The Cotton Economy: Staple Crop, Slavery, and the Old South

1. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South FALL 2011 NYCCT HISTORY 1110: U.S. HISTORY TO 1877 SECTIONS 6750 & 6752 BRENDAN O’MALLEY, INSTRUCTOR

2. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South THE COTTON ECONOMY • What is a “staple economy”?

3. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South THE COTTON ECONOMY • Staple Economy: A “staple” is a commodity, most often a raw or unprocessed one, that dominates a nation or region’s exports. In the antebellum South, planters grew staples like rice, sugar, and tobacco, but early in the 1800s, cotton became its primary staple. • Shift from “Upper South” to “Lower South”: The transition to cotton drove the center of economic power from the “Upper South” (old tobacco-growing regions in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee), and the “Lower South” (cotton-growing regions of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina). Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina were turning to other crops other than tobacco by the 1830s. Lower South coastal areas in South Carolina, Georgia, and parts of Florida relied on a more stable and profitable rice crop, and certain areas of Louisiana and the Texas coast could grow sugar. But most of the Lower South was turning to cotton. • Short-Staple Cotton: This heartier variety of cotton could be grown in many different areas, not just the coastal regions where long-staple cotton grows. And the invention of the cotton gin made it far easier to process.

4. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South 1820

5. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South 1860

6. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South THE COTTON ECONOMY • Growing Demand: In the 1820s and 1830s, the growth in textile mills in England increased demand, while in the 1840s and 1850s, the textile industry began to take off in New England. • Linchpin to the Southern Economy: By the 1850s, cotton had been the most important factor in the Southern economy, accounting for two-thirds of the region’s exports by the time of the Civil War. The South was beginning to earn its title as the “Cotton Kingdom.” • Movement of Slaves: From the 1840s to the 1860s, hundreds of the thousands of the slaves moved from the Upper South states into the cotton states, either accompanying masters, or more frequently, being sold further south. Historian Ira Berlin has called this the “Second Middle Passage” as millions of slaves were uprooted and separated from their families, dispersed across the Cotton South.

7. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SOUTHERN TRADE AND INDUSTRY • Booming Agricultural Expansion Slows Other Growth: The booming agricultural economy made it difficult for other economic areas to develop. Flour milling and textile and iron manufacturing grew—particularly in the Upper South—but was dwarfed by the agricultural output. • Factors: Without many banks, planters had to rely on “factors,” agents who marketed their crops and extended credit to the planters. • Transportation Problems: Roads were of poor quality, and canals almost nonexistent. Planters moved crops almost exclusively by rivers or by sea. Railroads began to expand in the 1840s and 1850s, but not enough to tie the region together. • DeBow’s Commercial Review: Beginning in 1846, James D.B. DeBow published this periodical that advocated for Southern economic independence. DeBow worried that the South was too reliant on the manufacturers, merchants, and professionals of the North, and wanted to see these areas developed in the South. Yet DeBow could not afford to refuse northern advertisers in his pages.

8. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SOUTHERN TRADE AND INDUSTRY

9. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SOURCES OF SOUTHERN DIFFERENCE • The Question: Why did the South not develop a larger industrial and commercial economy like the one that developed in the North? • Profitability: Ambitious capitalists were not driven to look for manufacturing or commercial alternatives to agriculture as they had been in the North, where agricultural was not very profitable. Cotton cultivation using slave labor was highly profitable, as was rice and sugar in the places those crops could be grown. • Climate: It is possible that the hot and steamy summers of the South made it less suitable to industrialization, although • Cultural Values: Many Southerners would come to argue that they were preserving a unique way of life that was more refined and graceful than that of the North (which, of course, was ironic considering this way of life was based on a brutal slave regime).

10. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SOUTHERN WHITE SOCIETY • Small Number of Slave Holders: Of the eight million whites in the South (out of roughly thirty-one million in the U.S.) in 1860, only 383,637 owned slaves. And a very small minority of the owners had a substantial number of slaves; most owners only had a few. Those who owned large numbers were the planter class. • The Planter Aristocracy: The planter class exercised power and influence that was far greater than in its relatively small numbers. White southerners often compared them to the aristocracy of England or Europe. Some families had been wealthy and powerful for generations, but many of the great landholders were still first-generation settlers as late as the 1850s and had only recently began to enjoy a life of luxury. • Tough Business: The life of planter was not really that genteel; staple crop cultivation was a tough, competitive business not unlike those of the manufacturers, merchants, and bankers of the North. Many lived modestly since most of their money was tied up in lands and slaves, and because they often had to move frequently to open up new lands for cultivation.

11. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SOUTHERN WHITE SOCIETY • The Aristocratic Ideal: Many planters adopted a system of values that imitated earlier aristocracies, with an elaborate code of chivalry that demanded that men defend their honor—often through dueling— and that white women be protected. • The Southern Lady: Affluent white southern women rarely took part in activities outside the home or in income-producing activities. Like northern middle-class women, their affairs centered around the home. The cult of southern honor required men to protect women, but also demanded that women obey them. Leading relatively isolated lives, most southern white women did not have much opportunity to look beyond their roles as wives and mothers. On smaller farms, women did participate in spinning, weaving, some agricultural tasks, and supervising any slaves if her household had any. Such tasks were not deemed appropriate for wealthy plantation mistresses, however. Overall education was not readily available for women. • Special Burdens of White Women: Infant mortality remained high, and wives often had to live with slave children who were produced by their husbands raping slave women, constant reminders of their husbands’ infidelity.

12. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SOUTHERN WHITE SOCIETY • The Plain Folk: Most white southerners were “yeoman farmers,” who, compared to the planters, owned a much smaller amount of land and perhaps just a few slaves. Some concentrated on subsistence farming, while others grew cotton (but rarely at a profitable level). • Lack of Educational Opportunities: Elementary and secondary schools in the South were far and few between, and of a lesser quality than those of the North. In 1860, there were 500,000 illiterate whites in the South, over half of the nation’s total. There were 260 southern universities and colleges for men, but these were only available to the affluent. • Poorer Whites and the Planter Class: Why was it that lower-class whites support a social system that benefitted wealthy planters but did almost nothing for them? • “Hill People”: Some non-slaveholding whites did oppose this social order, but were fairly isolated, living in the Appalachian mountain ranges, Ozarks, or other hill areas. These people practiced subsistence agriculture, owned almost no slaves, and for the most part stood outside of the cotton economy. The often expressed animosity toward the planters. During the Civil War, they were the only whites to oppose secession actively.

13. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SOUTHERN WHITE SOCIETY • Dependence on the Plantation: Nonslaveowning whites who lived among the plantation system were far more common than the “hill people.” Many were small farmers who relied on the planters for access to cotton gins, as buyers of their crops, or as providers of credit. Some aspired to become planters themselves, and the cotton boom of the 1850s allowed many to do so. Others became established enough in their role as independent yeoman farmers to feel sympathetic to the whole system. • “Poor White Trash”: Some poor whites, who lived in infertile pine barrens or other nonproductive lands, were not attached to the cotton economy but nonetheless supported it. They were often forced to forage for food or work as common laboerers, suffered from malnutrition, and were despised by planters and small farmers alike. • Absence of Class Conflict: Overall, there was little class conflict in the antebellum South or much opposition to the slave system among whites because of one factor: they were unified around their perceptions of race. Poor and miserable whites could still look down upon African American slaves.

14. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SLAVERY: THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION • The Peculiar Institution: By 1850, the southern United States was the only place in the Western world—along with Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico—where slavery still existed. And it was peculiar in that slaves and masters—who lived in such close proximity to each other—lived in two different worlds, although both were deeply influenced by one another. • Slave Codes: These forbid slaves to hold property, leave their masters’ premises without permission, be out after dark, congregate with other slaves except at church, carry a firearm, testify in court against white people, or strike a white person in self-defense (they could face the death penalty for doing so). Killing a slave was generally not considered a crime. Whites were forbidden from teaching slaves how to read and write. And slave codes also defined someone race; in general, the “one-drop” rule was in effect. Enforcement of the codes was often spotty at best; some slaves experienced prison-like discipline, while others exercised considerable autonomy. • Paternal Relationship: Small farmers worked closely with their slaves and exercised direct control. While most slaveholders owned just a few slaves, most slaves lived on a big plantation. The relationship between slave and master on bigger plantations was more distant; overseers and “head driver” slaves supervised the work. African Americans tended to prefer to live in big plantations, where more of a social world could develop.

15. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SLAVERY: THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION • Life Under Slavery: Most slaves subsisted on a diet of cornmeal, salt pork, molasses, and on occasion, fresh meat or poultry. Some grew vegetables for their own use. Masters provided slaves with cheap clothes and rough cabins called “slave quarters.” Slave labor was generally the hardest around harvest time. Often slave families were divided, with fathers working on different plantations, so children often did not even know their fathers that well. Slave women had to work hardest since they not only worked in the fields, but also cooked and performed child-rearing duties. • High Mortality Rates: After the shutdown of the Atlantic Slave Trade in 1808, the ratio of blacks to whites began to dwindle since slaves had a much higher death rate than whites. Even those who survived childhood often died far younger than their white counterparts. The slave population could not reproduce itself as quickly as the white population, but compared to other slave societies in the Caribbean and South America, slave reproduction was relatively high in the U.S. South.

16. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION • Household Slaves: Household slaves generally had easier physical tasks to accomplish compare to field slaves. Sometimes an almost familial relationship could develop between household slaves and their masters. But in most cases, this was probably just a façade. Household slaves did resent their close supervision, discipline, and isolation from the other slaves. After emancipation, household slaves were often the first to leave. • Sexual Abuse: Household slaves were especially vulnerable to sexual abuse by their masters. In addition to rape and abuse, slaves had to deal with vindictive treatment at the hands of white women angered by their husband’s sexual predation. Since women could not challenge their husbands, they took out their anger on the slaves. An 1848 daguerreotype of a white child and a house slave

17. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SLAVERY: THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION Free Blacks • Obtaining Freedom: Over 250,000 free blacks lived in slave states just before the start of the Civil War (1860), with more than half of that number residing in Virginia and Maryland. Many had been urban slaves who had somehow found ways to buy their families’ freedom. Masters had little incentive to allow this to happen, so this route was available to few people. Some slaves were freed by masters who had moral qualms about slavery, such as the great planter John Randolph of Virginia, who upon his death freed over 400 in 1833 (the Randolphs were a very old and prestigious Virginia family). In New Orleans, Natchez, and Charleston, free black communities had little interference from white societies, and some blacks obtained some economic stability. Overall, most free blacks were poor. • Stricter Laws in the 1830s: After the Nat Turner revolt in 1831, state laws made it much harder to manumit (meaning “to free”) slaves. White “slave patrols” asked all blacks that they encountered for papers proving free status or permission to travel from masters. Free blacks often risked re-enslavement while traveling.

18. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SLAVERY: THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION • Slave Resistance: Slaveowners frequently argued that slaves were happy with their lot and much better off enslaved than they would be otherwise. Yet most evidence points to the fact that most slaves yearned for freedom. A powerful piece of evidence is that most reacted to emancipation with great joy, and almost none chose to remain in service to their former masters. • Forms of Resistance: In the presence of whites, some slaves took on the persona of the “Sambo,” a deferential and shuffling slave who pretended to know a lot less than he or she let on. This charade served as a defense mechanism. Slaves also slowed down work, sabotaged equipment, stole from their masters, did work improperly, and practiced other forms of daily resistance.

19. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SLAVERY: THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION • Slave Resistance: Slaveowners frequently argued that slaves were happy with their lot and much better off enslaved than they would be otherwise. Yet most evidence points to the fact that most slaves yearned for freedom. A powerful piece of evidence is that most reacted to emancipation with great joy, and almost none chose to remain in service to their former masters. • Forms of Resistance: In the presence of whites, some slaves took on the persona of the “Sambo,” a deferential and shuffling slave who pretended to know a lot less than he or she let on. This charade served as a defense mechanism. Slaves also slowed down work, sabotaged equipment, stole from their masters, and practiced other forms of daily resistance. • “Underground Railroad”: Slaves ran away consistently, although the odds of actually escaping were small. Chances of making it to the North or Canada became better when anti-slavery activists organized the “underground railroad,” an informal network of secret routes and safe houses for

20. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SLAVERY: THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION An 1853 runaway slave notice

21. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SLAVERY: THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION

22. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South SLAVERY: THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION Revolts • Rare but Disturbing: Slave revolts were relatively rare, but the mere fact that they could happen scared Southern whites deeply. Many slaveholders feared that their slaves would creep into their houses in the middle of the night and slit their throats. Why do you think that revolts were so rare? • Gabriel Prosser: In 1800, an enslaved blacksmith named Gabriel Prosser led a force of 1,000 rebel slaves outside of Richmond, Virginia, but two African Americans gave the plot away and a white militia was able to put the revolt down. Prosser and his conspirators were executed. • Denmark Vesey: In 1822 free black carpenter Denmark Vesey made preparations for revolt—rumored to involve 9,000 slaves—in Charleston, South Carolina, but it was also betrayed. Vesey and 34 other conspirators were hanged. • Nat Turner: The most successful revolt was in 1831. The slave Nat Turner who had been seeing religious visions, led a group of slaves armed with guns and axes. The group slaughtered sixty white men, women, and children before state and federal troops crushed the revolt.

23. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South THE CULTURE OF SLAVERY • Slave Religion: Almost all Africans were Christians by the early nineteenth century. Some had converted voluntarily, while others converted having been coerced by their masters or Protestant missionaries. Slaves were not supposed to have a separate version of Christianity—indeed, separate black churches were illegal—but a distinct black Christianity nonetheless evolved. • Black Christianity: Many slaves began to practice a form of religion that combined Christianity with elements of African religion, such as New Orleans voodoo, which blended Catholicism with African deities. Slave prayer meetings were often more animated and emotional than white church services. Songs and prayers would frequently as God to “Deliver us to freedom” or “Take us to the Promise Land,” simultaneously expressing a desire for freedom and Christian salvation.

24. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South THE CULTURE OF SLAVERY • Language: In more remote areas where plantation slaves carried out their work with little direct supervision—such as the rice growing areas of coastal South Carolina—where slaves maintained their own language, often called “pidgin,” which combines English with African words. The South Carolina dialect is known as Gullah. • Music: Music was important to slave culture, especially singing. African Americans also developed the banjo, which had some similarities to an African instrument made from a gourd. Field slaves sung songs to pass time while they were working, and used a call-and-response format that developed into the spiritual. These songs expressed religious faith and hope for freedom, and lamented bondage.

25. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South THE CULTURE OF SLAVERY • The Slave Family: Nuclear families—mothers, fathers, and children—were the basis of slave family life, although there were many challenges in keeping that family together. Slave woman tended to start having children as early fourteen, and pregnancy before marriage was generally not frowned upon in the slave community. Couples married after conceiving a child by exchanging informal vows (legally, slaves marriages had no standing). It was not uncommon for husbands and wives lived on separate plantations, and had to seek permission to visit each other. Sometimes husbands would sneak away at night to visit wives and children. • Challenges to Slave Families: Circumstances beyond the slaves’ control mostly broke up slave families. An estimated one-third of all black families were broken up by the domestic slave trade: a family member was sold to an new owner far away. Extended kinship networks helped to soften this blow, but it was nonetheless devastating. The most common reason why a slave fled from a plantation was to go find a family member who had been sold.

26. CHAPTER ELEVENCotton, Slavery & The Old South THE CULTURE OF SLAVERY • Paternalism: Many scholars claim that slaves did not always have a purely hostile relationship with their masters. Masters could be cruel and harsh, but they did provide food, clothes, and shelter, creating a “paternal” relationship with their slaves. It was a “paternal” system in that it was designed to make slaves completely dependent on their masters, just like children are with their parents. Slave masters made the racist argument that under their “paternalistic” care, Africans were better off than they would be on their own, and were cared for as children would be. But to compare the relationship between slave and master as anything remotely familial is to distort the nature of that relationship, which was founded on brutality.