the south and the slavery controversy the slavery issue post revolution- tj and other southern...
TRANSCRIPT
The Slavery Issue
• Post Revolution- TJ and other southern leaders openly talk about freeing slaves
• Eli Whitney restores profitability of slavery
• Cotton cultivation chains the slave to the gin, and the planter to the slave.
Cotton is King • Cotton- planters now moving to Gulf States because
soil is fertile• Northern merchants get rich- transport cotton to
England, then buy English goods to bring back to America
• Cotton- ½ of nations exports in 1840• Supplies half of world’s cotton supply• 75% of England’s cotton comes from the south-
England is largest producer of cotton cloth
The Planter Aristocracy
• South is more of an oligarchy than democracy
• Only 1,733 families owned over 100 slaves
• This select few dominate politics, economy, and and social aspects of life
• “Cottonocracy”
The Planter Aristocracy• Planters have majority of
wealth in South• Educate their kids in North
or abroad• Money allows leisure, for
study, reflection, and statecraft
• Aristocracy= undemocratic• Gap between rich and poor
increases• No public education, rich
can send kids to North, why use tax money
The Planter Aristocracy
• Women• Plantation mistress-
large staff to run• Some good, some bad• Almost all are against
abolition, don’t have problems with separating slave families
Slaves of the Slave System
• Quick profits leads to excessive planting = land butchery
• Monopolistic- small farmers often forced to sell lands to large farmers, then move north and west
Slaves of the Slave System
• Plantation system can be financially unstable– Get rich quick, many
planters buy too much land and go into debt
– Slaves are heavy investments
– Slaves can runway, or be wiped out be a disease easily
• One crop economy- price levels are controlled by global factors
Slaves of the Slave System• South resents North getting
rich at their expense• North “owns them from
cradle to grave” • No immigration in the
South why?– Slaves are labor source
– Best lands are too expensive
– Most immigrants lack knowledge of cotton planting
The White Majority
• Roughly only ¼ of South owns slaves or belonged to slave holding family
• Most slave owners own less than 5 slaves- worked on small farms , worked next to their slaves
The White Majority
• 75% of south population owns no slaves
• Most dream of becoming large plantation owner
• Forced into crappy lands, mountainous areas- subsistence farmers
• Known as hillbillies, crackers, clay eaters
White Majority
• If minority hold slaves, why did they fight in the ACW?
• 1.American Dream- maybe a few more slaves and I’ll be rich
• 2. Racial- Despite being poor and often living in worse conditions, still felt superior to blacks, if blacks are freed this kills that mindset
White Majority
• Special group of men- mountain whites- outskirts of society, many never seen a slave
• In the ACW, mountain whites will play crucial rule in helping the Union
Free Blacks of the South
• 250,000• In upper south- most
earned freedom after the AR
• Deep South- mulattoes, offspring of master and slave mistress– In New Orleans- many were
successful property owners
Free Blacks of the South
• The “Third Race”• Banned from certain jobs,
can’t testify against whites in courts
• Slave traders could kidnap them back into slavery
• White majority hates them, gives other slaves hope
Free Blacks of the North • Face same (if not more)
racism • Can’t vote, barred from
public schools • Irish hate them because
they compete for same unskilled jobs
• In the south- whites hate the race, but like the individual, in the north whites profess to like the race, but hate the individual
Plantation Slavery
• 4 million in the south in chattel slavery
• Slave traded ended in US 1808
• England 1807• Yet estimations of 3
millions slaves still illegally shipped around the world – “black ivory”
Plantation Slavery
• Stopping international slave trade encourages the internal (domestic) slave trade – Slaves goes from Upper south to deep south
• “Sold down the river”• Slave population growth is
due to natural production- makes US unique in slave history
Plantation Slavery
• Slaves are huge investment, and a sign of wealth in the south
• If jobs are too dangerous, plantations use Irish, rather than risk a slave’s life
• Female slaves now have a high value – “rattlin good breeders” usually had 13-14 kids (including mulattoes)
Life of Slaves
• Differs greatly• Most work dusk till dawn• Most have white overseer
or black driver• No legal protection• Some states have laws that
down allow selling of children
• But- hard to enforce, black marriages are legal, and than cannot testify in court
Life of Slaves
• Whipping is best punishment
• Sometimes breakers must be sent
• Breakers = extremely cruel overseers
• Savage beatings are not common WHY
The Black Belt
• By 1860 most slaves concentrated in the Deep South- SC, GE, AL, MS, LA
• Also known as cotton kingdom
Life of Slaves
• Majority life on large plantations- communities of 20 or more slaves
• Most slave separations occur on smaller farms
• Despite conditions, form a distinct culture
Slaves and Religion
• Religion, mix of African and Christianity
• “Tell old Pharaoh, let my people go”
• Responsorial – congregation responds with assents or amens-
Slave Resistance
• 9 out of 10 blacks are totally illiterate b4 ACW
• Most successful methods of resistance– Work as slow as possible
(hence myth that blacks are lazy)
– Steal food from plantation house
– Break Equipment– Abortions, birth control
Slave Resistance
• Were slave rebellions, but never successful. Often informed upon by other slaves.
• 1800 Gabriel in Richmond • Denmark Vesey,
Charleston in 1822.• Most famous was rebellion
by Nat Turner in Va. in 1831.
Slave Resistance
• Spanish Slave Ship Amistad 1839
• Spent two years in prison• JQA releases them and
sends them to Sierra Leone (British Colony)
• White southerners, out numbered, are now terrified in the face of rebellions, especially Nat Turner’s
Early Abolitionism
• Early abolitionism. Quakers.
• American Colonization Society (1817)
• Liberia. 15000 freed blacks transported to Africa
• Why don’t more American Blacks go back to Africa?.
Early Abolition • In the 1830s abolitionist turned into a crusade.
– Why?
• Theodore Dwight Weld—early Abolitionist preacher.– American Slavery as It Is (1839)
• Lyman Beecher, head of Lane Theological Seminary, hotbed of early abolitionism. Very influential and father of “Lanes Rebels”– Harriet Beecher Stowe –Uncle Tom’s Cabin
– Henry Ward Beecher- Beecher’s Bibles
– Catharine Beecher- Women’s education movement
Radical Abolition • 1831 William Lloyd
Garrison• Published militant
abolitionist magazine: The Liberator.
• Founded the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833.
• Immediate Abolition • Critics say- too radical, and
didn’t offer any solution to “race” problem
I will be as harsh as the truth and as uncompromising as justice… I am earnest- I will not equivocate- I will not excuse- I will not retreat a single inch- I will be heard
Black Abolitionists • Sojourner Truth –abolition
and women’s rights• David Walker—Militant-
Appeal to Colored Citizens of the World
• Frederick Douglas– Narrative of Life of Frederick
Douglass (3 times)
– Greatest of the Black abolitionists
– escaped from bondage in 1838 at 21.
– Protégé of Garrison
The South Lashes Back
• Before 1830:– More anti-slavery societies in south than north
– Southerners openly debated merits of slavery.
• After 1830 debate in South ends and many southerners defend as positive good. What changed?– Nat Turners rebellion in 1831
– Nullification Crisis
– Reaction to Northern criticism
– Southern preachers arguing that slavery supported by Bible
Slavery the positive good?
• Slavery is supported by the bible and wisdom of Aristotle
• Africans taken from barbarianism, and brought to Christian civilization
• South tries to paint slave master is caring father of slave family
Slavery the positive good?
• South said slaves were happier than wage slaves of the north (Irish)
• How so? • South now viewed as
backward, while North viewed as moving forward
• 1836- Gag Resolution- slavery cannot be debated in congress
Abolitionists Impact in the North • Abolitionists were not particularly
popular in the North for some time. Why?– North had heavy stake in the cotton of the
south.
– Textile mills relied on southern cotton.
– Many northerners feared political controversy.
• Many northern politicians carefully distanced themselves from the abolitionists.
• Abolitionists harassed
• Yet, by 1850 abolitionism had gained strength and taken root as a popular cause.