Antebellum Southern Society

1. Antebellum Southern Society

2. Southern Society in 1860 “Slave-ocracy”(plantation owners) 8,000,000 The “Plain Folk”(small slave-owners & yeoman farmers) 250,000 Black Freemen 3,950,000 Black Slaves U.S. population in 1860 was 31,118,075 (including slaves/ freeman)12,200,000 lived in the South 40%

3. Southern Population

4. Southern Agriculture

5. Slaves Picking Cottonon a Mississippi Plantation

6. Slaves Using the Cotton Gin

7. Changes in Cotton Production 1820 1860

8. Value of Cotton Exports As % of All US Exports

9. “Hauling the Whole Week’s Pickings”William Henry Brown, 1842

10. Slaves Workingin a Sugar-Boiling House, 1823

12. Slave Auction Notice, 1823

13. Slave Auction: Charleston, SC-1856

14. Slave Accoutrements Slave MasterBrands Slave muzzle

15. Anti-Slave Pamphlet

16. Slave Accoutrements Slave leg irons Slave tag, SC Slave shoes

17. Distribution of Slave Labor in 1850

18. Slave-Owning Population (1850)

19. Slaves posing in front of their cabin on a Southern plantation.

20. Tara – Plantation Reality or Myth? Hollywood’s Version?

21. A Real Georgia Plantation

22. Scarlet and Mammie(Hollywood Again!)

23. A Real Mammie & Her Charge

24. The Southern “Belle”

25. A Slave Family

26. Slave Resistance & Uprisings

27. 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.].

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

29. Runaway Slave Ads

30. 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.

31. Slave Rebellions Throughout the Americas

32. Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South Gabriel Prosser1800 1822

33. Gabriel Prosser, was a literate enslaved blacksmith who planned a large slave rebellion in the Richmond area in the summer of 1800. Information regarding the revolt was leaked prior to its execution, and he and twenty-five followers were taken captive and hanged in punishment. In reaction, Virginia and other state legislatures passed restrictions on free blacks, as well as prohibiting the education, assembly, and hiring out of slaves, to restrict their chances to learn and to plan similar rebellions. In 2002 the City of Richmond passed a resolution in honor of Gabriel on the 202nd anniversary of the rebellion. In 2007 Governor Tim Kaine gave Gabriel and his followers an informal pardon, in recognition that his cause, "the end of slavery and the furtherance of equality for all people—has prevailed in the light of history".

34. Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South: Nat Turner, 1831

35. 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,were possible. • Importance of music in their lives. [esp. spirituals].

36. Vesey had won a lottery and purchased his freedom at age 32 in 1799. He had a good business and a family, but was unable to buy his first wife Beck and their children out of slavery. Vesey became active in the Second Presbyterian Church; in 1818 and rapidly attracted 1,848 members, making this the second-largest AME congregation in the nation. In 1820 he was alleged to be the ringleader of a planned slave revolt. Vesey and his followers were said to be planning to kill slaveholders in Charleston, liberate the slaves, and sail to the black republic of Haiti for refuge.. Vesey and five slaves were among the first group of men rapidly judged guilty by the secret proceedings of a city-appointed Court and condemned to death; they were executed by hanging on July 2, 1822. Vesey was about age 55.