Slaves and Masters 1793–1861

1. 11 Slaves and Masters1793–1861

2. Horrid Massacre in Virginia (1831) A composite of scenes of Nat Turner’sRebellion, an illustration from a book entitled “Authentic and impartial narrative of the tragical scene which was witnessed in Southampton County [New York, 1831].

3. Slaves and Masters1793–1861 • The World of Southern Blacks • White Society in the Antebellum South • Slavery and the Southern Economy

4. Nat Turner’s Rebellion: A Turning Point In The Slave South • Nat Turner leads slave rebellion for freedom; killed sixty whites • 48 hours later, rebels executed • White Southerners believed abolitionist propaganda caused rebellions • New laws restricted slaves’ rights to move about, assemble, learn to read and write

5. The World of Southern Blacks

6. The World of Southern Blacks • Constant resistance of Southern ideology, repression • Constant aspiration to freedom • Psychic survival helped create and maintain a unique African American ethnicity

7. 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

8. Picking Cotton Although cotton cultivation required constant attention, many of the tasks involved were relatively simple. On a cotton plantation most slaves, including women and children, were field hands who performed the same tasks. Here a slave family stands behind baskets of picked cotton in a Georgia cotton field.

9. 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

10. Slave Families, Kinship, and Community (cont’d) • Extended families provide nurture, support amid horror of slavery • Slave culture a family culture that provided a sense of community

11. A Slave Family Though death or sale broke up many slave families, some families, especially those on large, stable plantations, managed to stay together. This 1862 photograph by Timothy H. O’Sullivan shows five generations of a slave family, all born on the plantation of J. J. Smith in Beaufort, South Carolina.

12. Resistance and Rebellion • 1800: Gabriel Prosser rebellion fell apart because of violent storm • 1822: Denmark Vesey • Well-planned conspiracy for slaves to seize armory and then take Charleston slaves

13. Resistance and Rebellion (cont’d) • Great Dismal Swamp fugitives • 1831: Nat Turner revolt • 1835–1842: 2nd Seminole War • Slaves escaped and joined Seminoles

14. Resistance and Rebellion (cont’d) • Runaway often aided by the Underground Railroad • Work-related • Work slowdowns • Sabotage • Poison masters • Stories, songs asserting equality

15. 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 • By 1860, some state legislatures were proposing laws to force free blacks to emigrate or be enslaved

16. White Society in the Antebellum South

17. 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

18. The Planters’ World • Big planters set tone, values of Southern life • Planter wealth based on • Commerce • Land speculation • Slave trading • Cotton planting

19. The Planters’ World (cont’d) • Plantations managed as businesses • Romantic ideals imitated only by richest

20. Plantation Mansion Painting by Adrien Persac depicting the back of a plantation house in Louisiana as seen from the bayou. Persac was commissioned to paint some of the great houses in the region, and in 1858 he published a map showing the plantations along the Mississippi River from Natchez to New Orleans.

21. Planters, Racism, and Paternalism • Planters prided 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

22. Planters, Racism, and Paternalism (cont’d) • Planters actually dealt little with slaves • Slaves managed by overseers • Violent coercion accepted by all planters

23. Small Slaveholders • Slave conditions worst with fewer than 20 slaves • 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

24. Yeomen Farmers • Small farmers resented large planters • Some aspired to planter status • Many saw slavery as guaranteeing their own liberty and independence • Slavery viewed as a system for keeping blacks "in their place"

25. Yeoman Household Carl G. Von Iwonski, Block House, New Braunfels. Most slaveholders in the South were not large plantation owners but small farmers of modest means who lived not in pillared mansions but in small, rough log cabins. Many others were yeoman farmers who owned no slaves.

26. A Closed Mind and a Closed Society • Planters feared growth of abolitionism • Planters encouraged closing of ranks

27. A Closed Mind and a Closed Society (cont’d) • 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

28. Slavery and the Southern Economy

29. 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

30. Sales Lewis Miller, Slave Sale, Virginia, probably 1853. Slave auctions, such as the one depicted in Lewis Miller’s sketchbook, were an abomination and embarrassment to many Americans.

31. The Internal Slave Trade • Mixed farming in Virginia and Maryland • Needed less labor, more capital • Upper South sold slaves to lower South • Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky took on characteristics of industrializing North • Sectional loyalty of upper South uncertain

32. The Rise of the Cotton Kingdom • "Short-staple" cotton drove cotton boom • Cotton gin made seed extraction easy • Year-round requirements suited to slave labor

33. TABLE 11.1 U.S. Slave Population, 1820 and 1860

34. TABLE 11.1 (continued) U.S. Slave Population, 1820 and 1860

35. The Rise of the Cotton Kingdom (cont’d) • Cotton in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, East Texas • Large planters dominated cotton production • 1850: South produced 75% of world’s cotton, the most important U.S. business

36. Cotton as a Percentage of All U.S. Exports, 1800–1860 Hine, Darlene, Clark, Hine, William, C., Harrold, Stanley, C. AFRICAN-AMERICAN ODYSSEY: THE COMBINED VOLUME, 4/E (c) 2008 Printed and Electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

37. Conclusion: Worlds in Conflict

38. Conclusion: Worlds in Conflict • South was divided by class, race, culture, and geography • A booming plantation economy, customary relationships could obscure underlying antagonisms • Fragile society would become apparent under pressures of civil war

39. King Cotton Steamboats in New Orleans await bales of cotton for shipment. By 1860 production of “King Cotton” in the South peaked at 4.8 million bales.

40. Timeline