History 201

1
History 201

• African American History
• Civil War Era Slavery
• Reconstruction and the Nadir
• of Race Relations
• in America

2
Introduction

• Past 50 yrs much ink has been spilled defining,
  explaining, and trying to come to grips with the
  Peculiar Institution.
• Termed first appeared around 1850ssome of it
  fact and some of it fiction.

3
Causes of Civil War

• Many issues will create a volatile atmosphere
  westward expansion, manifest destiny, the Mexican
  War, the several Mo. Compromises
• the Tariff is more of a modern view point than
  one of reality for the era

4
Causes Contd

• The Tariff was a true bone of contention during
  the Nullification crises a ten decrease in the
  original tariff was placed into the 1830 Mo.
  Compromise.
•  
• By 1845 it had crept back up to within 20 of the
  Tariff of Abominationsthe southerners cried
  foul Walker Tariff of 1847 began a downward
  trend which again the Walker Tariff of 1857
  lowered it over half of the original tariff of
  1828 and the Morrill Tariff of 1861 put the
  tariff at a low ebb that would remain for years
  and years

5
Causes Contd

• Hard to believe that a people would go to war
  over an issue that in essence was a non-issueif
  one is gaining concessionswhy then did the
  argument remain so harsh and volatileobviously
  the argument was over something much deeper and
  emotional.
• This something was Slavery.

6
Antebellum Slavery

• African American slavery can be divided into
  two periods 1) Colonial years, about 16501790
• 2) From the invention of the Cotton Gin
  (1793) until the end of the Civil War (1865) with
  the defeat of the South and the ratification of
  the 13th amendment which stated that neither
  slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as
  punishment for crimeshall exist in the United
  States or any place subject to its jurisdiction.

7
Antebellum SlaveryNorth

• With the arrival of Independence northern
  states began to regard slavery as an unnecessary
  evilthe true nature of the American economy
  should be based on diversificationslavery was
  contradictory to the ideals of the revolution(NW
  Ordinance, State constitutions, and Seasonal
  economies).
• Northern states began to emancipate slaves.
  Where they did not emancipate, once the slaves
  died or moved to other areas the institution
  would not be replacedslavery was rapidly
  evaporating in the North due to emancipation or
  attrition. (John Adams Philosophy)

8
North Contd

• By 1820, there were only 3,000 slaves in the
  North and almost all of them on large farms in
  New Jerseyslavery was easily abolished in the
  north because there were never a tremendous
  number nor was slave labor a vital component of
  the northern economy.
•  
• In the beginning in the north before the
  abolitionists attitude began to permeate
  northern society, the demand for immediate
  emancipation of northern slavery was because the
  white laborers did not want to compete with
  slaves for their jobs.

9
Southern Slavery

• The South was a different story. The African
  American population both slave and free was much
  larger in the SouthVirginia and South Carolina
  alone accounted for nearly half of the slave
  population in the South

10
Economic Considerations

• the South was dependent upon slave labor because
  of its singularly focused agriculture economy
• In the upper South, the economy changed from
  tobacco and tide water rice (cotton never did
  well beyond North Carolina) especially in Va. to
  wheat, rye, and corn

11
Lower South

• Expanded into a more labor intensive economic
  system
• Also began to expand westward
• Ready market because of the surplus of Upper
  South SlavesProfitable Internal Slave trade.
• the term to be sold down river carried many
  connotations

12
Upper South

• There was a relaxation in manumission laws
• not always for benevolent reasonsOld and infirm
  slaves were emancipated and had to fend for
  themselves

13
Expansion of Slavery

• Two major events took place to change the
  institution of slavery
• 1) The Cotton Gin, Eli Whitney, 1793now slavery
  could pay its way economically.
• 2) Termination of the International Slave
  tradeNot just slavery but the trade itself
  became very profitable.

14
Agriculture and Economic Reasons

• The cotton gin changed all thatshort staple
  cotton could now be grown throughout the lower
  and western southern statesvast new plantations
  and westward expansion created the states of
  Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas and
  Arkansasthis alluvial farm land was ideal for
  growing cotton and the climate was also perfect.

15
Supply and demand

• In 1810, the South produced 85,000 pounds of
  cotton by 1860, it was producing well over 2
  billion pounds a year. Unfortunately because of
  the lack of perspicacity either on the Southern
  or Northern part, the international slave trade
  was outlawed in 1808(Cotton Market values rose
  from 12million (1810)to 248million per
  year(1860))
• This restricted the supply, because of growing
  demand, prices went sky-highmany made money off
  the trade itself, rather than agronomics.
• This separates colonial slavery from Antebellum
  slavery.

16
Expansion of Slavery

• Slavery not monolithicabout 4.8 of white
  southern families owned slaves.(Myth Whites
  outnumbered Blacks).
•  
• In 186010,000 families owned more than 50
  slaves across the South.
•  
• 3,000 families owned more than a 100 slaves the
  typical southern slave owner owned 2-5 typical
  white southerners owned none.

17
Typical White Southern Demographics

• The typical southern male was an artisan,
  mechanic, and more typical a small farmer and
  needed little laborthis accounts for the large
  number of small slaveownersand again many did
  not own slavesYet over a million white male
  southerners went to war to defend slavery in
  1861.

18
Constitutional Basis

• Slavery was the basis of their economy, social
  fabric and more importantly that some historians
  ignore but I believe explains the issue much more
  clearit was tied to the age old Lockeian theory
  of life, liberty, and property

19
Irresolute Southerners

• Richmond politicians stated in the Richmond
  Enquirer,(1864-65) it is absurd to pretend that
  a government desirous of restoring the Union
  would adopt such measures as the confiscation of
  private property, the emancipation of slaves, the
  division of a sovereign state without its
  consent. (Shelby Foote page 884 Vol II) the
  struggle must be renewed between generations yet
  unborn gt

20
Lincolns Compromise

• In 1864, Southern politicians in Richmond cast
  aspersions at reconciliation
• 10 of the population had to swear a loyalty oath
  to the US government, lay down arms and guarantee
  emancipation for the slavesand they would be
  welcomed back into the Unionnothing no more
  harsh than that.

21
Lincolns Compromise

• Lincoln and concessions-- Union reunited
  important
• Secessionists would not hang as traitors but must
  abolish slavery
• Lincoln had matured as a politician and had
  become a great President.
• By 1863 understood war was about
  slaveryeradicate this poisonous issue.

22
Southern Angst

• Some areas of the South had more slaves than free
  whites and that could be a volatile situationThe
  Stono Rebellion
• St. Andrews Parish in Georgia suffered from
  several violent slave revoltsGabriel Prosser and
  Denmark Vesey in South Carolina also aroused
  fears in whites and the most notorious was Nat
  Turner in Virginiabut there were 100s of smaller
  revolts and violent outrages against slavery and
  the institution by slaves themselves

23
Slave Codes

• To police and regulate the slave populationthey
  formed Slave Patrols and enacted Slave codes.
•  
• The idea behind the codes was to try and prevent
  resistance or rebellionthey made it illegal for
  slaves to read and write, they could not attend
  church unsupervised, could not testify against a
  white person in court

24
Slave labor

• Slave labor in the upper South was much different
  from the lower Southenjoyed more freedom often
  worked at their own pace and often without white
  supervision
•  
• Many slave owners allowed slaves to hire
  their own time and live in the towns and
  industrial areas and find their own workthis
  benefited the slave owner because he could now
  make a profit off his slaves by hiring them out
  and lessen the cost of up keep

25
Slave Labor/Upper South

• The slave had more independence
• make his own money for extra work etc . . .
• Keep in mind, however, they existed by the
  permission of their masters.

26
Labor Deep South

• Labor in the deep South was brutal and very
  hardslaves worked from before sun up until after
  dark longer during harvest or planting season
• the buying and selling of slaves was influenced
  by the economy
•  

27
Economic Issues

• slaves though treated as family in some homes
  were always subject to the market economy
• they were instant cash
• economics always trumped morality.

28
Diversification of Slave Labor

• The South was overwhelmingly agriculture and
  rural.
• In fact, however, slaves were used successfully
  in factories and industry throughout the South
• most industry focused around Cotton, tobacco, and
  Iron foundries.

29
Diversification Contd

• By the time of the war, however, 250000 slaves
  worked in industryRichard Wade and Robert S.
  Starobin did the ground breaking work on
  Industrial Slavery in the Old South
•  
• As industry grew in the South, owners were
  finding new ways to use slavery for profit.
• Tredegar Iron works in Richmond employed many
  slavesOther Iron foundrys employed slave labor,
  coal mining and all forms of manufacturing such
  as cotton textiles, tobacco and transportation
  industries.

30
Diversification

• The Chicopee and Athens Cotton Factory employed
  slaves mostly women and children and they worked
  along side white co-workers
• Thomas R.R. Cobb hired out his slaves to industry
  and hired Irish workers to do the agriculture
  dutiesit was more profitable.

31
Slave Artisans and Mechanics

• Many slaves by hiring out their own time could
  make money and eventually many would buy
  themselves and family out of slavery.

32
Black Slave Owners

• high profile cases of Blacks owning Blacks
• William Ellis a Mechanical Engineer and
  Mechanic.
• Designed Cotton Gins, built them and serviced
  them
• Though an aberration to the system, it was an
  instance where white southerners could point to
  the righteousness and success of the system
• (Robert M. Grooms)

33
Black Slave Owners

• Justus Angel and Mistress L. Horry, of Colleton
  District, South Carolina, who each owned 84
  slaves in 1830.
• In fact, in 1830 a fourth of the free black slave
  masters in South Carolina owned 10 or more
  slaves eight owning 30 or more (2).

34
Black Slave Owners

• The country's leading African American historian,
  Duke University Professor John Hope Franklin,
  records that in New Orleans over 3,000 free
  Blacks owned slaves
• In 1860 Louisiana six African Americans owned 65
  or more slaves. The largest number, 152 slaves,
  were owned by the widow C. Richards and her son
  P.C. Richards, who owned a large sugar cane
  plantation.
• Antoine Dubuclet, a sugar planter whose estate
  was valued at (in 1860 dollars) 264,000 owned
  100 slaves. That year, the mean wealth of
  southern white men was 3,978.

35
Black Slave Owners

• Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War
  Virginia (University Press of Virginia-1995) was
  written by Ervin L. Jordan Jr., an
  African-American and assistant professor and
  associate curator of the Special Collections
  Department, University of Virginia library. He
  wrote "One of the more curious aspects of the
  free black existence in Virginia was their
  ownership of slaves. Black slave masters owned
  members of their family and freed them in their
  wills. Free blacks were encouraged to sell
  themselves into slavery and had the right to
  choose their owner through a lengthy court
  procedure."

36
Legal Clout

• The general practice of the period was that
  plantation owners would buy seed and equipment on
  credit and settle their outstanding accounts when
  the annual cotton crop was sold.
• Ellison resorted to the courts for enforcement of
  the terms of contract agreements. Several times
  Ellison successfully sued white men for money
  owed him.

37
So, Why Fight?

• The ideals of democracy were very limitedthe
  rich planters had a great deal of influence and
  power over the yeoman farmers and poor
  whitesthis is why James Oakes calls the southern
  political system the Slavocracyif you look at
  the demographics of southern political leaders
  almost all of them were slave owners and were
  determined to keep the institution viable and
  active.

38
Contd

• Though not everyone owned slaves is true, it was
  always a possibility to become a slave owner.
• Slave Ownership was a status of making it
  economically.
• It was the basis of success in Southern society
  it was the southern way of life, the American
  dream as they saw itthe road to success was
  slavery, simply because the economy was slave
  based.

39
Contd

• Alexander Stephens Vice President of the
  Confederacy said it best in 1861
• If Slavery is wrong, then the southern way of
  life is wrong.
• Slavery in the antebellum South made a small
  minority of whites very wealthy while exploiting
  southern blacks and impoverishing many poor
  whites.
• It left many uneducated and retarded the over all
  growth of the economic, cultural and social
  growth of the region.

40
Conclusion

• Slavery was the institution by which the South
  defined itself But it was the existence of
  slavery, with its negative impact on politics,
  economics, and social relations, which fatally
  crippled the South in its bid for independence.
• Jefferson Davis lamented after the war The
  South died of a theory, and an arrogance of
  superiority.

41
National Issues Linked to Slavery

• Missouri Compromises of 1820 and 1830
• The constitution forbid government
  interference with slavery where it already
  existedabolitionists hoped to prevent its
  expansion into the territories
•  
• Missouri sought to enter the union in 1818 as
  a slave statethis upset the political balance
  between free soil and slave states
• admitted Maine as a free soil state and Mo.
  As a slave state to maintain the senatorial
  balanceRemember Alabama had entered as a slave
  state (1819)the Senate was perfectly balanced.

42
Compromised Contd

• The issue was the territory acquired through the
  Louisiana Purchase (1803) and what would be
  acquired through the Mexican War (1846-47) a few
  years later.
•  
• The rub was the Compromise also provided that
  slavery would be excluded from the newly settled
  Louisiana territory except below the latitude 36
  30'.

43
Compromise of 1850

• The Mexican War acquired vast tracts of land in
  the SouthwestAntislavery forces demanded that
  slavery be excluded from these new
  territoriesslaveholders agitated to allow for
  the expansion of slavery into the new territories
  because the Mo. Compromise of 1820 allowed it
  below the 36th parallelagain compromise was
  reached.
• California was admitted as a free state (hurt the
  South because of the rich Gold deposits)agreed
  to Popular Sovereignty in the other territories
  and enacted a stronger Fugitive Slave Act to
  appease southerners.

44
Harriet Beecher Stowe

• A literary event that shook the American
  publicIt was an indictment of the slave system
  and in particular Southerners themselves
• this would decrease the Souths chances of having
  a foreign power (ally) to intervene on their
  behalf when the war started.

45
Kansas-Nebraska Act

• This was a bill introduced by Stephen Douglas
  that introduced the concept of Popular
  Sovereignty.
• Allow the population by ballot to decide on the
  slavery issue.
• It created a political explosion and people who
  originally had no opinion on slavery now jumped
  onto the slavery bandwagon

46
Dred Scott Case

• 1857--Scott sued for freedom on the grounds that
  Emerson, though since dead, and bequeathed to his
  wife Sandford, had taken him to a free soil state
  where slavery was illegal therefore by definition
  of law he must be free.
• The U.S. Supreme Court ruled otherwisesince
  Scott was not a true American citizen he had no
  right to sue in local or federal court. Chief
  Justice Roger B. Taney said A slave had no
  rights which a white men need acknowledge

47
Backlash of Court Decision

• Also ruled Congress had no right to ban slavery
  in the territories
• Concluded that the Mo. Compromise was
  unconstitutional therefore repealed.
• Slavery was legal and Guaranteed by constitution
  congress no authority to arbitrarily illegalize
  it.

48
Lincoln Douglas Debates

• The 1858 debates addressed the issue of western
  slavery
• Douglas believed in Popular Sovereignty
• Lincoln, on the other hand, argued that slavery
  was a moral, a social, and a political wrong.

49
Lincoln

• Agreed slavery was a moral wrong and argued that
  it should never expand to the western
  territories.
• However, He did say that where slavery was
  entrenched it should be left alone.
• Later he would change his mind.

50
Consequences of the Debates

• Slavery had to expand to save the southern
  economythis reveals how strong slavery was tied
  to the southern way of life and its economy. This
  is why the argument that if left alone slavery
  would have withered and died. The South refused
  to let the issue die.
• The debates also did a couple of other things
  First it revealed how unreliable Douglas was as a
  southern allyhe had said repeatedly that he did
  not care whether slavery was voted up or
  downSoutherners needed allies of slavery.
• SecondThe South understood the Republican party
  was dangerous to the survivability of slavery and
  would oppose any expansion.

51
John Browns Raid

• South now convinced the North would resort to
  violent means such as armed insurrection to
  destroy their way of life.
• Regardless of morality, many southerners were not
  going to sit idly by allow insurrectionists to
  kill their families.
• Southern Militias now prepare and become the
  basis of the Confederate Army

52
Political Factors

• As northern and southern patterns of living
  diverged so did their political ideas. The North
  needed a strong central government to provide for
  a vast internal transportation infrastructure and
  the fact that land wise the North was more vast
•  
• The southerners were relegated to a small section
  of the nation if slavery was not to be allowed to
  expandexpansion would increase their geography,
  economic structure, political base and slavery on
  a much larger scalethe South wanted a government
  weak and unobtrusive.

53
Into the Abyss

• December 20th 1860, South Carolina signed its
  Ordinance of Secession absolved itself of
  allegiance to the United States.
• In the words of John C. Calhoun and Thomas
  Jefferson (Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
  1790)asserting States Rights.
• (April 12th 1861, 0430amThe Night They Drove Ol
  Dixie Down The Band, 1970).