EUGENIA LANGAN MATER ACADEMY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL HIALEAH GARDENS, FLORIDA

1. OUR PECULIAR INSTITUTION SLAVERY IN THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH S EUGENIA LANGAN MATER ACADEMY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL HIALEAH GARDENS, FLORIDA

2. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS: • WHAT WAS PECULIAR ABOUT ANTEBELLUM SLAVERY? • PECULIAR: (1) STRANGE; (2) PARTICULAR, INDIVIDUAL • WHAT WERE THE SOCIOECONOMIC JUSTIFICATIONS AND EFFECTS OF ANTEBELLUM SLAVERY? • WHAT ARE THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM/ NATIONALISM? • WHAT CAUSED THE CIVIL WAR?

3. EARLY EMANCIPATION IN THE NORTH AND NORTHWEST

4. SLAVE AND FREE STATES AS OF 1840 (UNDER MISSOURI COMPROMISE)

5. the peculiar (strange) institution • 1807: Britain abolished the slave trade, enforced by royal navy • 1820s: newly independent Republics of Central & South America abolished slavery • 1833: slavery abolished throughout the British Empire. • 1844: slavery abolished in the French colonies. • By 1844, in the western world, legal slavery existed only in the u.s.

6. THE PECULIAR (PARTICULAR, INDIVIDUAL) INSTITUTION JOHN C. CALHOUN, SPEECH TO U.S. SENATE “ON THE RECEPTION OF ABOLITION PETITIONS” “THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION OF the South that, on the maintenance of which the very existence of the slaveholding States depends, is pronounced to be sinful and odious . . . . I hold that in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding States between the two, is, instead of an evil . . ..good—a positive good

7. Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually. It came among us in a low, degraded, and savage condition, and in the course of a few generations it has grown up under the fostering care of our institutions, reviled as they have been, to its present comparatively civilized Condition . . . . ABOLITION AND THE UNION CANNOT CO-EXIST.”

8. THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY

9. SOME EFFECTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: • COTTON GIN MADE COTTON CHEAPER TO PROCESS • DEVELOPMENT OF TEXTILE INDUSTRY INCREASED WORLD MARKET FOR COTTON LAND UNDER COTTON PRODUCTION, 1820 AND 1860

10. THE SOUTH HAD A DIVERSIFIED AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY – BUT COTTON WAS THE PREDOMINANT CROP IN THE ANTEBELLUM ERA

11. COTTON BELT • BY 1830 COTTON REPLACED TOBACCO AS THE MAIN CASH CROP – AND PLANTATION AGRICULTURE HAD MOVED INLAND FROM THE UNHEALTHY CHESAPEAKE REGION • WESTWARD EXPANSION IN THE SOUTH WAS BASED ON THE QUEST FOR MORE COTTON LAND

12. KING COTTON • BY THE 1840s, ¾ OF THE WORLD COTTON SUPPLY CAME FROM THE SOUTHERN U.S. • THIS WAS STILL TRUE IN 1860

13. MORE COTTON PLANTATIONS = MORE SLAVES • SLAVE LABOR WAS STILL ESSENTIAL TO PLANTATION AGRICULTURE

15. SLAVES PICKING AND BALING COTTON ON A MISSISSIPPI PLANTATION

16. SLAVES GINNING COTTON

17. MYTHS AND FACTS ABOUT THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY: • MYTH: SLAVERY WAS UNPROFITABLE AND WAS ON ITS WAY OUT BY THE TIME OF THE CIVIL WAR • FACTS (DEMONSTRATED BY ROBERT FOGEL AND STANLEY ENGERMANN IN TIME ON THE CROSS): • SLAVERY YIELDED AN AVERAGE 8 – 10% RETURN ON INVESTMENT – HIGHER THAN THE AVERAGE RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN NORTHEASTERN INDUSTRY • ECONOMIES OF SCALE, AND INTENSIVE UTILIZATION OF LABOR MADE SOUTHERN PLANTATIONS ABOUT 35% MORE EFFICIENT THAN NORTHERN FAMILY FARMS

18. FROM 1840 – 1860, PER CAPITA INCOME IN THE SOUTH INCREASED MORE (1.7%) THAN IN THE NORTH (1.3%) OR THE NATIONWIDE AVERAGE (1.4%). • THE WORLD DEMAND FOR COTTON INCREASED FROM 1830 THROUGH 1860 (AND SUPPLY CLOSELY MATCHED DEMAND). • FACT: In 1860 the American South, if independent, would have been one of the wealthiest countries in the world based on the revenue of the cotton trade.

19. OTHER ASPECTS (DISADVANTAGES?) OF THE SOUTHERN ECONOMY • LITTLE INDUSTRY – RELIED MOSTLY ON IMPORTS FOR MANUFACTURED GOODS • THERE WAS SOME INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT – EXAMPLE ABOVE: GRANITEVILLE TEXTILE CO., RICHMOND, VA, EST. 1845

20. COMPARE THE TRANSPORTATION REVOLUTION, NORTH AND SOUTH: FEWER RAILROADS AND CANALS IN SOUTH, AND SOUTHERN RAILROADS MOSTLY MOSTLY SHORT LINES

21. SOIL DEPLETION: SOUTH NEEDED NEW COTTON LAND, NEEDED TO EXPAND (BUT THAT WAS NOT OUT OF THE QUESTION – TEXAS FIRST, THEN CUBA AND SOUTH AMERICA BECKONED!) • > 75% OF SOUTHERNERS DID NOT OWN SLAVES!

23. SLAVEOWERS IN THE SOUTH, 1850

24. JOHN C. CALHOUN’S PLANTATION HOME, FORT HILL, S.C. – AND THE HOME OF A YEOMAN FARMER THE YEOMAN FARMER MIGHT OWN A FEW SLAVES, BUT WOULD WORK ALONGSIDE THEM. JOHN C. AND HIS CLASS DID NOT! YEOMAN FARMER CLASS IDENTIFIED WITH PLANTER CLASS

25. Hated Planters Hated Blacks Hated Everybody POOR WHITES – MOUNTAIN PEOPLE

26. Southern Society (1850) “Slavocracy”[plantation owners] 6,000,000 The “Plain Folk”[white yeoman farmers, POOR WHITES] Black Freemen 250,000 Black Slaves3,200,000 Total U.S. Population --> 23,000,000[9,250,000 in the South = <40%]

27. SOME SOUTHERN STATES (LIKE MISSOURI) DID NOT ALLOW FREE BLACKS TO RESIDE THERE SOME PROHIBITED SLAVEOWNERS FROM EMANCIPATING SLAVES RESTRICTIONS LIKE THIS BECAME MORE COMMON AFTER NAT TURNER’S REBELLION

28. WHICH STATES HAD THE LARGEST PERCENTAGE OF FREE AFRICAN-AMERICANS? WHY?

29. SLAVE LIFE • MUCH OF WHAT PEOPLE “KNOW” ABOUT SLAVERY (INCLUDING SOME AUTHORS OF SOME TEXTBOOKS) IS MYTHS SPREAD BY ABOLITIONISTS • THE MYTHS GAINED CURRENCY BECAUSE THE SOUTH LOST THE CIVIL WAR, AND HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY WINNERS, NOT LOSERS

30. SOME MYTHS AND FACTS ABOUT SLAVE LIFE • MYTH – SLAVEOWNERS/ WHITE OVERSEERS ROUTINELY KILLED, WHIPPED, MAIMED, STARVED SLAVES • FACT: SLAVES WERE EXPENSIVE, VALUABLE LIVESTOCK. SLAVEOWNERS WANTED SLAVES TO BE ALIVE, HEALTHY, WITH NO INCENTIVES TO ESCAPE • PUNISHMENTS FOR ESCAPE ATTEMPTS WERE SEVERE (SEE NEXT SLIDE) – BUT OTHERWISE SEVERE PUNISHMENTS WERE RARE • N.B. THAT WHIPPING WASN’T CONSIDERED TOO SEVERE FOR WHITE SAILORS, LABORERS, ETC.

31. SLAVES WERE EXPENSIVE SLAVEOWNERS HAD NO INCENTIVE TO KILL, MAIM, STARVE THEM & EVERY INCENTIVE TO KEEP THEM HEALTHY AND AS HAPPY AS POSSIBLE (BUT ALMOST NOBODY IS HAPPY TO BE A SLAVE!)

32. PENALTIES FOR ESCAPE WERE HARSH SLAVE COLLAR AND MUZZLE, LEG IRONS, SCARS FROM SEVERE WHIPPING

34. AFRICANS NEVER GAVE IN TO SLAVERY! CONSTANT ESCAPE ATTEMPTS, CONSTANT REBELLIONS

35. THE DIET AND CLOTHING OF SLAVES COMPARED FAVORABLY TO THOSE OF NORTHERN INDUSTRIAL WORKERS • MOST SLAVE FAMILIES RECEIVED ALLOTMENTS OF PORK AND CORN, AND HAD PLOTS OF LAND WHICH THEY WERE ALLOWED TO GROW VEGETABLES, KEEP CHICKENS, ETC. • MYTH: AFTER THE SLAVE TRADE WAS BANNED IN 1808, “OLD SOUTH” STATES (CHESAPEAKE) BRED SLAVES FOR SALE TO “NEW SOUTH” (COTTON BELT )STATES. • FACT: THERE IS NO EVIDENCE FOR THIS. EVIDENCE AGAINST THIS MYTH: • PRICES FOR FEMALE SLAVES OF CHILDBEARING AGE WERE HIGHER IN THE NEW SOUTH THAN THE OLD SOUTH. • MORE SLAVES WERE BORN IN THE NEW SOUTH THAN THE OLD SOUTH • NOT PROFITABLE TO SELL SLAVES FROM OLD TO NEW SOUTH

36. MYTH: SLAVEOWNERS FREQUENTLY SPLIT UP SLAVE FAMILIES BY SELLING THEM SEPARATELY • FACT: THIS WAS RARE. SLAVEOWNERS ENCOURAGED SLAVE FAMILY UNITY: • HAVING A FAMILY DISCOURAGED ESCAPE • FAMILIES WERE BASIC SOURCE OF SOCIALIZATION, RAISING AND TRAIING OF SLAVE CHILDRENM FOOD DISTRIBUTION AND PRODUCTION – AND “HAPPY” SLAVES WERE MORE PRODUCTIVE • NOT A MYTH – SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF SLAVES (REMEMBER JEFFERSON AND SALLY HEMINGS, HALF-SISTER OF HIS WIFE)

37. MOST SLAVES ON PLANTATIONS LIVED IN SINGLE-FAMILY CABINS (WITH LAND TO FARM ON) THIS SERVED INTEREST OF PLANTATION OWNERS – BUT ALSO MADE FAMILIES THE CORE OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIFE – SOURCE OF protection, support, knowledge, and cultural identity. A SLAVE FAMILY OUTSIDE OF ITS CABIN

38. MYTH: “THE SECOND TRIANGULAR TRADE: - THE MOVEMENT OF OVER 1 MILLION SLAVES WESTWARD (OLD TO NEW SOUTH) SPLIT UP SLAVE FAMILIES: • SEE ABOVE – SLAVEOWNERS HAD NO INCENTIVE TO SPLIT NUCLEAR FAMILIES (EXTENDED FAMILIES MAY HAVE BEEN SPLIT, THOUGH) • MOST WHITES WHO MOVED WEST MOVED LOCK, STOCK AND BARREL, TAKING THEIR SLAVES WITH THEM • N.B. – MOVEMENT OF SLAVES WAS INVOLUNTARY

39. SLAVE SOCIETY • FAMILY-BASED (SEE ABOVE) • IMPORTATION OF SLAVES BANNED 1808  BY 1850 OVER 85% OF SLAVES WERE BORN IN THE U.S., HAD NO EXPERIENCE OF AFRICA • VESTIGES OF AFRICAN CULTURE, RELIGION MERGED WITH EUROPEAN CULTURE IMPOSED ON SLAVES  • SOME ISOLATED INSTANCES OF AFRICAN-ENGLISH DIALECTS (E.G. GULLAH IN CAROLINA BARRIER ISLANDS)

40. RELIGION – CHRISTIANITY – MOSTLY BAPTIST (LIKE MOST SOUTHERN WHITES) • GOSPEL PREACHING – CALL AND RESPONSE ( RAP AND HIP-HOP)

41. “STEPIN FETCHIT” (LINCOLN PERRY) “THE LAZIEST MAN ON EARTH” - FROM “THE BIG TIME” 1945 OUT ON YOUTUBE

42. MUSIC – SLAVE SPIRITUALS “GO DOWN MOSES” LOUIS ARMSTRONG – “SATCHMO” B.B. KING - RAGTIME, BLUES, JAZZ, ROCK N’ ROLL, ROCK . . . RAGTIME --SCOTT JOPLIN, “THE SILVER SWAN” (PIANIST = MAX MORATH) BLUES – B.B. KING, “THE THRILL IS GONE”

43. THE LEGACY OF SLAVERY INCLUDED THE MYTH OF AFRICAN INFERIORITY (WHICH PERSISTS TO SOME EXTENT TODAY) • JUSTIFICATIONS FOR SLAVERY: • Biblical: ancient curse upon Ham • Historical : all great civilizations participated in slavery • Legal: the U.S. Constitution protected slavery w/o the word “slavery” • Racist: multiple theories regarding inferiority of the black race • Sociological: the black race as societal “children” WHO needed paternalistic guidance

44. Southern Pro-Slavery Propaganda

45. Slave personality stereotypes • Nat Turner-Rebellious, Surly, Hostile, Murderous • SEXUAl beasts – black men as danger to “flower of southern womanhood” • Good, content slaves: mammy and uncle • happy-go lucky, docile, simple, childlike -- SAMBO

47. SAMBO IN THE 20TH CENTURY

49. PC Editions -2000-03

50. Joel Chandler Harris, the complete tales of uncle remus (1881) -- “old uncle” slave stereotype) – chandler intended it as “a wonderful defense of slavery”