Slavery

1
Slavery

• Labor system, slave response, complexities

2
Plantation slavery

• Hierarchy among slaves
• Two systems of labor
• Task labor
• Gang labor

3
Conditions

• Slave codes
• Evolved after early 1700s
• Clearer about slaves treatment
• Codes protect the system more than slaves

• Dwellings minimal
• Food typically adequate, nothing more
• Corn, pork
• Low quality
• Bottom line always comes first

4
Diseases and malnutrition

• Hookworm
• Malaria
• Pellagra
• The lazy diseases
• Basis of white stereotypes
• Diseases frequently struck yeomen and poor whites
  as well
• Right Hookworm in the human intestine, NIH photo

5
Slaves among the yeomen

• About half of all slaves
• Yeomen said to treat their slaves better

• Problems small farmers incomes not as secure
• Planters dislike yeomen owning slaves
• However, want them to support institution

6
Slaves and the social structure

• Slaves at bottom of a pyramidal society
• 1790-1860 slave population grew
• 698,000 to 4,000,000
• One third of population of slave states

7
Slavery was economically profitable

• Cotton, land, and labor
• Rise in prices helped make emancipation less
  likely
• 1790 300-400
• 1830s 1,000-1,300
• 1850s 1,500-2,000
• Right Eli Whitneys Cotton Gin patent, 1794,
  National Archives

8
Force and fear

• Surveillance
• Slave patrol
• Censorship of press
• Suppression of contrary opinions
• Police state by 1860

• Punishment
• Slave codes limit
• Social constraints
• Practical constraints

9
Slave resistance

• Rebellion
• Unlikely, rare
• Sufficient to fuel white anxiety
• Three major revolts prior to Civil War
• Only one ever got off the ground
• Nat Turner (1831)
• Usually resistance more mundane
• Right Nat Turner preaching, 19th Century
  Engraving, The Granger Collection, NY, NY

10
Survival

• Self-censorship
• Playing to white expectations
• Criticism subtle
• Oral tradition

• Slave families
• Slavery as a melting pot
• Creation of a new culture
• Key contributor to development of modern US

11
Slave religion

• Adopted Christianity of masters
• On sly at first
• Masters work to convert slaves in earnest after
  1830
• Protestantism with a twist
• Stylistic
• Scriptural emphasis
• Right The Crucifixion, Diego Vasquez, Spanish,
  1600s

12
Defense of slavery

• Paternalism
• More intimate than other slave cultures
• Discipline slaves, but justify the institution
• Chattel v. personhood
• Legal fiction, real life friction
• Tensions high
• Outside criticism increases
• Threat increases

13
63

• Class Average
• 26 (F) MC 35 (C) Essay

14
Reality Check

• Minimal change in average is unusual
• I saw five people since last exam
• Mr. Miller saw fewer
• Only 53 showed up for the 2nd exam out of 76

15
Perspective time

• Figure your grade now
• Salem Exam 1Exam 2/ 250 Your grade
• You have twelve class days left
• You have 250 points in three assignments left
• If writing has emerged as a strength, then 200 of
  those points stem from writing
• To get the writing points, though you must read
• If you do not study and apply yourself, you will
  not make it

16
Looking ahead

• I will sign any drop slips and record the drop as
  a drop passing
• Deadline for dropping is April 27
• Time for you to try to turn things with Celia
• Calculate your odds, see me for help, and make a
  decision