Sign In Get Binders Do Now Turn in all 3 homeworks Foldable – North/South Chapter 13-3 Guided ?’s Question #1 & Drawing / Picture

Most Southerners were small farmers without enslaved people or were planters with a few enslaved laborers. Only a very few planters could afford the large plantations and numerous enslaved people to work it. Southerners were of 4 types: yeomen, tenant, farmers, rural poor and plantation owners. Yeomen were farmers without enslaved people. They made up the largest group of the whites in the South. Most owned land and lived in the Upper South and hilly rural areas of the Deep South. Their farms were from acres. They grew crops for themselves / sell or trade

Tenant farmers rented land and worked on landlords’ estates. The rural poor lived in crude cabins in wooded areas, planted corn, and fished and hunted for food. They were self-sufficient and refused any work that resembled enslaved labor.

Plantation owners wanted to earn profits, and they did this by selling cotton. Plantations had fixed costs, such as feeding and housing workers and maintaining equipment. These did not vary greatly. However, owners could not know how much their cotton would bring in because prices varied from season to season and market to market. Planters sold their cotton to agents from cotton exchanges in large cities such as Charleston, New Orleans, Mobile, and Savannah. The agents held the cotton until the price rose and then sold it. Planters did not get any $$$ until the agents sold the cotton, so they were always in debt. The agents did extend credit, or a loan, to the planters for the time they held the cotton.

Plantation wives were responsible for enslaved people & supervising the plantation building and other gardens. They also kept the financial records. Most plantations’ wealth was measured by possessions, including enslaved people. Only about 4% of the South’s farms and plantations held 20 or more enslaved people by A majority of the planters held fewer than 10 enslaved workers. Life was lonely, especially when planters traveled to make new deals with agents.

Plantation work involved many chores. Some enslaved African Americans worked in the house, cleaning, cooking, sewing, and doing laundry. Other enslaved African Americans were skilled workers, trained as carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, or weaver. Some worked in the pastures, but most were field hands, supervised by an overseer, working from sunrise to sunset.

Life was full of hardships and misery. Enslaved African Americans worked long hours, earned no money, and had little hope of freedom. Many were separated from their families when sold to different plantation owners. They had the bare necessities in their slave cabins. Each cabin was shared by dozens of people living together in a single room. Family life was uncertain. Law did not recognize marriages, but many enslaved African Americans did marry. Families were separated when wives or children were sold. The extended family provided some stability and was an important aspect of culture.

Although enduring many difficulties, they kept their African culture alive and mixed it with American ways. Even though slavery was legal in the South, the slave trade was outlawed in As no new enslaved Africans were entered in the United States, almost all the enslaved people by 1860 were born here. Many enslaved people accepted Christianity. The spiritual, or AA religious folk song, provided a way to secretly communicate with one another Slave codes made life more difficult. These laws that controlled the enslaved people such as prohibiting them from gathering in large groups. Leaving their master’s property without a pass, and making a crime to teach them how to read or write.

Resistance – working slowly, pretending to be sick, setting fire, breaking tools. Armed rebellions were rare. Nat Turner, who taught himself to read and write, led a group on a short violent rampage in Southampton County, Virginia, in They killed at least 55 white before being capture. Turner was hanged. More severe slave codes were passed as a result. Some enslaved people escaped slavery. Most who were successful escaped via the Underground Railroad, which was a network of safe places to stop along the long journey to the North in “safe houses” owned by whites and free African Americans. Most runaways were captured and punished.

By 1860 several large cities existed, such as Baltimore and New Orleans. Others were on the rise such as Charleston, Richmond, & Memphis. Baltimore’s population was 212,000. New Orleans had 168,000 people. Population included whites, some enslaved people and free African Americans. Free African Americans became barbers, carpenters, and traders. They founded churches and institutions. In New Orleans they formed an opera company. Not all prospered though, and may were not given an equal share in economic and political life.