SLAVES AND MASTERS

1
SLAVES AND MASTERS
2
The South as American Counterpoint

• Shrouded in Myth Gone with the Wind versus
  Simon Legree
• Distinctive Features heat, humidity, staple
  crop agriculture, native born populations, race
• Colonial Economics

3
The Divided Society of the Old South

• Wealth divides white Southerners by class
• White society also divided by region
• Black society also divided with about 6 free
• Race divides all Southerners by caste

4
Slavery the Peculiar Institution

• Slavery the System
• The Slave Experience
• Resistance

5
The Growth of Slavery

• Cotton gin makes cotton production profitable.
• New territory is being opened for slavery.
• Slavery is fundamental to the growth of cotton.
• Owning slaves seen as way to economic prosperity.

6
Eli Whitney and Slavery

• Inventor of the cotton gin
• It will make cotton production efficiently and
  cost effective which will drive the demand for
  slaves
• Whitney will also introduce a rifle with
  interchangeable parts which will aid in producing
  weapons quickly for the American Civil War

7
Anglo Justifications for Slavery

• Racial
• Blacks are seen as brutes and should be
  controlled
• Religious
• Bible scripture provides examples of slavery
• Scientific
• Blacks are inferior to whites
• Paternalism
• Blacks are being taken care of

8
Slave Concentration by 1860
Slave Concentration, 1820
9
Distribution of Slave Labor, 1850
10
50 of all slaves lived in the Black Belt
(Cotton Belt)
11
Slaves Daily Life and Labor

• 90 of slaves lived on plantations or farms
• Most slaves on cotton plantations worked sunup to
  sundown, 6 days/week
• About 75 of slaves were field workers, about 5
  worked in industry
• Urban slaves had more autonomy than rural slaves

12
Conditions of Slavery

• Lived in crude quarters that left them exposed to
  bad weather and disease.
• Diets consisted of cornmeal and salt pork.
• The weather conditions of the South made health
  problems like yellow fever, dysentery, and
  malaria common.
• Slave codes reinforced the concept that slaves
  were property and prevented slaves from having
  any rights.

13
The Plantation System

• Plantations were diverse economically and self
  sufficient.
• Slaves were organized into specialized gangs that
  performed specific duties.
• Productivity was tied to maintaining discipline.

14
Field Slaves

• Majority were field slaves and worked dawn to
  dusk. Some worked under the task system which
  required slaves to complete a specific job once
  done they were free to manage own affairs.
• Did skilled work like carpentry and ironsmithing
  and unskilled work like tending the crops.
• The women also had to care of their families by
  cooking, tending house and taking care of the
  children too!
• Masters hired out slaves to perform other duties
  and keep the slaves wages.

15
House Slaves

• Household slaves cooked, cleaned, and nursed the
  master's children.
• Are constantly watched by their masters and
  mistresses. Had far less privacy than those who
  worked the fields.
• House slaves faced beatings, verbal abuse and
  sexual assault.

16
Slave Quarters
17
The Big House
18
Slave Families, Kinship, and Community

• Normal family life difficult for slaves
• fathers cannot always protect children
• families vulnerable to breakup by masters
• Most reared in strong, two-parent families
• Extended families provide nurture, support amid
  horror of slavery
• Slave culture a family culture that provided a
  sense of community

19
African American Religion

• Black Christianity the cornerstone of an emerging
  African American culture
• Whites fear religions subversive potential, try
  to supervise churches and preaching
• Slave religion kept secret from whites
• reaffirmed the inherent joy of life
• preaches the inevitable day of liberation

20
Slave Resistance

• Slaves worked slowly, broke tools, faked illness
  and destroyed crops.
• Many stole livestock, food, or valuables, burned
  buildings or killed their masters.
• They pursued education! Learning to read is a
  powerful tool!

21
Resistance and Rebellion

• Run away often aided by the Underground Railroad
• Stories, songs asserting equality

22
Slave Punishment

• Slaves were punished for not working fast, being
  late, talking back, running away, and other
  reasons.
• Slave punishment included whippings, torture,
  mutilation, imprisonment, the threat of abusing a
  loved one and being sold away.

23
Resistance and Rebellion

• 1800--Gabriel Prosser
• 1822--Denmark Vesey
• 1831--Nat Turner

24
Slave Rebellions and Uprisings, 1800-1831
25
Gabriel Prossers Rebellion

• Gabriel Prosser plans the first major slave
  rebellion.
• Gabriel wanted to create an independent black
  state in Virginia on August 30, 1800.
• Gabriel and 26 of his companions are hanged.

26
Denmark Veseys Rebellion

• Minister who plans rebellion with over 1,000
  members.
• Informant betrays revolt. Most faced deportations
  and hangings.
• South is paranoid about slave revolts and Slave
  Laws.

27
Nat Turners Rebellion

• Nat Turner claimed to have visions and was
  ordered by God to rebel.
• In August 1831, led a revolt in which 57 men,
  women and children are hacked to death.
• The rebellion causes the South to pass strict
  Slave Codes.

28
Free Blacks in the Old South

• Southern free blacks severely restricted
• Sense of solidarity with slaves
• Generally unable to help
• Repression increased as time passed
• Had to register with the state carry freedom
  papers
• Were excluded from certain jobs
• Subjected to re-enslavement fraudulent
  recapture
• By 1860 some state legislatures were proposing
  laws to force free blacks to emigrate or be
  enslaved

29
White Society in the Antebellum South

• Only a small percentage of slave owners lived in
  aristocratic mansions
• less than 1 of the white population owned 50 or
  more slaves
• Most Southern whites were yeomen farmers

30
The Planters' World

• Big planters set tone, values of Southern life
• Planter wealth based on
• commerce
• land speculation
• slave-trading
• cotton planting
• Plantations managed as businesses
• Romantic ideals imitated only by richest

31
The Value of Cotton Exports as a Percentage of
All U.S. Exports
32
Planters and Paternalism

• Planters pride themselves on paternalism
• Better living standard for Southern slaves than
  others in Western Hemisphere
• Relatively decent treatment due in part to their
  increasing economic value after 1808
• Planters actually deal little with slaves
• Slaves managed by overseers
• Violent coercion accepted by all planters

33
Small Slaveholders

• Slave conditions worst with fewer than 20
• slaves share the master's poverty
• slaves at the complete mercy of the master
• Masters often worked alongside the slaves
• Most slaves would have preferred the economic and
  cultural stability of the plantation

34
Yeoman Farmers

• Small farmers resent large planters
• Some aspire to planter status
• Many saw slavery as guaranteeing their own
  liberty and independence
• Slavery viewed as a system for keeping blacks "in
  their place"

35
A Closed Mind and a Closed Society

• Planters fear growth of abolitionism
• Planters encourage closing of ranks
• Slavery defended as a positive good
• Africans depicted as inferior
• slavery defended with Bible
• slavery a humane asylum to improve Africans
• Slavery superior to Northern wage labor
• Contrary points of view suppressed

36
Slavery and the Southern Economy

• White Southerners perceived their economic
  interests to be tied to slavery
• Lower South slave plantation society
• Upper South farming and slave-trading region

37
The Internal Slave Trade

• Mixed farming in Virginia and Maryland
• Need less labor, more capital
• Upper South sells slaves to lower South
• Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky take on
  characteristics of industrializing North
• Sectional loyalty of upper South uncertain

38
Slave Concentration, 1820
39
The Rise of the Cotton Kingdom

• "Short-staple" cotton drives cotton boom
• Cotton gin makes seed extraction easy
• Year-round requirements suited to slave labor
• Cotton in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama,
  Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, east Texas
• Large planters dominate cotton production
• 1850--South produces 75 of world's cotton,
  cotton the most important U.S. business

40
Slave Concentration, 1860
41
Slavery and Industrialization

• Southerners resent dependence on Northern
  industry, commerce
• Southerners project industrial schemes
• some propose using free white labor
• others propose the use of slaves
• Slaves work in southern factories
• High cotton profits discourage shift to industry

42
The "Profitability" Issue

• Slavery not profitable for South as a whole
• White small farmers have lower living standards
  than most Northern farmers
• Profits from cotton not well-distributed
• Slave system results in waste of human resources,
  Southern underdevelopment

43
Defending Slavery

• Southern planters feared revolts the growth of
  abolitionism used a new defense slavery
• It was sanctioned in the Bible
• Constitution did not prohibit it
• Slavery was a natural way of life for
  inferior Africans
• Slavery was more humane than Northern industrial
  exploitation

44
Defending Slavery

• Proslavery Southerners protected South against
  anti-slavery ideas
• Feared abolitionist propaganda would inspire
  slave rebellions or inspire the yeoman to support
  abolition
• Increased restrictions on blacks by making it
  illegal to teach slaves to read write
• Banned church services meetings without
  supervision

45
Conclusions

• The post-1793 cotton boom transformed the
  American economy Southern society
• Cotton facilitated westward expansion the
  entrenchment of African slavery in the South
• In the 1830s, the South became increasingly
  defensive about perceived Northern attempts to
  end slavery

46
Worlds in Conflict

• Separate Southern worlds
• planters
• slaves
• less affluent whites
• free blacks
• Held together by plantation economy, web of
  customary relationships