The South and the Slavery Controversy

-The entire south was caught up in growing cotton, very profitable, lead to the increase in slavery -Northern merchants also made large profits shipping it to England -Northern factories also made profits from it -Cotton made up ½ of all American exports in 1840, more than ½ the world’s cotton was produced in the South -England and the South were economically tied to each other -The Southerners had a false sense of security based on this tie

-The South was in fact a government by the few—oligarchy, passed on the large plantation owners -They owned a vast majority of the wealth and most of it was tied up in their labor, slaves -Produced more higher statesman than the north, had money and time -Widened the gap between the rich and the poor, slowed public education -The plantation system shaped women’s roles, gave orders to slaves doing the domestic work, most didn’t object to families being broken up and many even had their servants whipped, very few if any were abolitionists

-Cotton drained the land quickly and forced people to move west -Economic system was becoming monopolistic, small farmers sold out to the larger ones and moved west -Plantation system was very unstable financially, most over speculated in land and slaves, slaves were the greatest investment and when bad things happened to them death, disease, etc. the owners were hard hit -Dependence on a one crop economy -There was friction between the North and South because the North was growing rich selling its manufactured goods to the South and the South had no choice but to grow cotton and buy the North’s goods

-1,733 families owned 100 or more slaves -Under them were 345,000 of the less wealthy most of which owned less than 10 -Only 1/4 th of the whites owned any slaves at all -Most were small farmers that had to work alongside their slaves and their lives resembled the farmers in the north more than the plantation owners -By 1860 over six million ¾ of all whites owned no slaves at all, most didn’t participate in the market economy and lived isolated lives raising hogs and corn not cotton—Hillbillies -Kept going following the dream of owning slaves some day and moving up the social ladder -Also loved their pride in not being at the bottom of the social ladder -Mountain whites, lived in the mountains isolated and hated slaves and their owners -Were for the Union

-250,000 free blacks in the South, most were mulattoes emancipated by their fathers, some were freed during the Revolution, many owned property, some owned slaves -Almost a third race, couldn’t work in certain jobs, testify in court, etc -250,000 free blacks lived in the North as well -Couldn’t vote, couldn’t attend school, especially hated by the Irish, used as scabs, Irish also on the next rung up the social ladder -The North was often more racist than the South

-Almost 4 million slaves in The slave trade ended in 1808 when it was outlawed which led to smuggling -Most of the increase came from natural increase -Slaves were seen as investments and they were the largest investment in the South, 2 Billion $ as of Dangerous work was often left to the Irish immigrants that were paid wages -The cotton producing areas in the Deep South pulled the slaves from the rest of the south and ended up with black majorities in their populations

-Whites often romanticized about slaves lives -Each slave had different experiences -Most usually worked dawn to dusk, no civil rights, only minor protection from murder or cruel punishment -Floggings were very common, actually the incentive, particularly hard to control slaves were sent out to be broken -These were often rare because the owner had to much at stake to beat them often -“Black Belt” South Carolina to Louisiana -Most slaves lived on large plantations with 20 or more slaves -Slavery in the Deep South was relatively stable, most slaves were raised in two parent households -Religion was often a mix of Christianity and their own African elements—responsorial practice where the congregation accents what the speaker said

-Slaves were degraded, had no dignity, sense of responsibility, education -They found ways to sabotage the institution of slavery: -Slowed their pace of work—myth of black laziness -Stole food and goods from their masters -Sabotaged equipment -Poisoned masters -Runaway and rebelled Gabriel in Richmond, 1822 Denmark Vesey in Charleston 30 executed, 1831 Nat Turner 60 killed -Slavery made whiles less humane, paranoid, they couldn’t keep slaves down without degrading themselves