The Old South and Slavery

Chapter 12

1830-1860

Introduction

• What classes and class divisions existed in the Old South?

• Why did non slaveholding whites come to support the “peculiar institution”?

• What type of distinctive culture developed among the slaves and why did it develop?

King Cotton

• Main cash crop of the colonial South was tobacco

• Tobacco declined in the late 18th Century

• Cotton revived southern agriculture

• Cotton was stimulated by British Industry, Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin and Indian Removal

The Lure of Cotton

• Climate was ideal for cotton• Cotton was profitable on any scale• Cotton and slavery increased side by side• Cotton and corn were often grown together

Ties Between the Lower and Upper South

• Inhabitants of the Lower South migrated from the Upper South

• Southerners benefited from the 3/5 Compromise

• Southerners resented criticism from the North

• Upper South sold their slaves to the Lower South- being “Sold South”

The North and South Diverge

• North was rapidly industrializing• South had little incentive because agriculture

was profitable and they had no reason to believe it would not remain so.

• South’s capital was tied up in slaves and agriculture so there was little to invest in industry

• Old South made little provision for public schools• School attendance in the South was not

compulsory• South was not backward, just different

Social Groups of the White South

• ¼ of Southern whites owned slaves

• 1 percent owed a 100 or more slaves

• Four Classes– Planters– Small Slaveholders– Yeomen– People of the Pine Barrens

Planters and Plantation Mistresses

• High degree of division of labor• Constant search for more fertile land,

more efficient use of labor, friendly banker relationships

• Stress included being excluded from others of the same social standing, frequent moves, crude living conditions, responsibility of running a profitable enterprise and the sexual double standard

The Small Slaveholders

• 88% of slaveholders owned less than 20 slaves

• Tended to identify with middle class

• Far South small landholders sought to join the planter class

The Yeomen

• 50 to 200 acres

• Not wealthy enough to own slaves

• Largest group of southern whites

• Lived on less fertile lands

• Subsistence farming

The People of the Pine Barrens

• 10% of the white population

• Owned no land or slaves

• Squatted on unfenced land and lived off of subsistence farming

Social Relations in the White South

• Mixture of Aristocratic and Democratic elements

• Most whites owned land

• Planters were overrepresented in legislatures

Conflict and Consensus in the White South

• Planters tended to be Whigs

• Yeomen tended to be Democrats

• Four classes tended to cluster together and had little contact

• Whites rarely worked for other whites

• Planters dominated politics

Conflict Over Slavery

• Majority supported slavery– Some hoped to become slaveholders– Feared freedmen would demand social and

political equality– Feared emancipation would start a race war

The Proslavery Argument

– Slavery was a positive good rather than a necessary evil

– Sanctioned by history and religion– Slaves treated better than the wage slaves of

the North– Peculiar institution– Violence against anti-slavery movement in the

South

Violence in the Old South

• More prevalent in the South than in the North

The Code of Honor and Dueling

• Exaggerated notion of personal pride

• Reaction to trivial insults

• Intentional insult to one’s reputation had to be redressed

The Southern Evangelicals and White Values

• Code of honor sometimes was in conflict with the ideas of humility and self-restraint

• Some southern gentlemen denounced drinking, gambling and dueling

Life Under Slavery

• Exploitive institution that took by force the life and labor of one race for the profit of another

The Maturing of the Plantation System

• In the 1700’s most of the slaves where first generation, most were male and spoke little English, they were isolated on small farms

• By 1830 there was a balance between male and female. Most were American born, spoke English and worked on large plantations

• Changes facilitated a natural increase in the African American population

Work and Discipline of Plantation Slaves

• Work from Can to Can’t- no time clock

• Craftsmen and Domestics had a relatively easier life than field hands

The Slave Family

• Not recognized or protected by Southern law• Slave weddings were death or distance do you

part• Children were separated from parents,

husbands from wives etc.• Sexual demands were sometimes made by

masters on slave females• Black families evolved differently than white

middle class

The Longevity, Diet and Health of Slaves

• Slaves in the Old South lived longer than slaves in the Caribbean

• Sexual balance and diet meant that the population increased naturally

• Average life expectancy was 30-40

• Average life expectancy for white population was 50’s

Slaves Off Plantations

• Slaves were also used in mining, lumbering, manufacturing and skilled artisan jobs outside of the plantation

• Slaves were rented out to other plantations and to towns an villages for special tasks.

Life on the Margin: Free Blacks in the South

• About 250,000 freedmen in the South by 1860• Slave codes prohibited blacks from learning to

read and write, meet in large groups, walk the streets after dark or vote.

• There were some laws restricting blacks from moving freely from one state to another

• Most postwar leaders came from this group

Slave Resistance

• Nat Turner’s Rebellion 1831• Gabriel Prosser 1800, Denmark Vesey 1822

were betrayed before they started• Slave uprisings were less frequent in the South

than they were in South America• Escape was a better alternative• Underground Railroad

– Harriet Tubman– Frederick Douglass– Josiah Henson

• Theft, Negligence, Arson, Poisoning, Work Stoppages and Slowdowns

The Language of Slaves

• Developed an English pidgin

African American Religion

• Most were converted from Islam of African tribal religions to Christianity- Baptist or Methodist

• The hope was that Christianity would make the slaves docile and humble

• Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner and Gabriel Prosser used Christianity to encourage followers to revolt

• Served as a unifying force

Black Music and Dance

• Extremely expressive

• Shouts, music and dance

• Composed work songs and religious songs later called spirituals

Conclusion

• Slavery unified the Old South• Majority of white southerners did not own slaves• Convinced the peculiar institution was in their

best interests• Northerners thought that slavery made

southerners backward• Southerners saw themselves as benevolent

masters of an inferior race and much better than that of the wage slavery of the North