Southern Culture and Slavery

1. Southern Culture and Slavery Chapter 16

2. Objective #1 • Explain the economic strengths and weaknesses of the “Cotton Kingdom.”

3. Objective #2 • Describe the southern social hierarchy.

4. Objective #3 • Describe the nature of African American life, both free and slave, before the Civil War.

5. Objective #4 • Describe the abolitionist movement and the southern reaction to the abolitionist movement during the Antebellum Period.

6. Early Emancipation in the North

7. Missouri Compromise, 1820

8. Characteristics of the Antebellum South • Primarily agrarian. • Economic power shifted from the “upper South” to the “lower South.” • “Cotton Is King!” * 1860 5 mil. bales a yr. (57% of total US exports). • Very slow development of industrialization. • Rudimentary financial system. • Inadequate transportation system.

9. Cotton Gin • Invented by Eli Whitney, ties Southern economy to “King Cotton” • Plantation system • Only plantations could afford gins, so gap between rich and poor was wide

10. Southern Agriculture

11. Changes in Cotton Production 1820 1860

12. Southern Cotton • Half of our country’s exports by 1840 • Largest producer of cotton in the worl • 75% of England’s cotton came from U.S. South • Benefitted Northern textile mills • Tied Southern economy to cotton. • Very little industry

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

14. Southern Economy Chained to Cotton • Quick profits • Lots of bountiful land • Very reliant on slavery • Number of slaves in 1820: 1.5 million • Number of slaves in 1860: 4 million • 75% in agriculture (55% cotton) • Domestic servants, mining, industry

15. The Cotton System • Relied on international markets • Heavy investment in slaves • Dangerous to depend on one-crop economy • Lots of land speculation • Lots of debt

16. Southern Society (1850) “Slavocracy”[plantation owners] 6,000,000 The “Plain Folk”[white yeoman farmers] Black Freemen 250,000 “Hillbillies” Black Slaves3,200,000 Total US Population  23,000,000[9,250,000 in the South = 40%]

17. Southern Hierarchy • 1850: 1700 families owned 100 or more slaves • Controlled political and social leadership • Rich often sent kids to private school

18. Slave-Owning Families (1850)

19. Yeoman Farmer • 70% of farmers owned less than 100 acres • 2/3 of hog raising in South • 75% of southern whites owned no slaves and lived on family farms • Resembled northern farmers • Worked the land along side slaves • Many forced to sell land to plantations and move West or North

20. A Group Below Yeoman Farmers • Sometimes called “Hillbillies”, “Dirt Eaters”, “Poor White Trash” • Lived in marshes, barrens of South • Grew vegetables, fished, hunted, hired themselves as farm hands • Poor diet, bad living conditions • Higher rate of disease • School attendance rates were lower • Perception of being lazy

21. Whites Without Slaves • Protected system • Some wanted to own slaves • Protect “racial superiority” • Some who lived in Appalachian Mountains were detached from slavery and cotton plantations • Some of these would be abolitionists • Some just detested slavery and the plantation system

22. Free Blacks • 250,000 in South • Many were mulatto • Purchased freedom • Racism limited job opportunities • Denied civil rights • 250,000 in North • Mulatto, born into freedom, ran away • Purchased freedom or ran away • Racism limited job opportunities • Denied civil rights

23. Plantation Slavery • 4 million slaves in 1860 • Southerners invested nearly $2 billion into slavery by 1860 • Slaves • Work from dusk til dawn • No civil or political rights • Punishment for not working hard

24. Southern Population

25. Slave Families • Most had 2-parent households in Deep South • More likely to form African-American culture on plantations • Smaller farms meant more contact with whites, separation from families

26. A Slave Family

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

28. 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].

29. Early Abolition • By 1820: 120 abolitionist groups in the U.S. • Most advocated a slow, moderate ending of slavery (“Gradualists”) • Payment to slaveholders • Did not advocate equality for blacks

30. Abolitionist Movement • 1817  American Colonization Society created (gradual, voluntary emancipation. Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Marshall, James Monroe British Colonization Society symbol

31. Abolitionist Movement • Create a free slave state in Liberia, WestAfrica. • Capital was Monrovia • No real anti-slavery sentiment in the North in the 1820s & 1830s. Gradualists Immediatists

32. William Lloyd Garrison (1801-1879) • Slavery undermined republican values. • Slaves were Americans, not Africans • Deserve equal rights • Immediate emancipation with NO compensation. • Slavery was a moral, notan economic issue. R2-4

33. The Liberator Premiere issue  January 1, 1831 R2-5

34. The Tree of Slavery—Loaded with the Sum of All Villanies!

35. Black Abolitionists David Walker(1785-1830) 1829 Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World Fight for freedom rather than wait to be set free by whites.

36. Anti-Slave Pamphlet

37. Southern Pro-SlaveryPropaganda

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

39. Nat Turner’s Revolt (1831) • Bloodiest slave rebellion in American History • Turner and 60 slaves attack plantations of Virginia • 55 whites killed • Turner’s men were captured or lynched • Anti-slavery propaganda and abolitionists blamed

40. Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) 1845 The Narrative of the Life Of Frederick Douglass 1847  “The North Star” R2-12

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

42. Harriet Tubman(1820-1913) • Helped over 300 slaves to freedom. • $40,000 bounty on her head. • Served as a Union spy during the Civil War. “Moses”

43. The Underground Railroad

44. Leading Escaping Slaves Along the Underground Railroad

45. 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.

46. Runaway Slave Ads

47. Abolitionist Impact on North • Unpopular at first • North dependent on South • South owed Northern creditors $300 million • Propaganda began to change some Northern attitudes • Many did not want slavery expanded into territories • Republican party formed in 1850s • “Free-Soilers” growing in strength and numbers

48. Opposition to Abolitionists Grows • Many felt ending slavery would hurt Southern economy and society • Abolitionist propaganda made illegal • “Gag Rule” in House (1836) • Attacks on Abolitionists • Considered outside agitators • Some Northerners did not want job and housing competition • Mainly working class whites