Masters and Slaves

August 22, 1831• Rebellion

– Southampton County, Virginia

– Nat Turner, Preacher, has a dream (black angels wrestling with white angels)

– Plantation to plantation killing

– About 60 whites killed

– Rebels executed, including Turner

– Inspired by abolitionists?

– Consequences?

Consequences:

• Quarantine slaves from possible exposure to antislavery ideas and attitude

• Cannot assemble• Cannot learn to read

or write• Between 1831 and

Civil war there is no more mass killings of whites

The Upper South

• The problems with Tobacco:

• New crops and methods• Fertilizer, rotation of

crops, diversified farming• Increased need for capital,

reduce demand for labor• Interstate slave trade• Less need = less hold on

public loyalty

Slavery and the Southern Economy

• Vital and growing economic interest

• 1790’s to Civil War, plantation agriculture expands enormously

• Greater dependence on slave labor

• Mostly on Plantations• Half of South’s population by

Civil War• 90% of Cotton and almost all

rice and sugar

The Rise of the Cotton Kingdom• Climate and soils of deep south affect

needs of labor and types of crops• Rice, Cotton, and Sugar: crops that

require little knowledge, much labor• Strengthened hold of slavery and

plantation system• The cotton gin makes short staple

cotton profitable • Westward expansion = new cotton

fields• From 1792 to 1817, the south’s output

of cotton rose from about 13,000 bales to 461,000, by 1840 1.35 million, by 1849 – 2.85 million, and 1860 – 4.8 million

• Any incentives to depart from slavery?

Slavery and Industrialization

• Dependence on North for capital, marketing facilities, and manufactured goods

• Cotton’s prosperity impeded industrialization and left the region dependent on one-crop agriculture

• Industrialization was based in cities, where there were populations of poor whites

The Planter’s world

• In 1860 only 25% of whites belonged to family owning slaves

• Only 3% of whites owned 50 slaves or more (wealthy)

• Influence on southern life (free time + money = involvement in politics and high offices)

Planters and Slaves

• Kindly and Paternalistic?• Self interest in slaves

well being (economic necessity)

• 1808 ban on slave trade (turn to domestic reproduction)

• Ultimate base of authority = fear

The Black Experience Under Slavery

• Physical and Psychological means to insure docility and obedience

• How?

Forms of Resistance

• Open revolt • Running away • Working slowly

and inefficiently• Feigning injury

sickness• Stealing provisions• Sabotage• Poison

Slave Families

• Stabilizing effect• Fidelity encouraged

by masters• Creates positive

and negative effects -What are they?

The South: A Divided Society

• Slave treatment• Non-slaveholding

whites• Backcountry vs.

plantation belt• Class, race, culture,

geography.