Give Me Liberty!

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Chapter 11
Norton Media Library
Give Me Liberty! An American History Second
EditionVolume 1
by Eric Foner
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I. The Old South

• Emergence of slavery as peculiar institution
• Cotton and the growth of southern slavery
• Central place of cotton in world economy
• Southern dominance of world cotton supply
• Emergence of United States as center of new world
  slavery
• Rise of internal slave trade
• Pace and magnitude
• Geographical patterns
• Public visibility
• Integral place in southern commerce
• Importance to Cotton Kingdom

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I. The Old South (contd)

• Slaverys impact on national life
• Political
• Economic
• In North
• Commerce
• Manufacturing
• In South
• Vitality of plantation economy
• Limits on industrialization, immigration, and
  urban
• growth
• The New Orleans exception

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The Old South (contd)

• Plain folk
• Remoteness from market revolution
  self-sufficiency
• Class strata
• Isolated poor
• Yeomanry
• Relation to planter elite
• Alienation
• Bonds
• Racial
• Familial
• Political
• Regional
• Investment in slave system
• Material
• Ideological

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The Old South (contd)

• Planter elite
• Measures of regional dominance
• Scale of slave ownership
• Size and quality of landholding
• Income
• Political power
• Economic engagement in world market
• Paternalistic, non-competitive ethos
• Defining features
• Contributing factors
• Influence on southern values
• Intellectual life

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The Old South (contd)

• Proslavery argument
• Rising currency in southern thought
• Elements of
• Racial assumptions
• Biblical themes
• Notions of human progress
• Prospects for equality among whites
• Shift to more hierarchical defense of slavery

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Life under slavery

• Slaves and the law
• General patterns
• Status as property
• Pervasive denial of legal rights
• Power of slave owners over enforcement
• Law as mechanism of masters control
• Nineteenth-century trends
• Legislation to humanize bondage
• Features
• Contributing factors
• Legislation to tighten bondage
• Features
• Contributing factors

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Life under slavery (contd)

• Free black population
• Size
• Social and civil stature
• Blurry line between slavery and freedom
• Broad denial of legal rights
• Growing reputation as threat to slave system
• Regional variations
• Lower South
• Small numbers
• Concentration in cities
• Free black elite
• Upper South
• Concentration in farmlands
• Ties to slave community

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Life under slavery (contd)

• Slave labor
• Diversity of occupations
• Agricultural
• Small farms vs. plantations
• Gang labor (cotton, sugar) vs. task labor (rice)
• Urban
• Relative autonomy and independence
• Growing reputation as threat to slave system
• Modes of order and discipline
• Physical punishment
• Manipulation of divisions
• Material incentives
• Threat of sale

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Slave culture

• General features
• Central arenas
• Family
• Church
• Chief functions
• Survival of bondage
• Preservation of self-esteem
• Transmission of collective values across
  generations
• Sources
• African heritage
• American values and experiences

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Slave culture (contd)

• Slave family
• Demographic foundation
• Legal constraints
• Resiliency
• Distinctive kinship patterns
• Vulnerability to break-up through sale
• Gender roles
• Equality of powerlessness
• Assertion of gender roles where possible

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Slave culture (contd)

• Slave religion
• Practices
• Black preachers on plantations
• Urban black churches
• Influences
• Fusion of African and Christian traditions
• Religious revivals in South
• Slaves version of Christianity
• Solace amid bondage
• Hope for liberation
• Sympathy for the oppressed
• Brotherhood and equality
• Negation of masters pro-slavery version

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Slave culture (contd)

• Desire for freedom and justice
• As expressed in folk tales, spirituals
• Reflection of American language of freedom

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Resistance to slavery

• Day-to-day silent sabotage
• Escape
• Obstacles
• Destinations
• Southern cities
• Remote areas within South
• North
• Underground Railroad
• Resourcefulness
• Harriet Tubman
• Large-scale collective escape
• Infrequency of
• Amistad episode

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Resistance to slavery (contd)

• Slave revolts
• Major nineteenth-century episodes
• Gabriels Rebellion
• Louisiana sugar plantation slave rebellion
• Denmark Vesey conspiracy
• Nat Turners Rebellion
• Notable patterns
• Infrequency
• Blend of African and American influences
• Link between open rebellion and quieter
  resistance
• Bleak prospects for success in South

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Resistance to slavery (contd)

• Slave revolts
• Aftermath of Nat Turners rebellion in South
• White panic
• Widespread assaults on slaves
• Tightening of restrictions on blacks (slave and
  free)
• Stifling of slavery debate, abolitionism

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End slide
This concludes the Norton Media Library Slide Set
for Chapter 11
Give Me Liberty! An American History 2nd Edition,
Volume 1
by Eric Foner
W. W. Norton CompanyIndependent and
Employee-Owned