Chapter 16: The South and the Slavery Controversy (1793-1860)

Near the beginning of American history, slavery seemed to be on the way out, but the 1793 invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney made the cultivation of cotton extremely profitable, thus creating a great demand for slave labor Cotton Is King! The Cotton Kingdom came to produce massive cotton crops with quick profits, and planters fought more slaves and land to grow more cotton so they could buy more slaves and land to grow cotton Northern shippers also profited by transporting cotton from the South to England to sell, and use some of the profit to buy manufactured goods the US needed After 1840, cotton made up half the value of all American exports, and the South produced more than half of the worlds cotton Britain depended on Southern cotton, because in the 1850s 1/5 of its population worked somehow in the production of cotton cloth, and 75% of its cotton supply came from the South The South thought that if there were to be a civil war, the Norths blockade of the cotton export would fail because Britain would protest In the antebellum era, the South was ruled by a wealthy few, who had the means to and felt the obligation to serve the public, ex. John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis Effects of the planter aristocracy: Widened gap between rich and poor Hindered tax-supported public education, because wealthy planters sent their children to private schools Influenced by author Sir Walter Scott, idealized a return to the dying feudal society Planter mistresses commanded a staff of mostly female slaves who did cooking, cleaning, sewing, laundering, and serving, and could be affectionate towards them

The Planter Aristocracy

Slaves of the Slave But the land was overfarmed and exhausted (land butchery), so many migrated to the West System and North Most of those who left were small farmers who sold their property to wealthier neighbors, so the Southern economy became more monopolistic The cotton economy was unstable because: Land and slaves were often overspeculated Slaves were a heavy investment and cost money to maintain Was a one-crop economy, with the price of cotton dependent on world conditions; in fact, the system discouraged diversification into other crops and manufacturing Northern middlemen, bankers, agents, and shippers benefited greatly from Southern cotton, while the South was dependent on manufactured goods from the North The South attracted the least European immigrants because competition with slaves for labor, high price of land, and European ignorance of cotton growing The White Majority Of slaveholding families, a handful owned more than 100 slaves, while more than 2/3 owned less than 10 slaves; and only of all Southerners belonged to families owning any slaves Smaller slaveowners held a minority of the slaves but made up the majority of the slaveowners, and lived more like Northern farmers than large Southern planters, and worked alongside their slaves The majority non-slaveowning rednecks were pushed off the best land by the large planters, scoffed at the cotton snobocracy, barely participated in the market economy because were

subsistence farmers, and often lived isolated lives The poorest whites, AKA hillbillies, crackers, or clay eaters, were seen as listless, shiftless, misshapen, malnourished, and unhygienic, even by slaves Non-slaveowning whites supported the slave system because then had a chance of buying a few slaves and moving up the social ladder, and because could feel good about outranking the slaves Mountain whites in the South: Were passed by by the Cotton Kingdom because were marooned in the Appalachian valleys; had little in common with the rest of the South Were independent small farmers Hated both large planters and their slaves, and saw the impending Civil War as a rich man's war but a poor man's fight During the Civil War, were an invaluable peninsula of Unionism in the Confederate South Free Blacks: Slaves Without Masters In the South: By 1860s, there was a sizable population of free blacks in the South, because of a small wave of emancipation after the Revolution (esp. in the upper South), were freed mulattos (children of a white planter and his black mistress) (esp. in the deeper South), or had bought their freedom Many free blacks owned property, and some, ex. William T. Johnson, even owned slaves Were a third race; could not do certain work, could not testify against whites in court, and were vulnerable to being returned to slavery by slave traders Were disliked because were walking examples of what emancipation might achieve In the North: About as many free slaves lived in the North as in the South In several states, were denied entrance, could not vote, and/or could not attend public schools (ex. 1835 in NH demolition of a school house because enrolled blacks) Irish immigrants especially disliked free slaves because competed with them for menial jobs The Northern opposition to slavery in the new territories in the 1840s and 50s came mostly out of race prejudice, not humanitarianism White Southerners liked the black as an individual but despised the race, while white Northerners professed to like the race but disliked the individuals Though 1808 the importation of slavery was outlawed, by 1860 there were almost 4 million black slaves in the south, partly because of the illegal but rarely punished continuation of slave importation, but mostly because of natural reproduction Slaves were the primary form of wealth, and slaves were considered a large investment, so dangerous work was sometimes done by expendable Irishmen The cotton boom sucked slaves from the upper South into the deeper South Though breeding slaves like cattle was not openly encouraged, when the soil-exhausted Old South states sold their slaves down the river, fertile females were prized and were sometimes promised freedom after having ten children At slave auctions, slaves were often sold alongside livestock and work animals, and their families were often split apart for economic reasons

Plantation Slaves

 Life Under the Lash

Southerners often romanticized the life of their singing, dancing, banjo-playing, joyful slaves Male and female slaves usually worked the whole day in the fields under the eye and whip of a white overseer or black driver Had little no civil or political rights; there were some laws that protected them against murder or excessive punishment, and some that banned the sale of a child under ten from its mother, but these laws were difficult to enforce, because slaves could not testify in court Flogging, not the wage-incentive system of industry, was used to punish slaves, though excessive whipping made for sullen workers and lower resale values By 1860, most slaves were concentrated in the Black Belt, stretching from SC and GA to AL, Mississippi, and Louisiana; slave life was harder in the Southern frontier than in more settled areas Family life: Forced separation of family was more common on smaller plantations and in the Upper South But the slaves managed to sustain family life, with most slave children being raised in a two-parent household, with family identity and a continuation of African culture The slaves' religion was heavily influenced by Christianity with the evangelists of the Second Great Awakening, but emphasized Christian aspects that pertained to their situation, esp. the captivity of the Israelites in Egypt, and kept the African style of responsorial preaching Slaves were kept from education because then were exposed to less ideas and thus were less likely to be discontented Small ways in which slaves rebelled: Worked just fast enough to avoid being whipped; but fostered the myth of black laziness Stole food from the big house and other goods that their labor had made or bought Sabotaged equipment so could not work until repairs were completed Sometimes poisoned their master's food The slaves universally wanted freedom Many slaves ran away from their plantations, often in search of a separated family member Slave rebellions: 1800 under slave Gabriel Prosser in Richmond, VA failed because was ratted out, and its leaders were hanged 1822 under free black Denmark Vesey in Charleston, VA also failed 1831 under black preacher Nat Turner in VA, slaves slaughtered around 60 whites, then faced violent reprisals Whites were negatively affected by slavery as well; white farmers increasingly imagined that they were surrounded by rebellion blacks inflamed by Northern abolitionist propaganda, so theory of racial superiority developed, and the South remained one of the last bastions of slavery in the Western world

The Burdens of Bondage

Early Abolitionism Abolitionism began during the Revolution, esp. in the Quakers Some early abolitionists wanted to transport blacks back to Africa because disliked them; 1817 the American Colonization Society was founded, and 1822 the Republic of Liberia was founded, but most blacks did not want to go to a strange civilization after being Americanized or having been born in America, as they increasingly were In the 1830s, the abolitionist movement boomed in activity because: 1833 Britain freed its slaves in the West Indies The Second Great Awakening caused many to view slavery as sinful Theodore Dwight Weld:

 1820s was evangelized by Finney Enrolled in the Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, OH with the financial help of NY merchants Arthur Tappan and Lewis Tappan, but 1834 was expelled for helping to organize a debate on slavery So he and his fellow Lane Rebels spread out across the Old Northwest and preached their antislavery gospel His 1839 pamphlet American Slavery as It Is was highly effective and influenced Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin Radical Abolitionism William Lloyd Garrison: 1831 began publishing antislavery newspaper The Liberator Often seemed to be more interested in his own righteousness than in the evil of slavery itself; demanded that the North secede from the South, but did not explain how the creation of an independent slave republic would end slavery Renouncing politics, Fourth of July 1854 publicly burned a copy of the Constitution 1833 the American Anti-Slavery Society was founded Abolitionist and orator Wendell Phillips was abolitions golden trumpet and would not eat cane sugar or wear cotton clothing because were produced by slave labor Black abolitionists: David Walkers 1829 Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World argued for a violent to white supremacy Freed black Sojourner Truth fought for emancipation and womens rights Martin Delaney was one of the only black leaders who seriously considered mass recolonization of Africa Escaped slave Frederick Douglass: Came to the attention of the abolitionists when 1841 at an MA antislavery meeting spontaneously gave a stunning speech Lectured widely for antislavery and faced beatings and death threats 1845 autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Increasingly, abolitionists used politics to try to end slavery; they supported 1840 the Liberty party, 1848 the Free Soil party, and 1850s the Republican party Most abolitionists ended up supporting a costly civil war to achieve emancipation 1820s antislavery was not unknown in the South, but after 1830, white southern abolitionism was suppressed: 1831-1832 the VA legislature defeated various emancipation proposals; afterwards, all slave states tightened their slave codes and prohibited all emancipation 1831 Nat Turners rebellion and the unconnected appearanced of the Liberator newspaper caused hysteria among the larger planters and a warrant for Garrison 1832 nullification crisis further made the Southern whites fear black incendiaries and abolitionist devils In response, proslavery whites launched a defense of slavery: Claimed that it was supported by the Bible and Aristotle Claimed that it lifted Africans from the barbaric jungle into Christian civilization Pointed out that master-slave relationships were often affectionate and familial Argued that the slaves were better off than the wage slaves in the North, who worked in dark and stuffy factories, worried about unemployment and hard times, and were not cared for after they were unable to work So increasing Southern intolerance of embarrasing questions on slavery, so the Southerners

The South Lashes Back

took measures that threatened freedoms of speech, press, and petition: 1836 Southerners pushed the Gag Resolution through the House that required all antislavery appeals be tabled without debate, so threatened the right to petition, so Representative John Quincy Adams successfully fought for eight years to repeal it 1835 a mob in Charleston, SC attacked a post office to prevent abolitionist material from being mailed to slaves, and 1835 the government ordered Southern postmasters to destroy abolitionist material or be arrested The Abolitionist Impact in the North Abolitionists were unpopular for a while in the North because: Northerners revered the Constitution and the ideal of Union By the late 1850s, Southern planters owed an immense sum of money to Northern bankers and other creditors New England textile mills used Southern cotton Anti-abolitionist mob outbursts: 1834 a mob broke into and trashed Lewis Tappans house 1835 Garrison was nearly lynched by the Broadcloth Mob Reverend Elijah P. Lovejoy opposed slavery and the chastity of Catholic women; his printing press was destroyed multiple times, and 1837 he was killed by a mob, becoming the martyr abolitionist But by the 1850s, a growing number of Northerners (free-soilers) saw slavery as unjust, but did not want to abolish it outright Lucretia Mott was an abolitionist who fought for women's rights after being barred from speaking at an abolition convention Preacher Charles G. Finney spoke against slavery as a minister at Oberlin College, one of the first schools to admit women and blacks Former slave Harriet Jacobs wrote about her experiences as a slave with the cruel treatment from her master Southerner James Henry Hammond said that Cotton is King and slept with his mulatto daughter Chief Justice Roger Taney was appointed by Andrew Jackson to the Supreme Court, presided over the Dred Scott ruling Harriet Moses Tubman was a guide for the underground railroad and a spy for the Union Sisters Sarah Grimke and Angelia Grimke worked for abolition and women's rights Southerner Hinton Helper wrote The Impending Crisis of the South that argued that slavery negatively affected non-slaveholding whites Southerner George Fitzhugh defended slavery in his 1854 Sociology for the South Escaped slave Henry Highland Garnet graduated from Oneida Institute and along with David Walker promoted armed rebellion among slaves John Brown in Kansas killed several pro-slavery people with broad swords Lewis Cass was one of the first to advocate popular sovereignty in the territories and ran as a Democrat in the 1848 presidential elections Susan B. Anthony fought for temperance, abolition, and women's suffrage

Other People to Know