The Old South and Slavery 1830-1860

King Cotton

South - 1790 South- 1850

Tobacco- once the top crop, now lost economic vitality and depleted soil in South

Rice and Cotton = alternate crops, confined to coast

¾ southerners lived on Atlantic coast, especially Chesapeake and Carolinas

1/3 southerners lived in VA

Southerners moved south and west

1/7 lived in VA Cotton is king Growth of GB textile

industry= huge demand for cotton

Indian removal “Cotton Kingdom”=SC,

GA, N FL, through AL, MS, C and W TN and LA and then to AK and TX

The Cotton Kingdom

Cotton Plant

“Every flow of wind from the shore wafted off the smell of that useful plant; at every dock or wharf we encountered it in huge piles or pyramids of bales, and our decks were soon choked with it. All day, and almost all night long, the captain, pilot, and passengers were talking of nothing else.” –British traveler, Basil Hall

The Old South

Lower South Upper South

GASCALMSLAFLTX

KYTNNCVA

The Lure of Cotton Warm climate, wet springs and

summers, dry autumns= Lower South Didn’t require expensive irrigation

canals nor costly machinery (compared to sugar)

Farmers didn’t have to own a gin; commercial ones were available

1860- 35-50% of all farmers in cotton belt owned no slaves

Cotton brought the promise of riches to all

Large-Scale Cotton ProductionSouthern population doubled between 1810-

1830Cotton employed ¾ of all southern slavesSlaves= harvest large tracts of cotton quickly,

increase acreage owned= Lots of $$$$$$Corn could be planted earlier or later than

cotton and harvested before or after= slaves used when cotton not in season

Corn could feed people and livestockSouth is pretty self-sufficient – 1860 the 12

wealthiest counties in the US were all in the South

The South The Upper South Tobacco,

vegetable, hemp, wheat growers

The Lower South Cash crops=

sugar and cotton

Ties between Upper and Lower South Many settlers in Lower South had

come from the Upper South All white Southerners benefitted

from 3/5 Compromise All Southerners hit by abolitionists

criticisms of slaveryProfitability of sugar and cotton

increased value of slaves in entire region= encouraged trading of slaved from Upper to Lower South

The Divide Between the North and the South The North = rapidly urbanizingThe South=Predominately rural and lacked

industries 1/3 of American population lived in South in

1850, only had 10% of nation’s manufacturing Proponents of industry in South = reduce

dependency on Northern products, south was not backwater

Most Southern factories= small, produced for nearby markets, closely tied to agriculture

Industrial slavery was tricky- pass off as free or ACT as free

Main reason for lack of industry= would have to sell slaves in order to invest in factories – are you crazy???

Cash Crops were proven winners- why take the chance???

Factories would attract antislavery whites to come to the South- who needs that???

Slavery or Industry?

Which would you choose? Does it matter where you are from?

We don’t need no education The South Against compulsory education and

reluctant to tax property to support schools- illiteracy in South remained high- planters have no need for educated workforce

Keep the black workforce uneducated and illiterate for fear they gain ideas of freedom

Crime to teach slaves to read

Get out of here, Horace Mann

What the North thought about the South Factories and cities= progressThe South =stranger to progress“It seems as if everything has

stopped growing, and was growing backwards.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe

BUT, 1840 per capita income only slightly below national average and 1860 it exceeded national average

Agricultural improvements = crop rotation and fertilizer

Slavery in South 1790- 1,000 tons of cotton were

produced in the South each year1860- 1 million tons produced1790 - 500,000 slaves1860- 4 million slaves

Social Groups of the White South Planters – owners of 20 or more slavesSmall slaveholdersYeomen – non-slaveholding family

farmersPeople of the pine barrensOnly ¼ of whites owned slaves and 88%

of all slaveholders owned fewer than 20 slaves

In the low country and delta the small slaveholders identified with the planters and aspired to rise into that class.

Plantation Life Plantations characterized by high degree of division of

labor Slaves= domesticated staff (butlers, waiters), pasture

staff (shepherds, cowherds), outdoor artisans (stonemasons, carpenters), indoor artisans (blacksmiths, weavers), field hands

Wealth was tied up in slaves ($1700 for a field hand in 1850)- convert wealth into luxuries by selling slaves but sacrificed social status

Drive for profit= search for better land, slave work gangs, plantations self-sufficient for food

Cotton commercial agents held the crop until prices were just right and gave credit to planters until it was sold (indebtedness)

Planters tended to be Whigs (more sympathetic to banking and economic development- credit)

Tara, from Gone with the Wind

Plantation Life for Women Lonely life for women- husbands on the road,

secluded, SW meant a fall from grace, not many social peers

Left management to overseers so they could spend time in cities

Hospitality strains- entertaining Raise own children, caring for guests, supervised

house slaves, made clothes, smokehouses and dairies, planted gardens

If husbands or fathers away, kept the plantation accounts

Mulatto children = reminders of husband’s infidelity- different rules for men

Understood as well as their husbands, that their wealth depended on slavery

Small Slaveholders 1860, 88% of all slaveholders

owned fewer than 20 slaves and most of those had fewer than 10

Gradually transformed the region from Vicksburg to Tuscaloosa, AL into a belt of medium-size farms with a dozen or so slaves on each

YeomanNon-slaveholding family farmersBy far the largest group among southern whitesThose with the least fertile land tended to be

subsistence farmers, but most grew at least some crops for sale

Hired slaves at harvest time to help in the fields Valued self-sufficiency with modest profit “PWT” or respected- depended on the attitudeTraded locally Tended to be Democrats (self-sufficiency and

economically independent)

People of the Pine BarrensAbout 10% of the white population Owned neither slaves nor landTypically squatted on unfenced land,

grazing hogs and cattle and growing corn for subsistence

Hunted as wellViewed as lazy and shiftless because they

wouldn’t work as hired help for othersNorth pointed to them as proof that slavery

degraded poor whites, but South said, hey! At least they can feed themselves, unlike paupers of northern cities

Why Support Slavery? Why fight and die for slavery in the Civil War, even if you don’t own slaves?

Why Support Slavery? Why fight and die for slavery in the Civil War, even if you don’t own slaves? The majority of non-slaveholders

supported slavery for several reasons: 1) some hoped to become slaveholders2) they feared freedmen would demand

social and political equality with whites3) southern whites shared racist beliefs

about blacks and feared that emancipation would be followed by a race war

What would they do if they were freed?

“Peculiar Institution” =Slavery

Justify 1830-1860Justified slavery as a positive good rather than a

necessary evil, claiming that southern slaves were better treated than northern “wage slaves”

Pointed to Ancient Greece and Rome and the bible (St. Paul’s order for slaves to obey their masters) for justification

Abolitionists= not just outlaw slavery, but destroy the family too (equal rights for women- now that’s crazy talk!)

Teach blacks Christian values like humility and self-control- churches will split over the issue of slavery

Violence in the Old South Gouging out of eyes and ear biting =

specialty of the poor whites Murder rate 10X’s higher than in the North Southern “Code of Honor”= extraordinary

sensitivity to one’s reputation; one’s self-esteem depends on the judgment of others

Dueling- refined alternate to random violence “The law affords no remedy that can satisfy

the feelings of a true man”- who said that????Northern “Character” = quality that enabled

a person to behave in a steady fashion no matter how others treated them

Why so violent in the South?

Why so violent in the South? Personal pride and slaves-watched the

degrading and horrific treatment of slaves- react violently to trivial insults so as to prove they had nothing in common with slaves

I am a gentleman, sir! Conflicted with the message of most

evangelicals (Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians)- by the 1830’s women (expected to be silent) and slaves (broke off into their own churches)

Randolph-Macon (Methodist 1830) and Wake Forest (Baptist 1838)

The most important determinants of a person’s life under slaveryThe kind of agriculture in which

they were engaged Whether they resided in urban or

rural areasWhether they lived in the 18th or

19th century

Life Under Slavery Slavery had evolved from the early days of slavery 1700 the typical slave was a young man in his twenties

who had recently arrived aboard a slave ship- few spoke the same language

As the importation of slaves decreased in the late 18th century, and was banned in 1808, the typical slave was as likely to female as male, had been born in America, and spoke a form of English that made communication with other slaves possible.

 The rise of plantations facilitated this = Much more likely to find a mate on a plantation than on a secluded rural farm

By 1860 the typical slave worked with 10 fellow slaves ¾ of all slaves in 1860 were owned by masters owning

10 or more slaves, and about half worked with 20 or more slaves.

Work and Discipline of Plantation Slaves1850- typical slave experience was to

work on a large farm or plantation with at least ten fellow bond servants

Day began 1 hour before sunriseSparse breakfast and marched to fields

(tools in hand, bare feet, led by whip) Men and women worked side by side

in fieldWorked from dawn to duskSlept on wooden planks

Brutal Treatment of Slaves

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All antebellum Americans worked long hours but nobody had it worse than field hands= Whipping was common, often left to white overseers and black drivers. At the Barrow plantation in LA (which had 200 slaves) a total of 160 whippings were administered over the course of two years

“Dat was de meanest devil dat ever lived on the Lord’s green earth.” -Mississippi slave speaking about his driver -Submissiveness is the goal

Was it better to be a house slave? “I liked the field work better than I did the house

work. We could talk and do anything we wanted just so we picked the cotton.”

Occupied higher rankings than field hands on the social ladder of slavery

Some slaves worked their way up from exhausting field work to skilled or semiskilled labor indoors

Some slaves developed skills such as blacksmithing or carpentry or learned how to operate cotton gins

Others were trained as cooks, butlers or maids These house slaves became the object of scorn

from field hands and poor whites.

Why would slave owners encourage marriage between slaves?

Slave Family Slaves married, often to the encouragement of their

slaveholders (have slave children) Many whites viewed their slaves as naturally promiscuous

and saw themselves as the only thing holding slave marriages together

Law neither recognized nor protected the slave family However, many slave families were split up On average a slave would witness the sale of 11 family

members “until death or distance do you part” Slave women had NO right to say NO to her master or

any white-children born of slave women and white men were targets of hatred of white mistresses

Slaves had broad family ties (bonds with extended family) – absence of family created “fictive” kin- “brudder”

Longevity, Diet, and Health of SlavesSlaves in US reproduced faster and lived

longer than slaves elsewhere in Western Hemisphere

1825- 36% of all slaves in Western Hemisphere lived in US (Brazil – 31%)

Gender ratio equalized (babies) Old South had plenty of food (corn with cotton) Greater immunity to malaria and yellow fever

than whites but suffered more from cholera, dysentery, diarrhea (feces and urine in drinking water) – remedy = Kaolin (white clay)

Higher mortality rates than whites, especially in infancy (twice as high as whites)

Symptoms of cholera infection may include:

Diarrhea. Cholera-related diarrhea comes on suddenly and may quickly cause dangerous fluid loss — as much as a quart (.95 liters) an hour. Diarrhea due to cholera often has a pale, milky appearance that resembles water in which rice has been rinsed (rice-water stool).

Nausea and vomiting. Occurring in both the early and later stages of cholera, vomiting may persist for hours at a time.

Dehydration. Dehydration can develop within hours after the onset of cholera symptoms. Depending on how many body fluids have been lost, dehydration can range from mild to severe. A loss of 10 percent or more of total body weight indicates severe dehydration.

Dysentery A disease marked by frequent

watery stools, often with blood and mucus, and characterized clinically by pain, tenesmus, fever, and dehydration.

Slaves off of Plantations A steady demand for slaves to work in

nonagricultural sector of the Southern economydriving wagons, ship-cargo handlers, to man

river barges, mining, lumbering1860 the lumber industry employed 16,000

workers, most of them slaves Slaves worked in iron works and factoriesSlave women and children comprised most of

the labor in the South’s fledgling textile industryEasier to get work in Southern cities than in the

North because there wasn’t competition with immigrants

Free Blacks in the Old South More than 250,000 free blacks lived in the South in

1860About 1/3 of these in the upper south lived in cities

while more than 1/2 of those in the lower south lived in cities.

Between 1790 and 1810 the free black population in the South tripled, but slowed after 1810

In the wake of Nat Turner Rebellion laws restricting the liberties of free blacks were tightened. (Most southern states made it a felony to teach blacks to read and write, made it illegal for free blacks to enter the state, and AR actually ordered all free blacks to leave the state.

dark skin v. light skin

Slave Resistance Slaves resisted slavery by:stealing propertysabotage and slownessbreaking equipmentkilling overseers and masters burning down plantation buildingsrunning away (leave behind families?

Risk death?) Nat Turner’s Rebellion in 1831 VA was

the only rebellion resulting in deaths of whites

Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad Vigilance committees formed throughout the north to help slaves

reach safety in Canada. Harriet Tubman- was born into slavery made were way to freedom

as a young woman Made a total of 19 dangerous trips back and forth, often in disguise,

always carrying a pistol, escorting more than 300 slaves to freedom She would tell slaves, “You will be free or die.” She explained her philosophy, “There was one of two things I had a

right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive.”

What we think of it as: Organized network of safe houses owned by white abolitionists who assisted blacks to freedom

Actually, there were a few white sympathizers in border states who helped

In the 1850s 9 northern states passed personal liberty laws. By using such techniques as forbidding the use of state jails to incinerate fugitives, they aimed to preclude state officials from enforcing the law.

Let’s go Underground!National Geographic Undergroun

d Railroad

African American CultureLanguage- “pidgin” = a language

which has no native speakers in which people with different native languages can communicate

Simplified language Dropped the verb “to be” Jack is in the cabin= Jack, he in

cabinSubstituted no for not “He no mean” Intro new words: banjo, goober

Why did slave owners eventually Christianize their slaves?

African American Religion Early slaves: some were Muslim or Christian; most were

worshipers of local African religion (whites lumped them together as heathen)

African religions didn’t unify slaves Water (in African religions and Christianity) Bad things happen because of God’s will 1790’s- blacks formed ¼ of membership in Methodist

and Baptist churches Conversion to try to teach slaves and blacks the “correct

Christianity” = referenced obedience rather than insurgence

Really ok to convert slaves once the churches split 1845- 1860- # of black Baptists doubled Sat in segregated churches listening to same sermons –

reach the Promised Land (Israel, heaven, freedom)

Black Music and DanceExtremely expressive- “Amen!” Rhythmical hand clapping

“patting juba” – along with dance since southern law didn’t allow them to have loud instruments

Singing- allowed since masters thought it made them work better and faster

Spirituals –deliverance from earthly travails