Slavery in the United States

Learning Targets

• I can trace the development of the slave system in the United States.

• I can evaluate resistance and opposition to slavery before the Civil War.

• I can evaluate the causes, conduct, and consequences of the Civil War.

Review

• First Africans in 1619• Transition from indentured servitude after

Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)• Middle Passage & Triangle Trade• Slave codes• Diff. b/w N & S– Geography– Economies

Review

• Problems at the Constitutional Convention– Three Fifths Compromise– Congress could illegalize the slave trade in 1808

• Northwest Ordinances (1787)• By 1804, all Northern states had illegalized

slavery or planned for gradual emancipation.• 1808, slave trade b/c illegal.

1793

Review

• Missouri Statehood Crisis (1819)• Nullification Crisis (1832)

The Antebellum South

The Antebellum South

• Border States: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri

• Middle South: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas

• Deep South/Lower South: South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas

In general, the farther south, the greater the dependence on slavery.

The Antebellum South

• Why, if there are relatively few slave holders, is the South so committed to slavery?– Controlled by the Planter Aristocracy• Less education in the South• Huge gap between the wealthy and the rest

– The more nuanced answer• Aspirations of underclasses• Interdependence of classes

Cultural Differences

North• Economic diversity• Larger middle class and

greater social mobility• Ethnic & religious diversity• More education• Intellectual movements

– Enlightenment– Transcendentalism– Reform movements

• Still racist

South• Economy cash crop

dependent• Discouraged immigration• Aristocratic tradition• Less ethnic & religious

diversity• Military tradition &

southern chivalry

The Peculiar Institution

Over time, the South becomes more culturally isolated and more defensive of slavery. • From necessary evil to its “peculiar institution”

– Haitian Revolt– American Revolution– Most countries, including B & F, illegalized slavery– Emergence of Abolition

• Defense of slavery– Historical arguments– Biblical arguments– “Scientific” arguments– Economic arguments

Opposition and Resistance

• Among slaves– Developed unique African-American culture– Resistance was most often subtle

• Revolts– Stono Rebellion (1739): SC, 21w, 44b– Denmark Vesey (1822): SC, planned an uprising,

ratted out, he and 30 others hanged– Nat Turner’s Revolt (1831): Virginia, 60 whites

killed

The Growth of Abolition

• First among Quakers during Revolutionary Era• American Colonization Society (1817)– Liberia 1822; 15,000 over 40 years

• William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator (1831)• Fredrick Douglas, Narrative (1845)• NOT a majority movement

So what does happen in the North?

• Slavery illegalized, but northerners are still racist

• Belief that slavery might compete with free labor

• Northerners resent Southern power– Virginia Dynasty– 3/5ths Compromise

• Northerners fear spread of slavery, especially after Mexican Cession