SLAVES AND MASTERS

1. SLAVES AND MASTERS

2. The Growth of Slavery • Cotton gin makes cotton production profitable. • New territory is being opened for slavery. • Slavery is fundamental to the growth of cotton. • Owning slaves seen as way to economic prosperity.

3. Eli Whitney and Slavery • Inventor of the cotton gin • It will make cotton production efficiently and cost effective which will drive the demand for slaves • Whitney will also introduce a rifle with interchangeable parts which will aid in producing weapons quickly for the American Civil War

4. Anglo Justifications for Slavery • Racial • Blacks are seen as “brutes” and should be controlled • Religious • Bible scripture provides examples of slavery • Scientific • Blacks are inferior to whites • Paternalism • Blacks are being taken care of

5. Slave Concentration by 1860 Slave Concentration, 1820

6. Distribution of Slave Labor, 1850

7. 50% of all slaves lived in the Black Belt (“Cotton Belt”)

8. 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

9. Conditions of Slavery • Lived in crude quarters that left them exposed to bad weather and disease. • Diets consisted of cornmeal and salt pork. • The weather conditions of the South made health problems like yellow fever, dysentery, and malaria common. • Slave codes reinforced the concept that slaves were property and prevented slaves from having any rights.

10. The Plantation System • Plantations were diverse economically and self sufficient. • Slaves were organized into specialized gangs that performed specific duties. • Productivity was tied to maintaining discipline.

11. Field Slaves • Majority were field slaves and worked dawn to dusk. Some worked under the task system which required slaves to complete a specific job once done they were free to manage own affairs. • Did skilled work like carpentry and ironsmithing and unskilled work like tending the crops. • The women also had to care of their families by cooking, tending house and taking care of the children too! • Masters hired out slaves to perform other duties and keep the slave’s wages.

12. House Slaves • Household slaves cooked, cleaned, and nursed the master's children. • Are constantly watched by their masters and mistresses. Had far less privacy than those who worked the fields. • House slaves faced beatings, verbal abuse and sexual assault.

13. Slave Quarters

14. The Big House

15. 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 • Extended families provide nurture, support amid horror of slavery • Slave culture a family culture that provided a sense of community

16. African American Religion • Black Christianity the cornerstone of an emerging African American culture • Whites fear religion’s subversive potential, try to supervise churches and preaching • Slave religion kept secret from whites • reaffirmed the inherent joy of life • preaches the inevitable day of liberation

17. Slave Resistance • Slaves worked slowly, broke tools, faked illness and destroyed crops. • Many stole livestock, food, or valuables, burned buildings or killed their masters. • They pursued education! Learning to read is a powerful tool!

18. Resistance and Rebellion • Run away often aided by the Underground Railroad • Stories, songs asserting equality

19. Slave Punishment • Slaves were punished for not working fast, being late, talking back, running away, and other reasons. • Slave punishment included whippings, torture, mutilation, imprisonment, the threat of abusing a loved one and being sold away.

20. Resistance and Rebellion • 1800--Gabriel Prosser • 1822--Denmark Vesey • 1831--Nat Turner

21. Slave Rebellions and Uprisings, 1800-1831

22. Gabriel Prosser’s Rebellion • Gabriel Prosser plans the first major slave rebellion. • Gabriel wanted to create an independent black state in Virginia on August 30, 1800. • Gabriel and 26 of his companions are hanged.

23. Denmark Vesey’s Rebellion • Minister who plans rebellion with over 1,000 members. • Informant betrays revolt. Most faced deportations and hangings. • South is paranoid about slave revolts and Slave Laws.

24. Nat Turner’s Rebellion • Nat Turner claimed to have visions and was ordered by God to rebel. • In August 1831, led a revolt in which 57 men, women and children are hacked to death. • The rebellion causes the South to pass strict Slave Codes.

25. 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 • Had to register with the state & carry “freedom” papers • Were excluded from certain jobs • Subjected to re-enslavement & fraudulent “recapture” • By 1860 some state legislatures were proposing laws to force free blacks to emigrate or be enslaved

26. 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

27. The Planters' World • Big planters set tone, values of Southern life • Planter wealth based on • commerce • land speculation • slave-trading • cotton planting • Plantations managed as businesses • Romantic ideals imitated only by richest

28. The Value of Cotton Exports as a Percentage of All U.S. Exports

29. Planters and Paternalism • Planters pride 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 • Planters actually deal little with slaves • Slaves managed by overseers • Violent coercion accepted by all planters

30. Small Slaveholders • Slave conditions worst with fewer than 20 • 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

31. Yeoman Farmers • Small farmers resent large planters • Some aspire to planter status • Many saw slavery as guaranteeing their own liberty and independence • Slavery viewed as a system for keeping blacks "in their place"

32. A Closed Mind and a Closed Society • Planters fear growth of abolitionism • Planters encourage closing of ranks • 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

33. 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

34. The Rise of the Cotton Kingdom • "Short-staple" cotton drives cotton boom • Cotton gin makes seed extraction easy • Year-round requirements suited to slave labor • Cotton in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, east Texas • Large planters dominate cotton production • 1850--South produces 75% of world's cotton, cotton the most important U.S. business

35. Defending Slavery • Southern planters feared revolts & the growth of abolitionism & used a new defense slavery: • It was sanctioned in the Bible • Constitution did not prohibit it • Slavery was a “natural” way of life for “inferior” Africans • Slavery was more humane than Northern industrial exploitation

36. Defending Slavery • Proslavery Southerners protected South against anti-slavery ideas: • Feared abolitionist propaganda would inspire slave rebellions or inspire the yeoman to support abolition • Increased restrictions on blacks by making it illegal to teach slaves to read & write • Banned church services & meetings without supervision

37. Conclusions • The post-1793 cotton boom transformed the American economy & Southern society: • Cotton facilitated westward expansion & the entrenchment of African slavery in the South • In the 1830s, the South became increasingly defensive about perceived Northern attempts to end slavery