The Antebellum South

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Early Emancipation in the North
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Missouri Compromise, 1820
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Antebellum Southern Society
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Characteristics of the Antebellum South

• Primarily agrarian.
• Economic power shifted from the upper South to
  the lower South.
• Cotton Is King! 1860--gt 5 mil. bales a
  yr. (57 of total US exports).
• Very slow development of industrialization.
• Rudimentary financial system.
• Inadequate transportation system.

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Southern Society (1850)
Slavocracyplantation owners
6,000,000
The Plain Folkwhite yeoman farmers
Black Freemen
250,000
Black Slaves3,200,000
Total US Population --gt 23,000,0009,250,000 in
the South 40
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Southern Population (1860)
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Antebellum Southern Economy
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Graniteville Textile Co.
Founded in 1845, it was the Souths first attempt
at industrialization in Richmond, VA
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Southern Agriculture
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Slaves Picking Cottonon a Mississippi Plantation
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Slaves Using the Cotton Gin
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Changes in Cotton Production
1820
1860
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Value of Cotton Exports As of All US Exports
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Hauling the Whole Weeks PickingsWilliam Henry
Brown, 1842
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Slaves Workingin a Sugar-Boiling House, 1823
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The South's "Peculiar Institution"
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Slave Auction Notice, 1823
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Slave Auction Charleston, SC-1856
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Slave Accoutrements
Slave MasterBrands
Slave muzzle
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Anti-Slave Pamphlet
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Slave Accoutrements
Slave tag, SC
Slave leg irons
Slave shoes
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Antebellum Southern Plantation Life
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White South

• Planters and Plantation mistresses
• Rarely self-made
• Model life after English aristocracy
• Wealth in slaves, little liquid assets
• Absentee planter
• Sexual abuse of female slaves
• Plantation mistresses- espouse the doctrine of
  southern hospitality
• Constantly affected by the presence of mulatto
  children

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Slave-Owning Population (1850)
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Slave-Owning Families (1850)
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Slaves posing in front of their cabin on a
Southern plantation.
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A Real Georgia Plantation
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Small slaveholder

• 88 of slave-owners hold less than 20 slaves
• Large but extremely diverse group
• Aspire to the planter status
• Link prosperity with owning more slaves
• Tend to remain in the seaboard south

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Yeoman Farmer

• Largest group of southern whites
• Hired slaves but did not own them
• Often subsistence farmers
• Live in the upland regions
• Value self-sufficiency
• Hope to profit and move up the scale
• Often provide the link between the rich and the
  poor
• In voting they support he upper class that they
  hope to join

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People of the Pine Barrens

• Independent whites of the woods
• 10 of the white population
• Usually squat on the land and live in crudely
  built homes
• Appear lazy and shiftless to other, but consider
  themselves independent and self-reliant

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Other poor whites

• Highly transient population
• Some are tenant farmers
• Often have social contact with blacks and work
  side by side
• Vote with the upper classes
• Dont want to have to compete with the blacks for
  jobs
• Often engaged in clandestine trade with slaves
• Occasionally help them escape, but most consider
  themselves to be racially superior to blacks

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A Slave Family
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Slavery and the Plantation system

• House servant
• Better fed, less demanding work, greater access
  to information
• Constant contact with whites was seen as the
  greatest challenge
• Uncle Tom and Mammy image
• Field hands
• Majority of the slaves
• Extreme work conditions
• Work in gangs
• Artisans
• More men
• Less immigrants in the south, need for slaves to
  take over these jobs

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A Real Mammie Her Charge
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Slave Family

• Encourage slave marriage to procreate more slaves
• No legal protection however
• Tend to be more equal than white marriages
• Families broken by sales
• Creation of fictive kin networks
• Many single parent homes

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The Ledger of John White

• Matilda Selby, 9, 400.00 sold to Mr. Covington,
  St. Louis, 425.00
• Brooks Selby, 19, 750.00 Left at Home Crazy
• Fred McAfee, 22, 800.00 Sold to
  Pepidal,Donaldsonville, 1200.00
• Howard Barnett, 25, 750.00 Ranaway. Sold out of
  jail, 540.00
• Harriett Barnett, 17, 550.00 Sold to Davenport
  and Jones, Lafourche, 900.00

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Free Blacks / Free People of Color

• Often try to disassociate themselves with salves,
  want to be seen as different soon realize this
  wont work
• Most live in the upper South
• More likely to live in cities
• Form their own churches and organizations
• Vulnerable to being kidnapped
• Discrimination

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US Laws Regarding Slavery

• U. S. Constitution 3/5s compromise I.2
  fugitive slave clause IV.2
• 1793 --gt Fugitive Slave Act.
• 1850 --gt stronger Fugitive Slave Act.

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Southern Slavery--gt An Aberration?

• 1780s 1st antislavery society created in Phila.
• By 1804 slavery eliminated from last northern
  state.
• 1807 the legal termination of the slave trade,
  enforced by the Royal Navy.
• 1820s newly indep. Republics of Central So.
  America declared their slaves free.
• 1833 slavery abolished throughout the British
  Empire.
• 1844 slavery abolished in the Fr. colonies.
• 1861 the serfs of Russia were emancipated.

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Slavery Was Less Efficient in the U. S. than
Elsewhere

• High cost of keeping slaves fromescaping.
• GOAL --gt raise the exit cost.

• Slave patrols.

• Southern Black Codes.

• Cut off a toe or a foot.

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Justification for slavery

• Paternalism
• Economics
• Good for the slave
• Better than wage labor

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Southern Pro-SlaveryPropaganda
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Slave Resistance Uprisings
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Slave Resistance

• SAMBO pattern of behavior used as a charade in
  front of whites the innocent, laughing black man
  caricature bulging eyes, thick lips, big smile,
  etc..

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Slave Resistance

• Refusal to work hard.
• Isolated acts of sabotage.
• Escape via the Underground Railroad.

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Runaway Slave Ads
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Quilt Patterns as Secret Messages
The Monkey Wrench pattern, on the left, alerted
escapees to gather up tools and prepare to flee
the Drunkard Path design, on the right, warned
escapees not to follow a straight route.
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Slave Rebellions Throughout the Americas
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Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South
Gabriel Prosser1800
1822
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Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South
Nat Turner, 1831
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The Culture of Slavery

• Black Christianity Baptists or Methodists
  more emotional worship services. negro
  spirituals.
• Pidgin or Gullah languages.
• Nuclear family with extended kin links,where
  possible.
• Importance of music in their lives. esp.
  spirituals.

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