Slavery and the Old South

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Slavery and the Old South

• Chapter 8

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Abolitionists Speak Out

• Abolition movement to outlaw slavery
• William Lloyd Garrison
• Owner of the The Liberator (anti-slavery paper)
• 3 out of 4 early subscribers were African
  American
• Founded New England Anti-Slavery Society (1832)
• In 1832, a Boston mob dragged Garrison through
  the town at the end of a rope.

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Free Black People

• Free persons on color 6 of the total
  population in 1860.
• In the South, free blacks 3 of population.
• Black codes- laws passed by states and
  municipalities denying many rights of citizenship
  to free black people before the Civil War.

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• Most of the free black population in the South
  lived in the Upper South.
• Northern cities offered free black people, jobs,
  and land space to start their churches and other
  associations.

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Free Blacks

• David Walker free black from North Carolina
• Published Appeal to the Colored citizens of the
  World (1829)
• Became free because his mother was a free black
• Advised African Americans to fight for freedom
• His freedom, however, did not shield him from
  witnessing firsthand the degradations and
  injustices of slavery.
• He witnessed much misery in his youth, including
  one disturbing episode of a son who was forced to
  whip his mother until she died.
• Walker travelled throughout the country,
  eventually settling in Boston. But even in that
  free northern city, with its prevalent
  discrimination, life was less than ideal for its
  black residents.
• Still, Walker apparently fared well, setting up a
  used clothing store during the 1820s.

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Frederick Douglass

• Born into slavery learned how to read and write
  from his masters wife.
• Held a skilled job as a ship caulker
• Borrowed the identity of a free black sailor and
  his official carrying papers.
• Once he reached New York he was FREE!!!!!!!
• Started The North Star anti-slavery newspaper
  (1847)

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• Lower South- South Carolina, Georgia, Florida,
  Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.
• Cotton was the main crop.
• Cotton output went from 73,000 bales in 1800 to 2
  million bales by mid-century, thanks to better
  technology (cotton gin and better seed variety)
  and fertile new land.

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Southern Agriculture
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Slaves Using the Cotton Gin
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• Slave labor accounted for 90 of cotton
  production.
• Plantations were large productive areas
  specializing in a cash crop (cotton, corn, etc.),
  employed at least 20 slaves, and were the leading
  economic institutions in the Lower South.

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Slaves Picking Cottonon a Mississippi Plantation
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• Planters were considered the most important
  social group, made up of less than 5 of white
  families, yet controlled 40 of the slaves,
  cotton output, and total agricultural wealth.

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• Planters had the best land.
• Gang system- organization and supervision of
  slave field hands into working teams on Southern
  plantations.
• Teams were made of men and women, had to work at
  a steady pace, or be lashed.

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Profits of Slavery

• Average rate of return on money invested on each
  slave 10 a year.
• Price of an average male slave in 1815 215 in
  1860, 900.
• Female slaves of childbearing age were valued
  almost as high as male slaves.
• Large and very profitable regional market in
  slaves.

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• The South had 10 of the nations population as
  of 1860.
• However, the Lower South had the smallest urban
  population and the fewest factories.
• From 1820-1860 urban slavery decreased from 22
  to 10.

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Changes in Cotton Production
1820
1860
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Value of Cotton Exports As of All US Exports
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• Planters had a general fear toward
  industrialization, because many saw factories as
  a threat to slave discipline.

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Tara Plantation Reality or Myth?
Hollywoods Version?
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A Real Georgia Plantation
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Scarlet and Mammie(Hollywood Again!)
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A Real Mammie Her Charge
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The Southern Belle
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The Upper South

• Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas and North
  Carolina.
• The Upper South lacked the fertile soil and long
  growing season needed to grow cotton, rice, and
  sugar.
• Less need for slaves (slave population was half
  that of the Lower South)

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• After the 1850s, Upper South farmers and
  planters, used less slave labor and focused more
  on thrifty, efficient production of grain and
  livestock.
• Reasons for slave decline
• Agricultural reform
• Economic diversification
• Expansion of urban manufactoring

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Slave Auction Notice, 1823
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Slave Auction Charleston, SC-1856
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Slave Life and Culture

• Slave codes- a series of laws passed mainly in
  the Southern colonies in the late seventeenth and
  early eighteenth centuries to define the status
  of slaves and codify the denial of basic civil
  rights to them.
• Whippings or lashings were the most common form
  of punishment.

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• Planters gave slaves two sets of clothing (one
  for summer and one for winter).
• Housing was usual a 15 x 15 foot room cabin for
  five to six slaves to share.
• 15-20 of plantation slaves were house servants
  or skilled artisans who had lighter workloads
  than those in the fields.

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Slaves posing in front of their cabin on a
Southern plantation.
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Slave Accoutrements
Slave MasterBrands
Slave muzzle
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Slave Accoutrements
Slave tag, SC
Slave leg irons
Slave shoes
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Slave-Owning Population (1850)
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A Slave Family
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Slave Families and Religion

• Most important thing to a slave was its family.
• Both parents were present in two-thirds of slave
  families.
• Most slaves fathers did extra work and risked
  punishment to better support and defend their
  families.
• Parents concentrated on teaching their children
  survival skills

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• A variety of African religions survived in
  America.
• Most slaves followed the religion of their
  ancestors, believing in the natural and spiritual
  worlds, accepting power of ghosts over the
  living, and relied on chants as a form of
  expression.
• Many slaves favored to practice the religion of
  their master.
• No more than 20 of slaves had converted to
  Christianity.
• Most planters favored Christianity among the
  slaves only if the planters had control.

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Resistance

• Gabriel Prossers Rebellion- Slave revolt that
  failed when Gabriel Prosser, a slave preacher and
  blacksmith, organized about 50 armed slaves for
  an attack on Richmond, Virginia, in 1800.
• Prosser and 25 of his followers were executed by
  state authorities before the revolt took place.

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• Denmark Veseys Conspiracy- Slave revolt planned
  to seize control of Charleston in 1822 and escape
  to freedom in Haiti (a free black republic), but
  ended up being betrayed by other slaves.
• Vesey was a literate carpenter and lay preacher
  in Charleston who had bought his freedom
• 75 of the conspirators were executed.

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• Nat Turners Rebellion- Uprising of slaves in
  Southampton, Virginia, in the summer of 1831.
• Nat Turner was a literate field hand driven by
  prophetic visions of black vengeance against
  white oppressors.
• Went of a murderous rampage in August of 1831,
  killing Turners owner and 60 other white people.
• Turner and about 30 other slaves were executed
  for the deadly revolt.

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Free Society

• Families of planter families (those who held a
  minimum of 20 slaves) 3 of Southern families
  in 1860.
• Plantation mistresses was in charge of the
  household staff (cooking, cleaning, gardening,
  dispensing of medicine and clothing to slaves).
• In some cases, when the master of the plantation
  went away on business, his wife would manage the
  plantation accounts.

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Virginia Debate

• Virginia governor John Floyd
• Secretly wished that slavery would be abolished
• Thomas Jeffersons grandson also fights for
  abolishment of slavery.
• Antebellum pre-Civil War South

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• Planters wives complained about isolation from
  other white women and that managing of slaves was
  a burden.
• They were also embarrassed by their husbands who
  kept slave mistresses or sexually abused slave
  women.

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The White Majority

• Three-fourths of Southern white families owned no
  slaves.
• Farmers formed tight networks of friends and
  family.
• Yeoman farmers were proud of their independence.
• Interests of yeoman farmers and planters often
  helped each other in areas where small farms and
  plantations were.

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• About 15 of rural white families owned neither
  land nor slaves (poor whites).
• Free workers (Irish and German immigrants)
  gradually replaced slaves in urban labor markets.

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Proslavery Argument

• Southerners believed slavery to be a necessary
  evil, that maintained racial peace.
• Southern evangelicals used the Bible to support
  the use of slaves.
• Believed blacks were naturally lazy and were
  inherently inferior to whites.
• Gag rule rule limiting or preventing debate
  about an issue. (stopped Congress from
  discussing the abolishment of slavery

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