The south and the Slavery Controversy
Issue of slavery rising 2nd GA led to reform movements such as abolition Missouri compromise of 1820 Mexican cession Cotton gin -Ation invasion
1793 Whitney’s cotton gin led to wide scale cultivation of cotton Cycle of dependency North shippers benefited How impt is cotton? half value of all American exports after 1840 South makes more than half of entire worlds supply GB leading industrial power esp in cotton cloth and 75% supply comes from south
Planter aristocracy society BUT not democratic Widened gap between rich and poor Hampered tax supported edu Plantation system shaped lives of southern women
Temptation to over speculate in land and slaves Dangerous dependence on one crop discouraged diversification and manufacturing South repels large scale European immigration
White majority Only 1/4th of white southerners owned slaves or belonged to a slave owning family Small slave owners Only a slave or two Life resemble that of a small farmer in north By /4 of all southern whites slave less
Slave less whites Simple living in backcountry Subsistence farmers, raise corn and hogs, not cotton Live isolated lives Known as hillbillies, crackers, described as listless Had no direct stake in preservation of slavery, but stoutest defenders of it.
Why? Mountain whites White southerners who lived in valleys of Appalachian Independent small farmers Distant from cotton kingdom Little in common with southern whites
Free blacks By 1860 ~250, 000 In deeper south, many were mulattoes emancipated children of a white planter Throughout south some who purchased their freedom Some free blacks owned property and even slaves Prohibited from working in certain occupations, forbidden from testifying against whites in court Vulnerable to being brought back into slavery Free blacks also unpopular in north
Slave auction
Slaves sold on auction blocks Families separated Selling of humans alongside cattle Abolitionists decried this practice (Harriet Beecher stow depicts this in Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
Plantation slavery 1860 about 4 million slaves Legal importation of slaves into America ended in 1808 but thousands of blacks smuggled in despite death penalty for slavers Most of increase in slave pop from natural reproduction Slaves are investments, primary form of wealth in south –Investments t o be cared for, which is why sometimes spared dangerous work
1860 most slaves in black belt of deep south from S. Carolina and Georgia to Alabama, Mi, and LA Majority live on large plantations In some areas of deep south blacks = 75% of pop so family life relatively stable and AA slave culture developed
Some rebel passively while others choose a more aggressive method Ie 1822 Denmark Vesey, free black, led a failed rebellion in charleston 1831 Nat Turner, black preacher
White southerners lived in a state of imagined siege Early abolitionism Antislavery societies sprout Abolition first stirred at time o f revolution - Quakers American colonization society in 1817 Republic of Liberia 1822
1830s Abolition new momentum Why? 1833 Britain free slaves in west indies 2nd GA inspire many Who? Harriet Beecher stowe - Uncle Tom’s Cabin William Lloyd Garrison - The Liberator Anti-Slavery Society 1833 Sojourner truth - freed black woman in NY Frederick Douglass
Harriet Beecher Stowe
William Lloyd Garrison
Sojourner Truth
Frederick Douglass Escaped from slavery Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Garrison v. Douglass Garrison Appear more interested In self righteousness Demand north secede from south Doesn’t explain how to create independent slav republic Douglass Born slave, escape to north Looked to politics to end slavery Support Liberty party 1840, Free Soil party 1848, Republican party 1850
Antislavery sentiment existed in south. After 1830 it was silenced Virginia legislature defeated various emancipation proposals Thereafter all slave states tightened slave codes, moved to prohibit emancipation Nat turners rebellion sent fear Garrisons, The Liberator brought fear The nullification crises of 1832 brought fear
Proslavery whites launch defense of slavery as good Supported by bible Good for the Africans who lifted from Barbarism Master slave relationships resemble family Happy lot of slaves v. overworked northern wage earners Blacks toiled in fresh air and sunlight not dark stuffy factories Cared for in sickness, and age unlike north who lose jobs
Petitions from antislavery reformers poured into congress 1836 sensitive southerners put through the House the Gag resolution Required all antislavery appeals to be tabled without debate Southerners resent abolitionist lit in their mail
Abolitionist impact in north Abolitionists esp extreme Garrisonians unpopular in many parts of north : idea of secession North have heavy economic stake in south By 1850s southern planters owed northern bankers and other creditors about 300 million New England textile mills fed with cotton raised by slaves, and without could bring unemployment in north By 1850s, abolitionist cry had an impact in north.