The South and Slavery,1790s-1850s

Chapter 11

King Cotton and Southern Expansion

• Despite a decrease in slavery after the Revolution, it would rapidly increase as cotton became the dominate economic crop

• Cotton’s major drawback:•It took a day to clean

one pound of cotton•Eli Whitney (and

Catherine Greene) created the cotton gin that could clean 50 pounds per day

King Cotton and Southern Expansion

• SC and GA, followed by other Southern states, began expanding rapidly (AL fever)• Cotton, grown quickly, depletes the soil• They expanded into the Black Belt (AL,

MS, GA)• The slaves would clear the forests,

drain swamps, build houses and plant first crops in the region

• MS population doubled and AL went from 9K to 144K in 10 years• Most were from SC

King Cotton and Southern Expansion

• “Civilized” Indians were not allowed to stay in slave areas due to confusion it created

• As cotton crops expanded all the way to TX, the question of the expansion of slavery also rose

• Most slaves worked under the gang system•Each slave had a particular job to

do

King Cotton and Southern Expansion

• Because slave owners could not convince indentured servants to do what was needed, southerners believed slavery was necessary to their economy

• Beliefs about slavery were changing though• All Northern states had some law banning or

phasing out slavery• All Southern states (except SC and GA)

either banned or heavily taxed slave trade• All Southern states banned importation of

foreign slaves after the slave revolt in Haiti (1791)• Southerners feared revolutionaries would

cause their own slaves to revolt

King Cotton and Southern Expansion

• With the cotton gin came slave smuggling (into SC especially)•By 1804 slave trade was reopened in

SC•Charleston became the largest slaving

port (40K)• In 1808 (earliest date permitted by

Constitution) Congress banned international slave trade•After this, increase in slave labor force

depended primarily on natural methods

King Cotton and Southern Expansion

• Internal slave trade skyrocketed•As much as 50% of the slave

population was moved for southern expansion

•They were transported like cargo or walked in “coffles”•“Sold down the river”

•After reaching New Orleans, Natchez, or Mobile they were auctioned off

King Cotton and Southern Expansion

• The Industrial Revolution in Europe led to a dramatic increase in the demand for cotton•Cotton eventually accounted for

60% of American exports, with five million bails being produced

•As Senator James Henry Hammond (SC) said, “cotton is king”

King Cotton and Southern Expansion

• Cotton’s profitability led to America’s participation in the Industrial Revolution

• While production occurred in the South, shipping, insuring, and other support activities were done by Northern companies

• The North failed to realize that the South was critical to their existence

King Cotton and Southern Expansion

• Southern cities, although not as populous as Northern ones, were not able to build up their infrastructure•Money was sucked away to support

the plantations•The South did not keep up with

industrialization or railroad construction

•They preserve the status quo in order to ensure stability•Sidenote: more acreage was actually devoted to corn, not cotton

To Be a Slave• By 1790 there were more than 4

million slaves• A distinctive culture would

emerge amongst the slaves

• Slaves did a variety of jobs

To Be a Slave• Slaves were not equally distributed

• 50% of owners had 5 or fewer• 75% of all slaves lived with 10 or

more on a farm

• Southern slavery was the only slave institution to be grown by natural methods versus slave trade

• The first challenged a slave faced was survival• Mortality rates for kids under 5 was

double that of whites

To Be a Slave• Death was common due to poor

conditions• During pregnancy the women still worked

in the fields and ate little• They had kids every year to year and a

half• White people lived 40-43 years, black

people 30-33• The owners argument was that they

were being more humane than northern industries• At least the fed, clothed, and housed their

“slaves”, and they took care of them from birth to death

• Very few cases of manumission (freeing of a slave)

To Be a Slave• Children lived with their mom (and dad if on same

farm)• The “house” was a wood shack with no floor, little

furniture and a corn-shuck mattress• Food included meat, corn meal, and some molasses

—slaves were encouraged to keep their own gardens

• Clothing included two pants, two shirts, 1 pair of shoes, and enough cloth for the women to make frocks and kids clothes—very inadequate in winters

• To the age of 7, children played with others (even white kids)

To Be a Slave• Children also learned survival—they

watched their parents and siblings being beaten, raped, sold OR rewarded for loyal behavior

• The owners believed that the slaves were both less intelligent and more loyal than the owners themselves• Frederick Douglass said: “As the

master studies to keep the slave ignorant, the slave is cunning enough to make the master think he succeeds.”

To Be a Slave• Read p. 304-306 regarding slave

professions

To Be a Slave

To Be a Slave

To Be a Slave

To Be a Slave