Sectional Differences

How is life different in the North, South, and West?

The South's "Peculiar Institution“

US Laws Regarding Slavery

U. S. Constitutiono 3/5s compromiseo fugitive slave clause

1793 --> Fugitive Slave Act.

1808 --> Slave Importation Outlawed

1820 --> Missouri Compromise

1850 --> stronger Fugitive Slave Act.

Other Slavery?J By 1804: slavery eliminated from last

northern state

J 1820s: newly independent Republics of Central & South America declared slaves free

J 1833: slavery abolished throughout British Empire

J 1844: slavery abolished in French colonies

J 1861: serfs of Russia were emancipated

Early Emancipation in the North

Missouri Compromise, 1820

Cotton Economy Cotton was King!

o Depended on British exportso Depended on new lands to expando Depended on slaves to work fields

Very little industrial developmento Some in Virginia, North Carolina, and

Tennessee South: economically isolated (mostly)

Characteristics of the Antebellum South

Primarily agrarian

Economic power shifts from “upper South” to “lower South”

“Cotton Is King!”o 1860--> 5 mil. bales a yr.

o 57% of total US exports

Very slow development of industrialization

Rudimentary financial system

Inadequate transportation system

Founded in 1845, South’s first attempt at industrialization (Richmond)

Graniteville Textile Co.

Southern Agriculture

Slaves Picking Cotton on a Mississippi Plantation

Slaves Using the Cotton Gin

Changes in Cotton Production

1820 1860

Value of Cotton Exports As % of All US Exports

Other Southern Agriculture

Sugar Corn

Total US Population=23,000,000(9,250,000 in South=40%)

Southern Society by 1850

Plantation Owners

Other Whites (approx. 6 million total whites)

Yeoman Farmers, Plain Folk, Hillbillies

Free Blacks250,000

Blacks Slaves3,200,000

Paternalism and Honor in the Planter Class

Most Southern males: tradition of “chivalry” and aversion to industrialization.

Agrarian society (Father is head) Personal responsibility for physical and moral

well-being of dependentso Masculine code of honor placed the virtue of women

on a pedestalo Paternalistic attitude towards slaves; a “kindly father-

child relationship”o Right to obedience and laboro Slave has right to protection, guidance, subsistence,

care and attention Code of personal honor (dueling)

Yeoman Farmers

might have owned as many as ten slaves; usually worked alongside them

75 percent of all southerners held no slaves

Plain Folk in the South

Not involved in market economyoHome production

Little access to public educationo Illiterate

Mountain Whites Hated planters Hated blacks Hated everybody Hinton Helper’s

Impending Crisis of the South (1859)o Poor whites will get

fed up Andrew Johnson

o Anti-aristocracyo Only Southern

Senator to keep seato Will become

President

Slave Law and the Family

No legal status; wide range of laws governing treatment

Marriages often arranged for genetic reproduction

Slave families often separated “Sold down the river” always a

fear

Southern Population (1860)

Growth of Black Population 1820-1860

White Class Structure in the South, 1860

Which one belongs to the slave? poor white? yeoman farmer? plantation owner?

Slave-Owning Population (1850)

Slave-Owning Families (1850)

A Real Georgia Plantation

The Southern “Belle”

A Slave Family

A Real Mammie & Her Charge

Cotton Picking

House Servants

Domestic Slaves

Slave MasterBrands

Slave AccoutrementsSlave Accoutrements

Slave muzzle

Anti-Slave PamphletAnti-Slave Pamphlet

Slave tag, SC

Slave AccoutrementsSlave Accoutrements

Slave leg irons

Slave shoes

Most Common From of Punishment

Runaways

Slave Personality “SAMBO” pattern

of behavior used as a charade in front of whites (the innocent, laughing black man caricature – bulging eyes, thick lips, big smile, etc.).

Stereotypes (last well into 20th Century)

Southern Pro-Slavery Propaganda

Mary Boykin Chesnut

Diary from Dixie one of best

records of southern life during war

Life in the Northeast and

West

Economic Growth: 1790-1860

Why Industrial and Economic Growth?

By 1860: U.S. third in world (behind Britain & France) becauseo Innovations/inventions o Use of assembly lineo Use of interchangeable partso Use of steam/water powero Improved transportation systemso Abundance of natural resourceso Large food supply (western farmers)o Large labor supply (immigrants)

Transportation

Results of Urbanization

School Enrollment

Growth of Manufacturing

Occupational Change

Sectional Differences

How is life different in the North, South, and West?

The Abolition Movement

Can slavery continue?

Approaches to Abolition

Gradual emancipationo Compensate ownerso Return slaves to Africa

Gradual emancipationo Escapeo Rebellion

Gradual emancipationo Appeal to conscience of slave owners

Exclude it in new territorieso Let it die a natural death

Return to Africa Attitude most

prevalent North and upper South

For social reasonso Saw blacks as inferior

Resettlement in Liberia

Recognized by U.S. (1862)

Escape and Rebellion

Daily acts: breaking tools, burning houses or crops, stealing food, self mutilation or work slowdowns

Females: fake sickness or menstrual cramps

Ultimate forms: murder or running awayoUnderground Railroad

Escape and Rebellion

Escape and Rebellion

Escape and Rebellion

Quilt Patterns as Secret Messages Monkey Wrench pattern (left) alerted

escapees to gather up tools and prepare to flee

Drunkard Path design (right) warned escapees not to follow straight route

Escape and Rebellion Southerners

biggest fear: ARMED SLAVE REBELLION

Escape and Rebellion

Gabriel Prosser – 1800 Denmark Vesey – 1821 Nat Turner – 1831

o Saw himself as Christ-like figure

o Armed slaves for revolto Killed 60 whiteso Whites retaliated killing

about 40 slaveso 50 slaves tried and hanged

(including Turner)

Escape and Rebellion

Southerners blamed abolitionists

Evangelical Approach

Slavery is sin; owners condemned to hell

Leaders: William Lloyd Garrison and Theodore Dwight Weld

Prominent northern blacks (Frederick Douglass) also influential

Evangelical Approach Garrison Published The

Liberator (1831)o Immediate

emancipationo No compensationo Against colonizationo Denounced anyone

who disagreedo VERY radical

Evangelical Approach Weld The Bible Against

Slavery American Slavery as

It Is: Testimony of 1000 Witnesseso Preached moral

responsibility o Worked with others to

spread message

Evangelical Approach Garrison and

Weld form Anti-Slavery Society (1833)

Aimed at general public and politicians

Women play significant role

General publico Spread message through

mediao Form local chapters of

Anti-Slavery Societyo By 1840’s: 200,000

members (including Emerson and Thoreau)

Politicianso Petition Congress to outlaw

slavery in Washington D.C.o End 3/5 compromiseo Prevent slavery in new

states

Southern Hostility Toward Abolition

Nat Turner rebellion led South to tighten gripo Banned abolitionist literatureo Defended slavery through religion and benevolenceo Criticized northern industrialists for worse treatment of

workerso Focused on turning Northerners against abolitionism

• Social elites needed to stick together• Involvement of women was destroying family• Free blacks would take Northern jobs• Racial mixing and black equality would destroy society

Gag ruleo 1836-1844 –House of Representatives refused to accept

petitions on abolitionism Liberty Party

o Formed by moderate abolitionistso Ran James Birney for President (3% of the vote)

Southern justifications for

Slavery Historical Justification: o all great civilizations participated in slavery

Legal Justification: o U.S. Constitution protected slavery w/o word “slavery”

Racist Justification: o Negroes inferior to whiteso Gave poor whites opportunity to improve life without competition from

blacks Sociological Justification:

o Basic needs of slaves were met (better than northern industrial workers)o “Benevolent” masters

Biblical Justification:o “Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only

those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God's approval.” (1st Peter 2:18-29)

South Carolina’s Truth

John C. Calhouno All men created equal was “the most

false & dangerous of all political errors”o Freedom is privilege

• reward to be earned and not for all Minister John B. Alger

o “divine arrangement of the world”• Submission of inferior to superior

• Black to white• Female to male• Lower classes to upper classes

Basic timeline of slavery