Slavery’s Defenders & Critics

1. Slavery’s Defenders & Critics Proslavery Ideology & Antislavery Sentiments in an Age of Reform, 1830-1860

2. Market Revolutions • Eli Whitney & the cotton gin (1793) • Long vs. short staple cotton • Industrial textiles • Lowell, MA • Slavery revival • Abolitionism • Western migration • Anglos to Texas

5. King Cotton • Dark Sweat, White Gold • 1815-60: US Cotton makes up ½ all exports • World supplier of cotton • 1817: 500K bales • 1860: 4.8 million

6. Map 29

7. Transportation Revolution • Significance? • Widening markets • Economies of scale • Interdependency of states • Passenger travel/migration • Freedom of mobility

8. Energy Sources • Human muscle, horses, oxes, mules • Food (plants and animals) • Hay • Prairie grass: Mississippi River to Rockies • Eaten by horses • Wood: 40 cords per year (North) • Steam boilers & engines • Falling water (rivers, streams)

9. Erie Canal: Albany to Buffalo • 1817-1825; 350 miles • New York to New Orleans: 2 weeks • Shipping Costs • 1/10th land transport • Passenger travel

11. Map 27

12. Ch. 11, Image 19

13. The Ambivalence of Thomas Jefferson • “a necessary evil” • Slavery & virtue • Liberty & equality vis-à-vis slavery • Notes on the State of Virginia • Tyranny for master & slave

14. From Ambivalence to Defense • Proslavery Ideology (1830-) • Civilizing force • Christianity & savagism • Paternalism • Father & children • Slavery vs. wage slavery • Worker’s rights & protections • Safety net

15. Ch. 11, Image 8

16. Ch. 11, Image 9

17. Ch. 11, Image 10

18. Proslavery Ideology & Racism • White supremacy • Notes on Virginia • Psuedo-science • Sambo stereotype • Regretful runaways • Rigors of capitalist society • Wages of whiteness

19. George Fitzhugh & the Proslavery Argument (1854) • Anti-free labor system • Wage slavery • Evils of competition • Southern paternalism vs. Northern greed • Famine vs. hospitality • Doc. 67

20. Slavery, Ideology, and Land Use • Southern acidic soils • Fertilizer scarce • Shifting cultivation regime • Fallow land • 67% idle • Land-hungry • Northern continuous cultivation • 35% unimproved

22. White Non-Slaveholders of the South • 25% of South owned slaves • 3% owned 50+ (Great Planters) • $1800 prime hand (1860) • Dream of owning a slave • Not competing with free slaves on labor market • Privilege of skin color • Doc. 66

25. Slavery’s Critics • Runaways • 1,000 per year • Underground Railroad • Northern states • Canada • Fugitive slaves • Rebellions • The Amistad (1839)

26. Slave Rebellion • Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831) • Virginia • Divine providence • 80 slaves, 60 dead whites (women & children • Doc. 70, Confessions of Nat Turner (1831)

28. Antislavery Movements • Colonization schemes • Africa, Caribbean, Central America • Monrovia, Liberia • White republic • William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator (1831) • Militant abolitionism • Wide publications, North & South • Doc. 73

30. Abolitionist Movement • Slavery as sin • unrestrained power • 250K members • White urban women • Northern fringe • Attack on early feminism • Proslavery ideology • Racism • Whig factory owners (cotton) • Political divisive (slavery)

32. Early Feminism in the United States • Domestic Ideology • Reform Impulse • Temperance • Anti-Prostitution • Urban vice • Prisons & asylums • Anti-slavery • Margaret Fuller, New York Tribune (1844)

35. Feminism & Antislavery • Catharine Beecher vs. Angelina and Sarah Grimké • Domestic vs. public sphere • Slavery of sex • Doc. 75-76