Slavery and Abolition When is evil so enormous, that it must be denounced, even at the risk of bloodshed and butchery?

“If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own.” (Emerson, 1841)

Characteristics of the Antebellum South 1.Primarily agrarian. 2.Economic power shifted from the “upper South” to the “lower South.” 3.“Cotton Is King!” * 1860  5 mil. bales a yr. (57% of total US exports). 4.Very slow development of industrialization. 5.Limited financial system. 6.Inadequate transportation system.

KING COTTON 1793: Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin Economic Impact: Cotton ½ of all exports after 1840 ½ World’s supply of cotton 1/5 of British population tied to cotton industry 75% of all British cotton came from American South

Slave Trade 1808 – Slave Trade outlawed by Congress Where did increase in slaves come from? Natural Reproduction Smuggling A HUGE INVESTMENT

PLANTATION AGRICULTURE “Land Butchery” – Cotton growing destroyed the land Monopolistic – big got bigger, small got smaller Financial Instability Slaves were a heavy investment One-Crop Economy Resented North for getting rich at the South’s expense

Southern Population

Southern Society (1850) “Slavocracy” [planter aristocracy] The “Plain Folk” [white yeoman farmers] 6,000,000 Black Freemen Black Slaves 3,200, ,000 Total US Population  23,000,000 [9,250,000 in the South = 40%]

SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE SOUTH Who owned slaves? ¼ of white southerners Planter “Aristocracy” 1/3 of Slave owners Sir Walter Scott – glorified feudal society Southern Women Smaller Slave owners 2/3 of slave owners Less than 10 slaves Small formers, similar to small farmers of the north

Slave-Owning Population (1850)

Slave-Owning Families (1850)

SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE SOUTH 3/4 of whites owned no slaves Lived isolated lives “white trash”, “hillbillies, “crackers”, “clay eaters” Shiftless, listless, lazy – Actually sick – malnourished Biggest defenders of slave system – WHY? Mountain Whites Lived far from cotton kingdom Hated planters and slaves Civil War “Rich man’s war but a poor man’s fight” Unionists

SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE SOUTH Free Blacks South: 250,000 in 1860 Mulattoes – emancipated children of white planters Purchased freedom New Orleans – many owned property “Third Race” North: 250,000 States forbade their entrance Especially hated by the Irish Race Prejudice

What specific information about slaves and slavery can you see in (or infer from) these photographs?

SLAVE LIFE Singing, Dancing, Banjos Whippings Family Life Auctions Separation of Families Uncle Tom’s Cabin By Harriet Beecher Stowe

Early Emancipation in the North

Abolitionist Movement 1816  American Colonization Society created (gradual, voluntary emancipation. British Colonization Society symbol

Abolitionist Movement eCreate a free slave state in Liberia, West Africa. eNo real anti-slavery sentiment in the North in the 1820s & 1830s. Gradualists Immediatists

Anti-Slavery Alphabet

William Lloyd Garrison ( ) eSlavery & Masonry undermined republican values. eImmediate emancipation with NO compensation. eSlavery was a moral, not an economic issue. R2-4

The Liberator Premiere issue  January 1, 1831 R2-5

The Tree of Slavery—Loaded with the Sum of All Villanies!

Other White Abolitionists Lewis Tappan Arthur Tappan James Birney eLiberty Party. eRan for President in 1840 & 1844.

Black Abolitionists David Walker ( ) 1829  Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World Fight for freedom rather than wait to be set free by whites.

Frederick Douglass ( ) 1845  The Narrative of the Life Of Frederick Douglass 1847  “The North Star” R2-12

Sojourner Truth ( ) or Isabella Baumfree 1850  The Narrative of Sojourner Truth R2-10

Harriet Tubman ( ) eHelped over 300 slaves to freedom. e$40,000 bounty on her head. eServed as a Union spy during the Civil War. “Moses”

Leading Escaping Slaves Along the Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad

e“Conductor” ==== leader of the escape e“Passengers” ==== escaping slaves e“Tracks” ==== routes e“Trains” ==== farm wagons transporting the escaping slaves e“Depots” ==== safe houses to rest/sleep