Slavery on the Defensive

1
Slavery on the Defensive

• Abolition of the slave trade
• January 1, 1808
• Self-sustaining slave population
• Southern economic decline
• Fear of slave insurrections
• British foreign policy
• Frequent violations
• The Pride of Baltimore

2
British Opposition to Slavery

• Somerset decision, 1772
• Slave trade abolished, 1807
• Atlantic patrols

3
Latin America the Caribbean

• Saint-Domingue (Haiti), 1793-1801
• Toussaint LOverture
• Latin American independence
• The holdouts
• Brazil
• Cuba
• Puerto Rico
• The United States

4
La Amistad

• 1839-1840
• Cuba
• Creoles
• Ladinos
• Bozales
• Cinque
• John Quincy Adams
• Roger Baldwin

5
Slavery Reawakened

• Technology
• The cotton gin
• Westward expansion
• Louisiana Purchase
• Land exhaustion

6
The Internal Slave Trade

• Shift from the Old South to the New South
• Division of Creole communities
• The new business of slavery
• Slave dealers
• Slave breeding
• New forms of resistance

7
Slave Revolts

• Gabriels (Prosser) Conspiracy, 1800
• Richmond, Virginia
• 1,000 involved
• Thunderstorm
• Denmark Vesey, 1822
• Charleston, South Carolina
• Free black minister
• 9,000 involved
• Nat Turner, 1831
• Southampton County, Virginia
• Bible study second Great Awakening
• Signs from God
• Christ and the apocalypse
• Terrorism, fear, and restrictions

8
Free Blacks

• Origins
• Legacy of the American Revolution
• State-enacted manumissions
• Private manumissions
• Flight
• Self-purchase
• Refugees from Saint-Domingue / Haiti
• Natural population increase

9
Free Blacks

• Origins
• Demographics
• 1790 59,000
• 1830 319,000
• 1860 488,000
• Concentrated in certain areas
• Cities (Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, New
  Orleans, Philadelphia, New York, Boston)
• Tidewater Maryland and Virginia
• Piedmont
• Northwest (isolated settlements)

10
Free Blacks

• Origins
• Demographics
• Freedom?
• In the South
• Black Codes
• Disenfranchisement
• Eviction
• Re-enslavement
• In the North
• Disenfranchisement
• Limited access to education
• Job discrimination
• Racist attitudes

11
Racism and Response

• Reasons for racism
• Competition for jobs and housing
• Immigration (especially the Irish)
• Prosperous free blacks
• Economic Instability
• Two trends
• Paternalistic (1780s 1820s)
• Racist (1820s / 1830s and after)

12
Racism and Response

• Scientific slavery
• Phrenology
• Black diseases

13
Racism and Response

• Scientific slavery
• Phrenology
• Black diseases
• Wage Slavery
• George Fitzhugh

14
Racism and Response

• Scientific slavery
• Phrenology
• Black diseases
• Wage Slavery
• George Fitzhugh
• Popular culture
• Minstrel shows

15
Racism and Response

• Colonization
• African-American motivations
• White motivations
• Paul Cuffe
• American Colonization Society, 1817
• Creation of strong free black communities

16
Free Black Communities

• Separation from the white community
• Names
• Housing
• Economic issues
• Day laborers
• Sailors
• Domestic servants
• Skilled occupations
• Impact of industrialization
• Social Stratification
• Recreation

17
Free Black Communities

• Religion
• African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church
• Richard Allen
• Bethel Church, 1794
• AME Church established, April 11, 1816
• First Annual Negro Convention

18
Free Black Communities

• Religion
• African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church
• Richard Allen
• Bethel Church, 1794
• AME Church established, April 11, 1816
• First Annual Negro Convention
• African Episcopal Church
• Absalom Jones
• African Presbyterian Church
• John Gloucester

19
Free Black Communities

• Education
• Robert Bolton, Philadelphia, 1740
• Anthony Benezet and the Quakers, 1750
• Primus Hall, Boston, 1798
• African-American colleges

20
Free Black Communities

• Literature and Science
• Philis Wheatley
• Jupiter Hammon
• Oloudah Equiano
• Benjamin Banneker
• Thomas Fuller
• Later works
• Poetry
• Prose
• African-American newspapers

21
Antebellum Slave Communities

• Two characteristics
• Victims AND in control
• Individual action AND communal action
• Scope and extent
• 1790 700,000 slaves
• 1830 2 million slaves
• 1860 4 million slaves

22
Antebellum Slave Communities

• Concentration
• 384,884 slave owners, out of 8 million
• From the white perspective
• 1/10th of 1 own 200 or more
• 2.7 own 50 or more
• 88 own fewer than 20
• From the slave perspective
• ¼ in groups larger than 50
• ½ in groups of 10-49
• ¼ in groups of 1-9

23
Antebellum Slave Communities

• Work
• House servants
• Field hands
• Task system to gang system
• Large plantation
• Plow gang
• Trash gang
• Overseer, perhaps a steward
• Medium plantation
• Slave driver
• Small farm

24
Antebellum Slave Communities

• Living conditions
• Housing
• Clothing
• Food
• Medical care
• Family life
• Basic, yet fragile
• More nuclear than extended
• NOT matriarchies
• Children

25
Antebellum Slave Communities

• Education
• Illegal, but available
• Individual vs. group instruction
• Recreation
• Fishing and hunting
• Infrequent celebrations
• Jubilee and Christmas
• Religion

26
Antebellum Slave Communities

• Religion
• Second Great Awakening, 1830s
• Sources of Christianity
• Paternalistic masters
• Cynical masters
• White religious proselytizers
• The invisible church
• Continued reliance on conjuring

27
Slave Resistance

• Active resistance
• Slave revolts
• Flight
• To the North The Underground Railroad
• Within the South truancy
• Self-mutilation
• Suicide
• Murder

28
Slave Resistance

• Passive resistance
• Examples
• Reflected in Folklore
• Animal trickster tales
• Trickery and subterfuge
• Little group / heroic action
• Disadvantages