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11: The South and Slavery, 1790s—1850s. Frederick Douglass, 1817 - 1895.
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“You cannot outlaw one part of the people without endangering the rights and liberties of all people. You cannot put a chain on the ankle of the bondsman without finding the other end of it about your own necks.” Frederick Douglass “This young boy [Nat Turner], by the time he was eight or nine years old, had memorized the entire Bible.” Stephen B. Oates “The mistress of a plantation was the most complete slave on it.” Susan Dabney Smedes “But southern court records, newspapers, plantation diaries, and slave memoirs reveal that sadistic slave punishments were frequent and harsh.” [text]
Introduction • Brer Rabbit and Brer Wolf • Frog and scorpion, boiled frog syndrome • Maroon colonies, Los Folkloristas song • 40% of free blacks were mulattos compared to 10% of slaves! • drapetomania - “the disease causing Negroes to run away” • Life expectancy: 21.4 black / 25.5 white (1850) • Gary Wills: “the slave power” politically
Chapter Review Questions • How did cotton production after 1793 transform the social and political history of the South? How did the rest of the nation/world benefit? • What were the two key institutions of the African American slave community? How did they function, and what beliefs did they express? • The circumstances of three very different groups—poor whites, educated and property-owning American Indians, and free African Americans—put them outside the dominant southern equation of white equals free and black equals slave. Analyze the difficulty each group encountered in the slave-owning South. • Who were the yeoman farmers? What was their interest in slavery? • Southern slaveholders claimed that their paternalism justified their ownership of slaves, but paternalism implied obligations as well as privileges. How well do you think slaveholders lived up to their paternalistic obligations? • How did slave owners justify slavery? How did their defense change over time?
3 interpretive schools of the “peculiar institution” 1. Slavery as a relatively humane and reasonable institution helping childlike slaves 2. Slavery as a harsh and cruel system of oppressive exploitation 3. Viewed from the perspective of the slaves: brutal treatment but survived with sense of self-esteem, community and culture The first two interpretations emphasized workaday interactions, the 2nd focused on life in the slave quarters from sunup to sundown
Rationalizations – positive good to necessary evil. . . Biblical Curse of Canaan Old and New Testament Historical Egypt, Greece, Rome Legal Constitution Missouri Compromise Scientific Environmental factors Created separately [polygenesis] Allston: “The educated master is the Negro’s best friend upon earth.” George Fitzhugh: “the Negro is but a grown child and must be governed as a child.”
Chronology 1787 Constitution with pro-slavery sections 1790s Haiti revolution 1793 Eli Whitney invents cotton gin 1800 Gabriel Prosser conspiracy in VA 1808 External slave trade prohibited by Congress 1820 South is world’s largest cotton producer 1822 Denmark Vesey’s conspiracy in SC 1830s Southern justification from “necessary evil” to “positive good” Brazilian slave revolts 1831 Nat Turner revolt in VA [Joseph Travis, 55 dead] William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator 1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass 1850s Cotton boom 1851 Indiana’s constitution excludes free blacks 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1850s Harriet Tubman, 19 trips with 300 slaves 1860 Cotton production and prices peak
Bibliography John Blasingame, The Slave Community (1979) Linda Brent, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman, Time on the Cross (1974) and Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery (1989) John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans (1947) Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Within the Plantation Household: Black and White women of the Old South (1988) Herbert Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (1976) Ulrich Phillips, American Negro Slavery (1919) Kenneth Stampp, The Peculiar Institution (1956) Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
A: Natchez Under-the-Hill • Natchez and Natchez Under-the-Hill were adjacent communities. • Natchez was an elegant planter community. • Natchez Under-the-Hill was a mixed community of rivermen, gamblers, Indians, and • blacks that was a potential threat to racial control. • Rumors of a slave insurrection plot led the planters to drive the gamblers and other • undesirables away.
The Cotton Gin and Southern Expansion • Eli Whitney’s and Catherine Greene’s cotton gin made cultivating short-staple cotton profitable, revolutionizing the Southern economy. • After the War of 1812 Southerners expanded into Western Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, driving out the Indians who already lived there, • A generation later they poured into Louisiana and Texas. • Each surge of expansion ignited a speculative frenzy.
The Expansion of the Slavery • Between 1790 and 1860, the slave population grew from 700,000 to four million.
The Expansion of Cotton • The expansion of cotton was concentrated in the rich soil sections of the South known as the black belt
Changing Attitudes toward Slavery • The growth of the cotton economy committed the South to slavery. • In other parts of the nation, attitudes toward slavery were changing. • Congress banned the slave trade in 1808 so the South relied on natural increase and the internal slave trade.
The Internal Slave Trade • Planter migration stimulated the slave trade. • Slaves were gathered in pens before moving south by train or boat. • On foot, slaves moved on land in coffles. • The size of the slave trade made a mockery of Southern claims of benevolence.
The Economics of Slavery • Cotton helped finance northern industry and trade. • Cotton and slavery tied up capital leaving the South lagging behind the North in urban population, industrialization, canals, and railroads. • Cotton created a distinctive regionalculture.
The Precarious Slave Existence • The slaves’ first challenge was to survive because: • they lived in one-room cabins with dirt floors and a few furnishings • neither their food and clothing was adequate and were frequently supplemented by the slaves’ own efforts • To survive, slaves learned how to avoid punishments and to flatter whites.
Slave Labor • Some slaves worked as house servants. • Some slaves were skilled workers. • Seventy-five percent of slaves worked as field hands, from sunup to sundown, performing the heavy labor needed for getting out a cotton crop. • Not surprisingly, many suffered from poor health.
Sold “Down the River” • The opening of western lands contributed to the instability of slave life. • Many slaves were separated from their families by sale or migration and faced new hardships in the West.
Building the African American Community • Slaves created a community where an indigenous culture developed, influencing all aspects of Southern life. • Masters had to learn to live with the two key institutions of African American community life: the family and the church.
Slave Families • Slave marriages were: • not recognized by law • frequently not respected by masters • a haven of love and intimacy for the slaves • Parents gave children a supportive and protective kinship network. • Slave families were often split up. • Separated children drew upon supportive networks of family and friends.
Hermitage plantation slave cabins, Savannah, GA - each 2 rooms, bedroom & kitchen
“The Kitchen Ball at White Sulphur Springs” 1838 [after-hour slaves in VA]
African American Religion • Slaves were not permitted to practice African religions, though numerous survivals did work their way into the slaves’ folk culture. • The first and second Great Awakenings introduced Christianity to many slaves. • In the 1790s, African American churches began emerging. • Whites hoped religion would make the slaves obedient. • Slaves found a liberating message that strengthened their sense of community and offered them spiritual freedom.
An 1860 slave burial “drawn from life” at the plantation of LA Gov. Tucker
Freedom and Resistance • Most slaves understood that they could not escape bondage. • About 1,000 per year escaped, mostly from the upper South. • Running away and hiding in the swamps or woods for about a week and then returning was more common.
Slave Revolts • A few slaves organized revolts. • Gabriel Prosser and Denmark Vesey organized large-scale conspiracies to attack whites in Richmond and Charleston that failed. • Nat Turner led the most famous slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia in 1831. • Turner used religious imagery to lead slaves as they killed 55 whites. • After Turner’s revolt, white southerners continually were reminded by the threat of slave insurrection.
