The Old South and Slavery

1
Chapter 12

• The Old South and Slavery
• 1830-1860

2
Introduction

• Nat Turners Rebellion
• Aug. 1831
• 60 whites were killed
• Created a panic among whites about slave
  insurrections
• PBS Nat Turner

3
Introduction (cont.)

• Whites took indiscriminate revenge on blacks
• The VA legislature came close to passing an
  emancipation bill (winter of 1831-1832)
• After the failure of the bill, white opposition
  to slavery in VA and throughout the South
  gradually disappeared

4
Introduction (cont.)

• The Upper South relied less on slavery and cotton
  than the Lower South
• Upper South seceded from the Union more
  hesitantly
• From 1832 on,what united and created the region
  the Old South was its defense of slavery
• Its peculiar institution

5
Introduction (cont.)

• We will cover the economy and society of the Old
  South from 1800 to 1860
• 1.) How did the rise of cotton cultivation affect
  the society and economy of the Old South?
• 2.) What major social divisions segmented the
  white South?

6
Introduction (cont.)

• 3.) Why did nonslaveholding whites feel their
  futures were tied to the survival of slavery?
• 4.) What were the distinctive features of
  African-American society and culture in the South?

7
King Cotton

• Introduction
• The main cash crop of the colonial South was
  tobacco
• Tobacco declined in the late 1700s
• Cotton culture revived southern agriculture
• Encouraged rapid expansion southward and westward
• Cotton growing was stimulated by
• the growth of the British textile industry
• Development of the cotton gin
• Removal of Indians form southern and western
  lands

8
The Lure of Cotton

• The climate of the Lower South was ideal for
  growing cotton
• Intense demand in Britain kept prices high
• Cotton could be grown profitably on any scale
• With or without slave labor
• Cotton cultivation and the institution of slavery
  did increase side by side
• Cotton and corn were often grown together so that
  the South did not have to spend money on imported
  food

9
Ties Between the Lower and Upper South

• The Upper South identified with the Lower South
  rather than the free states
• Many of the Lower South residents had migrated
  from the Upper South
• All southern whites benefited form the 3/5s
  clause in the Constitution
• Almost all southerners resented the criticism
  form northern abolitionists
• The residents of the Upper South enjoyed a large,
  profitable business in the sale of slaves to the
  Lower South

10
The North and South Diverge

• While the North was rapidly industrializing and
  urbanizing, the South remained primarily rural
  and agricultural
• Slaves could be and were employed in southern
  factories
• Much of the Souths capital was tied up in slave
  ownership
• Not available for investment in industrial
  development

11
The North and South Diverge (cont.)

• Southerners believed that raising cash crops
  through slave labor would continue to be
  profitable
• They lacked the incentive to switch their capital
  from land and slaves to financing industry

12
The North and South Diverge (cont.)

• The Souths slave economy did not require a high
  rate of literacy
• The Old South made less provision for public
  schools than the North
• School attendance was not compulsory for southern
  whites
• The law forbade teaching slaves to read and write

13
The Social Groups of the White South

• Introduction
• In 1860
• 1/4 of southern whites owned slaves
• 1 of southern whites owned 100 or more
• The whites of the Old South fit into 4 classes
• 1.) planters
• Owners of more than 20 slaves
• 2.) small slaveholders
• 3.) yeoman
• Nonslaveholding small family farmers
• 4.) people of the pine barrens

14
Planters and Plantation Mistresses

• The plantation was almost a factory in the field
• High degree of division of labor
• The pursuit of profit led planters to
• look constantly for additional and more fertile
  land
• Organize their slave crews as efficiently as
  possible
• Seek favorable merchant-banker connections

15
Planter and Plantation Mistresses (cont.)

• To supplement their income
• Many opened their homes to visitors
• Responsibility of hospitality falling to their
  wives
• Psychological strains that plantation agriculture
  placed on planters and their wives included
• Isolation from other whites of their class
• Frequent moves
• Crude living conditions
• Especially those who lived on the new frontier
• Responsibilities of running a major economic
  enterprise

16
Planter and Plantation Mistresses (cont.)

• An additional stress on planters wives was the
  sexual double standard
• Accepted illicit sexual relations between masters
  and their bondswomen
• Demanded absolute sexual purity from white females

17
The Small Slaveholders

• There were many more small slaveholders than
  planter
• In 1860, 88 of all slaveholders owned fewer
  than 20 slaves.
• In the upland regions
• Small slaveholders tended to identify with the
  more numerous yeomen
• In the low country and delta
• They identified with the planters
• Aspired to rise into that class
• Sometimes they did

18
The Yeoman

• Nonslaveholding family farmers
• Largest group among southern whites
• Most yeoman grew some crops for sale
• A few were only subsistence farmers
• Farms ranged in size from 50 to 200 acres
• Congregated in the upland, hilly, and less
  fertile regions
• Proud
• Self-sufficient

19
The People of the Pine Barrens

• Made up about 10 of white population
• Did not own land or slaves
• Squatted on unfenced land
• Subsistence farming
• Grazed hogs and cattle
• Grew corn
• Refused to work as hired help for others
• Survived in this manner

20
Social Relations in the White South

• Introduction
• Southern white society showed a mixture of
  aristocratic and democratic elements
• There were great differences in wealth between
  classes
• Most whites did own land
• Planters were overrepresented in state
  legislatures
• Did not always pass laws that only benefited
  themselves

21
Conflict and Consensus in the White South

• Planters leaned towards the Whigs
• Yeomen towards the Democrats
• Other characteristics of the Old South were
  minimized in conflict
• The 4 main social groups were clustered in
  different regions and had little contact
• Yeomen and planters were independent landowners
• Whites rarely worked for other whites
• Many worked side by side with their slaves

22
Conflict and Consensus in the White South (cont.)

• Planters dominated state legislatures
• All white men had the right to vote by 1820s
• The planters could not ignore the desires of the
  yeomen majority

23
Conflict over Slavery

• There was a potential for conflict between
  slaveholders and nonslaveholders
• But the majority of nonslaveholding southerners
  supported slavery
• Why?
• Some hoped to become slaveholders
• Many feared freedmen would demand social and
  political equality with whites
• Feared a race war

24
Conflict over Slavery (cont.)

• Throughout the South there was a fear of a race
  war
• Many whites also shared racist beliefs about
  blacks
• Feared that emancipation would be followed by a
  race war
• Which would endanger the lives of all whites

25
The Proslavery Argument

• The proslavery argument was also used as a tool
  to unite southern whites behind the institution
• The proslavery argument was constructed by
  southern intellectuals between 1830 and 1860
• The argument claimed that slavery was a positive
  good rather than a necessary evil

26
The Proslavery Argument (cont.)

• It claimed that slavery was sanctioned by history
  and the bible
• Southern slaves were treated better than northern
  factory wage slaves
• By the 1830s, most southern churches had adopted
  the proslavery position

27
The Proslavery Argument (cont.)

• Southerners persuaded themselves of the
  righteousness of their peculiar institution
• They also increasingly suppressed all public
  criticism of slavery
• They seized and destroyed abolitionist literature
  mailed to the South
• Smashed the presses of southern antislavery
  newspapers

28
Violence in the Old South

• During the colonial and pre-Civil War periods,
  violence was more prevalent among southern whites
  than it was among white people in the North
• The murder rate was as much as 10 times higher in
  the South
• Physical prowess became a badge of honor

29
The Code of Honor and Dueling

• Behind much of the southern violence was an
  exaggerated notion of personal pride
• White men must react violently to even trivial
  insults in order to demonstrate that they had
  nothing in common with slaves.
• Among gentlemen this pride took the form of a
  code of honor.
• Any intentional insult to ones reputation had to
  be redressed by a challenge to a duel

30
The Southern Evangelicals and White Values

• The code of honor was potentially in conflict
  with the values preached by southern evangelical
  churches
• Humility and self-restraint
• From the 1830s on, evangelical religion grew in
  influence to the point that some southern
  gentlemen did denounce drinking, gambling, and
  dueling as un-Christian practices
• On the other hand, southern churches partly
  endorsed the gentrys code of honor

31
Life Under Slavery

• Introduction
• Slavery was an exploitative institution that took
  by force the life and labor of one race for the
  profit of another
• Slaves could be found in cities or on farms
• In the fields or around the house
• As the central units of an economic institution
  slave life depended not only on the kindness or
  cruelty of masters but also on unseen market
  forces

32
The Maturing of the Plantation System

• The institution of slavery changed between 1700
  and 1830
• In the earlier period
• the majority of the black population was recent
  African or Caribbean arrivals
• Disproportionately young males
• Spoke little English
• Isolated on small farms

33
The Maturing of the Plantation System (cont.)

• By 1830
• There was a more even balance between males and
  females
• Most were American born and English speaking
• Most worked on large plantations
• These changes facilitated a more rapid natural
  increase in the black population

34
Work and Discipline of Plantation Slaves

• No other 19th century Americans worked as many
  hours under as harsh discipline as slave field
  hands
• Either worked in gang labor or under the task
  system
• Slave craftsmen and domestics on the plantations
• had higher status
• easier work
• but also were subjected at times to physical
  brutality

35
The Slave Family

• The slave family was not recognized or protected
  by southern law
• Husbands and wives, parents and children were
  separated by sale
• Sexual demands were made on black females by
  masters and other white men
• Despite these problems, the black family did not
  dissolve

36
The Slave Family (cont.)

• Despite these problems, the black family did not
  dissolve
• It evolved in ways that were different from those
  of middle-class whites
• In the place of the nuclear family, fictive kin
  networks allowed slaves to assimilate to new
  environments

37
The Longevity, Diet, and Health of Slaves

• Slaves in the Old South lived longer and
  reproduced faster than those in Brazil or the
  Caribbean
• More even sex ratio
• Adequate diet
• Southern slaves had a higher mortality rate than
  their white countrymen

38
Slaves off Plantations

• The majority of slaves worked on plantations
• Other jobs for slaves
• Mining
• Lumbering
• Manufacturing
• Performed a variety of skilled artisan jobs in
  cities and villages

39
Life on the Margin Free Blacks in the Old South

• Not all blacks in the Old South were slaves
• More than 250,000 free blacks in 1860
• From the 1830s on, the position of the free
  black in the South deteriorated
• Southern law forbade teaching blacks (free or
  slave) to read

40
Life on the Margin (cont.)

• Obstacles were put in the way of manumission
  (freedom)
• Free blacks were barred from entering or
  remaining in many states
• Many of the post-Civil War black leaders came
  from this group

41
Slave Resistance

• Nat Turners 1831 rebellion was the only one in
  which whites were killed
• 2 earlier planned insurrections were betrayed
  before they got underway
• Gabriel Prossers (1800)
• Denmark Veseys (1822)

42
Slave Resistance (cont.)

• The Old South experienced far fewer uprisings
  than South America and the Caribbean
• Slaves did not form a large majority anywhere in
  the South
• Whites had all the weapons and soldiers
• Blacks were reluctant to endanger their families
• Black rarely had allies in southern Indians and
  never in nonslaveholding whites

43
Slave Resistance (cont.)

• An alternative way to freedom was to try to
  escape to the North
• Black abolitionists who escaped
• Frederick Douglass
• Harriet Tubman
• Josiah Henson

44
Slave Resistance (cont.)

• Underground Railroad
• Way to help slaves escape to the north
• Underground railroad map
• PBS summary
• Relatively few slaves made it to the North
  successfully

45
Fugitives Arriving at Indiana Farm
46
Slave Resistance (cont.)

• More than be either running away or violent
  revolt,
• slaves resisted slavery by furtive means
• Theft
• Negligence
• Arson
• Poisoning
• Work stoppages and slowdowns

47
The Emergence of African-American Culture

• Introduction
• American blacks under slavery developed a
  distinctive culture
• Drew on African and American cultures
• But was more than a mixture of the two.

48
The Language of Slaves

• During the colonial period, verbal communication
  between slaves was difficult
• Variety of African languages they spoke
• By the time most slaves were American-born, they
  had developed their own language
• Pidgin English
• This was an indispensable tool for communication
• A bridge to a distinctive black culture

49
African American Religion

• The first Africans brought to the South were
  Muslims or followers of a variety of indigenous
  African religions
• By 1800 many had been converted to Christianity
• Methodists and Baptists
• Masters hoped that by preaching Christian
  humility and acceptance to their slaves, they
  could make blacks docile and obedient
• This did not work
• Many of the rebels and their followers were
  devout Christians

50
African American Religion (cont.)

• While Christianity did not turn most slaves into
  revolutionaries
• It did serve as a unifying force among blacks
• A source of hope and comfort

51
Black Music and Dance

• Compared to the cultural patterns of upper-class
  whites in the Old South, the culture of blacks
  was extremely expressive
• Expressed their feelings in shouts, music, and
  dance
• They composed work songs and religious songs
  (spirituals)
• PBS songs

52
Conclusion

• Slavery is what unified the Old South
• Though the majority of white southerners owned no
  slaves, they had become convinced that the
  perpetuation of the peculiar institution was in
  the best interests of the entire South

53
Conclusion (cont.)

• Northerners believed that slavery made the South
  backward and bankrupt
• Southern whites reacted to outside criticism by
  defending slavery as a benevolent way to handle
  the innate inferiority of the black race
• Few slaves agreed

54
Conclusion (cont.)

• While most of slaves did not revolt or escape
  successfully, they did engage in covert
  resistance
• White masters hoped black conversion to
  Christianity would render their slaves submissive
• When blacks accepted Christianity, they read into
  it the message that slavery was a gross injustice