Chapter 12The South Expands: Slavery

and Society 1800-1860

Creating the Cotton South• American slavery took root on the tobacco plantations of the Chesapeake and in the rice

fields of Carolina. It matured spreading to Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and especially in the cotton states bordering the Gulf of Mexico: Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas.

The Domestic Slave Trade• Slave states went from ___ to ___ from 1800 to 1850 respectively.

• The federal government assisted its expansion• 1803

• 1830s

• 1840s

• Illegal importing of slaves from FL (until 1819) and Mexican Texas.

The Upper South Exports Slaves

• By 1860 demand resulted in massive forced migration from Upper South

• Two forms of movement of African Americans:

• 40% given to family who moved to southwest

• 60% were sold to traders

• Domestic slave trade, big business in 1860s• Slave traders maneuvered near port cities of Chesapeake and Carolinas

• Destination was New Orleans

• Sugar was a “ killer” crop• LA

• Inland system to Cotton South was less visible bur more extensive

• Why did planters sell slaves?

• Selling surplus of ______, ______, _____, and _______

created a prosperous Southern economy.

The Impact on Blacks

• Alternative punishment

• Broken marriages

• Few southern whites questioned the morality of

domestic slave trade

The Dual Cultures of the Planter Elite• A small elite of ______ wealthy planters owned more than one hundred slaves.

The Traditional Southern Gentry

• Westward movement split the plantation elite into two groups:

• Old South Gentry-

• Capitalists planters of Cotton States-(next slide)

• Classical republican theory roots-

• Criticized the democratic polity and middle class society in

Northeast and Midwest• “Inequality is the fundamental law of the universe”

• Marry rich

• Rice vs. Tobacco

The Ideology and Reality of “Benevolence”

• Positive good for civilized whites

• Good tutelage for genetically inferior Africans

• Church

• Sincerity vs. pacification

Cotton Entrepreneurs

• In the Cotton South, aristocratic paternalism and luxury vanished

• Overseers pushed workers harder because their salaries

depended on it (quantity).

• Slaves lacked craft skills

• Long cotton season

• Gang labor system-

• Ecologically costly

Planters, Smallholding Yeoman, and Tenants• Most white southerners did not own slaves. Thirty six percent by 1830 and 25% in 1860. In

cotton south 40% and Appalachian Mt. region 10%.

Planter Elites

• Privileged minority of about 400,000 (5%) owned _____ slaves.

• Average wealth of $56,000 vs. $3200

• Substantial proprietors (middling planters) about 20% owned ____ slaves.

• had other careers as skilled artisans or professionals (lawyers)

• Many lawyers owned slaves or managed affairs of slaves

• These lawyers also regularly won public office

Smallholding Planters and Yeomen

• Majority of slave owners owned 1-5 slaves.

• Inherited slaves and aspiring planters.

• Strong patriarch authority supported by…• women

• Hired out slaves and sold to pay debt

Poor Freemen

• Little respect (clay eaters)

• Wealthy planters kept them economically handicapped. How?

• Served on militia slave patrol• Effect:

The Settlement of Texas• Mexican independence from Spain in 1821

• Encouraged migration

• Stephen Austin acquired land from father and more from government

• 180,000 acres enough to sell to others

• Americans outnumbered Mexicans by 1835.

• President of Mexico Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna tried to assert greater authority

• Banned slavery

• Two Texan parties:

• In 1836 “war party” provoked war and declared independence

• The Alamo 1836

• Effect:

• General Sam Houston

• President Marin Van Buren was reluctant to accept TX. Why?

The Politics of Democracy• The AL constitution of 1819 granted all white men suffrage and a “secret ballot”.

The Politics of Taxation• Most of the Cotton South’s elected state and county officials were slave owners

• Low taxes

• Pacified yeoman and propertyless whites (AL)

• Taxed slave owners and luxury goods (AL)

• Outside of Alabama, the tax laws supported slave owners• Subsidized roads and canals• Required yeoman to fence livestock

The Paradox of Southern Prosperity

• Economy of the south was amazing

• Black population (30%) lived in poverty

• Problems in southern economy:• Cities• Immigrants• Slave independence

• Only 10% manufacturing goods

The African American World• By 1820, most slaves combined West African and white Southern culture.

Evangelical Black Protestantism• Evangelical Protestantism swept white South during the Second Great Awakening (1790s-1840s)

• Before this, slaves maintained Islamic and polytheistic practices until converted by slave owners.

• Black preachers ignored unthinkable obedience and predestination.

Black Protestantism

• Envisioned God as “liberator”

• Added African culture

• Dancing

• singing

Forging Families and Creating Culture• The domestic slave trade erased regional differences and prompted the emergence of a core

culture.

African Influences

• Between 1776 and 1809, ___ of slaves entering the U.S. came from the Congo.

• Shunning incest taboos

• Cousin marriages were frequent among SC slave owners. Why?

• Slave marriages were not recognized under law. Why?

• Fictive “aunts” and “uncles”

• African names from African parents

Negotiating Rights• Rice plantations (SC) worked by task vs. cotton

• Slowed down pace and faked illness

• Threatened burning homes or poisoning

• Positive reinforcement

• Whites were well armed and numerous and determined

to maintain racial superiority

• Escape was problematic• Families

• Pressed owners for share of labor (like union workers in North)

The Free Black Population• From 1820-1840 free black population was about 11%

Northern Free Blacks

• Most whites were racists and confined blacks to low paying jobs

• Only a small amount owned land

• Forbidden to vote, attend public school, or sit next to whites in church, work for postal service, claim public land, have a passport, or testify against whites in court (MA).

• Blacks in the North founded schools, organizations, fellowship groups, often called Free African Societies.

• African Methodist Episcopal Churches

Standing for Freedom in the South

• Free black population in south was 225,000 in 1860

• Most lived in coastal cities: Mobile, New Orleans, Memphis• Free blacks formed backbone of region’s artisan workforce

• Assimilated to white culture and values

• Some owned slaves

• Symbol of hope for slaves and symbols of danger to most whites