The South and Slavery

1
The South and Slavery

• King Cotton Reigns

2
The Cotton Kingdom

• Post Revolutionary recession results in decline
  in slavery
• Ideals of the Revolution conflict with slavery.
• Some owners free their slaves.

3
Slavery Expands and Cotton Become King

• Cotton Gin
• Trade
• Cotton exported to England from sale of cotton
  used to buy northern goods
• Britain heavily dependent on cotton to feed its
  textile factories (80 came from U.S.)
• Cotton accounted for 50 of all American exports
  after 1840.
• South produced 75 of worlds cotton.

4
Slave Rebellions

• Stono Rebellion, 1739
• South Carolina slaves fled toward Florida killing
  whites along way
• Gabriel Prosser, 1800
• Rebellion did not materialize and Prosser and 26
  others were hanged.
• Denmark Vesey 1822.
• A slave informer advised his master of the plot
• Vesey and 30 others publicly hanged

5
Slave Rebellions

• Nat Turners revolt -- 1831
• Sixty Virginians slaughtered, mostly children and
  women
• Wave of killing slowed down revolts aim of
  capturing armory
• Largest slave revolt ever in the South
• Over 100 slaves were killed in response Turner
  was hanged.
• Southern states made it increasingly difficult
  for masters to free their slaves

6
Slave Rebellion Cont.

• The most common form of resistance on the part of
  black Americans slaves prior to the Civil War
• passive resistance, including breaking tools and
  slightly slowing the pace of work

7
The Planter "Aristocracy"

• South an oligarchy
• Ruled by wealthy plantation owners
• 1850, only 1,733 families owned more than 100
  slaves yet dominated southern politics

8
Peculiar Institution

• Economic structure of South was monopolistic,
  dominated by wealthy plantation owners
• Plantation system
• Risky Slaves might die of disease, injure
  themselves, or run away.
• System required heavy investment of capital
• One-crop economy (cotton)
• Discouraged a diversification of agriculture and
  esp. manufacturing

9
Peculiar Institution

• Southerners resentful the North made huge profits
  at their expense
• Resented being so dependent on northern
  manufactures markets
• Repelled large-scale European immigration
• Only 4.4 of foreign-born part of Souths pop. in
  1860 18.7 in North.

10
Plantation Slavery

• Nearly 4 million slaves by 1860 quadrupled in
  number since 1800
• Legal imports of slaves ended in 1808
• Countless slaves smuggled in despite death
  penalty for slavers
• Burdens of slavery
• Slaves deprived of dignity and sense of
  responsibility that free people have
• suffered cruel physical and psychological
  treatment
• Denied an education since
• seen as dangerous to give slaves ideas of freedom

11
Plantation Slavery Cont

• The increase in the South's slave labor force
  between 1810 and 1860
• Natural population increase of American-born
  slave
• White slave owners often fathered sizable mulatto
  population.
• Most remained slaves
• Slaves seen as valuable assets and primary source
  of wealth
• Slave auctions one of most revolting aspects of
  slavery
• Punishment often brutal to send a message to
  other slaves not to defy masters authority

12
The White Majority

• By 1860, only 1/4 of white southerners owned
  slaves or belonged to slave-owning families
• Small slave owners made up a majority of masters.
  
• 75 of white southerners owned no slaves at all.
• Mostly subsistence farmers didnt participate in
  market economy

13
The White Majority

• Fiercely defended the slave system as it proved
  white superiority
• Poor whites took comfort that they were "equal"
  to wealthy neighbors
• Poor Southern whites someday hoped to own slaves
  and realize the "American dream."

14
Slavery- The Souths Peculiar Institution--
Kenneth Stamp
15
Slave control growing opposition

• A Slave Catechism
• Religion was a means of control
• Rising opposition to slavery
• Natural rights theory of the revolution

16
Slave trade banned by the Constitution in 1807

• Britain bans the slave trade - William
  Wilberforce BRITISH PM
• The ideas of the 2nd Great Awakening

17
The Domestic Slave Trade

• Center Washington D.C.
• Advertisements
• Breeding practices
• Family splitting- Josiah Henson
• Being sold down river

18
Slave Revolts

• Constant fear in the south.
• New York fire riot 1741
• The Gabriel Conspiracy
• Denmark Vesey 1822
• The Nat Turner Revolt 1831

19
The South strikes back!

• New Slave codes and defense of slavery
• Slaves denied any status as human beings
• Use of slave patrols
• Congressional gag resolution

20
The Positive Good theory of slavery

• Edward Brown
• John Hammond -mudsill theory
• George Fitzhugh Cannibals All claimed Africans
  have produced no culture.
• Dr. John Van Evrie did a brain size study.

21
THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT

• THE EARLIEST ABOLITION SOCIETIES FORMED IN 1815
• KEY LEADER BENJAMIN LUNDY
• CALLED FOR GRADUAL EMANCIPATION
• AND COLONIZATION BACK TO AFRICA
• RELIED ON PERSUASION CONCILIATION

22
LUNDY PUBLISHES THE GENIUS OF UNIVERSAL
EMANCIPATION 1821

• WALKED FROM TOWN TO TOWN PREACHING GRADUAL
  EMANCIPATION.
• WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING - BOSTON CLERGYMAN
  DELIVERED THE SAME MESSAGE
• SLAVERY IS YOUR CALAMITY NOT YOUR CRIME

23
BY 1830 IT WAS CLEAR PERSUASION WOULD NOT WORK

• VOLUNTARY EMANCIPATION WAS RARE.
• THE MOVEMENT BECOMES MORE MILITANT.
• THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY FOUNDED 1833
• GOAL TO ABOLITIONIZE THE COUNTRY

24
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON LAUNCHES THE LIBERATOR IN
1831

• SLAVERY SHOULD END NOW!
• I WILL NOT EQUIVOCATE, EXCUSE OR RETREAT A
  SINGLE INCHI WILL BE HEARD!
• SLAVERY IS A CRIME AND A SIN. YOU CAN NOT
  COMPROMISE WITH SIN.

25
WENDELL PHILLIPS THE GOLDEN TRUMPET OF
ABOLITION.

• OTHERS JOIN THE CAUSE
• THEODORE PARKER A UNITARIAN MINISTER.
• WRITER JOHN GREENLIEF WHITTIER
• ALL ARE VIEWED AS DANGEROUS RADICALS AND TROUBLE
  MAKERS IN BOTH THE NORTH SOUTH.

26
ELIJAH P. LOVEJOY

• PUBLISHER OF THE OBSERVER.
• LOVEJOY IS MURDERED IN ALTON, ILLINOIS IN 1837
• FIRST WHITEMAN TO BE KILLED IN THE CAUSE OF
  ABOLITION.
• GARRISON NEARLY LYNCHED

27
ABOLITIONISTS TENDED TO OVERSIMPLIFY

• DEPICTED ALL SLAVE OWNERS AS WICKED BRUTES
• NO COMPROMISE
• GARRISON THE CONSTITUTION IS A COVENANT WITH
  DEATH AND THE DEVIL.
• ATTACK MADE SLAVE OWNERS DEFENSIVE.

28
ABOLITION MOVEMENT SPLIT IN 1840

• ANTI-GARRISON BRANCH FORMS THE LIBERTY PARTY.
• TAKE A FREE SOIL POSITION
• WANTS TO USE POLITICAL MEANS TO END SLAVERY.
• LIBERTY PARTY OFFERS JAMES G. BIRNEY AS PRESIDENT
  IN 1840 1844.

29
THE GARRISON BRANCH OFFERS NO COMPROMISE.

• POSITION YOU CANNOT WORK WITHIN THE SYSTEM.
• HELPS TO ORGANIZE THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
• WHICH ASSISTS SLAVES TO RUNAWAY.
• THE OHIO RIVER IS THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN FREE
  SLAVE TERRITORY

30
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31
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

• HELPED ABOUT 2000 SLAVES TO FREEDOM EVERY YEAR.
• SOUTH DEMANDS ENFORCEMENT OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE
  ACT.
• IN 1850- CONGRESS PASSES A STRONGER FUGITIVE
  SLAVE ACT.

32
SOUTHERN REACTION TO ABOLITION MOVEMENT

• LABELS THEM CRIMINALS
• CONGRESS PASSES THE GAG RULE NO DEBATE OF
  SLAVERY
• BANS DISTRIBUTION OF ABOLITIONIST PAPERS.
• BLAIMS GARRISON FOR NAT TURNER REBELLION.

33
THE SOUTHS ERROR WAS TO OVER-REACT TO THE
ABOLITION MOVEMENT

• IT WAS ALWAYS A MINORITY IN THE NORTH.
• SOUTHERNS CAME TO VIEW ALL NORTHERNERS AS
  ABOLITIONIST.