Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 1 Small Farms Most white Southerners were small farmers without slaves or planters with only a handful of slaves. They couldn’t afford slaves. Four categories for Southerners: 1. Yeomen, 2. Tenant Farmers, 3. Rural Poor, or 4. Plantation Owners. Small Farmers and the Rural Poor Yeomen = farmers who did not have slaves. They made up the largest group. Most owned land. Mostly in the Upper South and in the hilly (land unsuited for plantations) Deep South. About 50 to 200 acre farms. Raised crops for their own use and to sell. Often bartered (traded) with local merchants for goods and services. - Lived in homes of wood & plaster w/thatched roofs.

Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 2 Tenant Farmers did not own land and some rented from owners of large estates. Rural Poor lived in crude cabins in wooded areas where they cleared trees, planted corn, and had a cow or two. Poor People of rural South were very independ- ent. Wouldn’t do work that was similar to slave work. They were proud and self-sufficient even though they were looked down upon by others. Plantations Sometimes several thousand acres. Lived in comfortable but not luxurious farm houses. They counted the number of slaves they owned as a measure of their wealth. A small number of plantation owners held 20 or more slaves in 1860. Large majority held fewer than 10 slaves.

Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 3 Odd as it seems some free African Americans owned slaves. Metoyer family of Louisiana owned thousands of acres and more than 400 slaves. Usually they had purchased their own family members in order to free them. Plantation Owners -Plantation owners had fixed costs- expenses such as housing, feeding workers, and maintaining cotton gins and other equipment. They remained constant from year to year. Cotton prices varied from season to season. Planters regularly sold their cotton to agents in Mobile, Ala., New Orleans, Louis., Charleston, and Savannah, GE. These cotton exchanges were vitally important to the economy. Agents from the exchanges gave credit-a form of loan-to the planters & held the cotton for months until the price improved & then they sold it.

Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 3 Plantation Wives In charge of watching over slaves who worked in the home and taking care of them when they became sick. They also supervised the plantation’s buildings and fruit and vegetable gardens. Some wives kept the plantation’s financial records. Wives often spent a lot of time alone as their husbands were often gone to look for new land to buy as the country continued to expand westward. Work on the Plantation Different kinds of workers were needed on the large plantations. Slaves worked in the house cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, sewing and serving meals. They were domestic slaves.

Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 5 - Others were blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, and weavers. Others worked with stock (horses, cows, sheep, and pigs). MOST SLAVES were FIELD HANDS. They worked from sunrise to sunset planting, cultivating, and picking cotton & other crops. They were supervised by an overseer-a plantation manager. Life Under Slavery Slaves endured hardship and misery. They worked hard, received no money, and had little hope of freedom. One of their worst fears was to be sold to another plantation and separated from their families which they maintained rigidly and they developed a culture of their own. They resisted slavery through a number of methods, however.

Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 6 Life in the Slave Cabins Slaves usually only had the bare necessities. Josiah Henson, an escaped slave describes their living quarter on page 404. Family Life Faced constant uncertainty and danger. Law in the 1800s did not extend to the slaves. A wife or husband could be sold at any time or the death of a slaveholder could breakup the families of the enslaved as the assets were divided. Slave marriages were not recognized by law. Many slaves did “marry” and often swore to be faithful to one another “until death or separation do us part.” To attain some stability slaves established ex- tended families so someone would raise kids.

Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 7 African American Culture Slaves extending their own culture, fellowship, and community in order to endure their hard- ships. - Congress outlawed the slave trade in 1808. Although it was illegal to bring in new slaves from Africa, in the South slavery grew because of the children born to slaves in the U.S. By 1860 almost all slaves had been born here. They held on to African customs and passed them on to their children. Many slaves became Christians, but they also retained their African roots. African American Christianity Christianity became a religion of hope for many slaves.

Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 8 They constantly prayed for the day when they they would be released from bondage. Spirituals were African American folk songs that they sang to give themselves hope. Also used spirituals to communicate secretly among themselves. Slave Codes The laws in the southern states that controlled enslaved people. Between 1830 and 1860 the slave codes became more severe. They always were intended to keep the slaves from rebelling. Prohibited them from assembling in large groups and leaving master’s property without a written pass. Also made it a crime to teach slaves to read or write.

Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 9 Resistance to Slavery Some slaves did rebel openly. Nat Turner, a popular religious leader who had taught himself to read and write. In 1831 Nat lead a group on a violent rampage in Virginia. They killed al least 55 whites. Turner was hanged and slave owners passed more severe slave codes. Armed revolts were very rare. Most rebellions consisted of working slowly or pretending to be sick. Sometimes they might set fires or break equipment. Resistance helped them endure slavery. Escaping Slavery Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas were two who were born into slavery & escaped to North.

Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 10 Slave who succeeded in escaping to the North used the Underground Railroad-a network of “safe houses” owned by free blacks and whites who opposed slavery. Some slaves ran away only to find missing relatives. Most escaped slaves were captured and then they were returned to their owners. Discipline was severe-the most common type of punishment was whipping. City Life and Education The south was primarily an agricultural state, however, there were many large cities by the mid 1800s. The 10 largest cities of the South were either seaports or river ports.

Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 11 New Orleans had 168,000 people in 1860. Due to the railroads, many cities began to grow. Cities at these RR crossroads were: Columbia, S.C., Chattanooga, TN, Montgomery, Alabama, Jackson, Miss., and Atlanta, Georgia. Populations of these cities included many slaves white city dwellers, and many freed AAs. These cities provided AAs the opportunities to form their own communities. Free AA founded their own churches and insti- tutions. New Orleans formed its own opera company. Between 1830 and 1860 southern states passed laws restricting the rights of free AAs. Couldn’t migrate to other states and they were denied an equal share with whites in economic freedoms.

Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 12 Education Rich southerners often sent their kids to private schools. Academy of Moses Waddel in Willmington, S.C. Students attended for 6 days a week. Bible and classical literature, but also included math, religion, Greek, Latin, & public speaking. No statewide public school system existed in Wilmington. Very good public school systems DID exist in Charleston, Louisville, and Mobile. Education was growing in southern states by the mid-1800s. Although public education had grown in the South, it was sub-par to other parts of the U.S. - South was last in literacy- reading & writing.

Chapter 13: North and South 1820-1860 Section 4: The South’s People 13 The South had fewer white people than other states. 127 per sq. mile in Massachusetts, but only about 15 whites per sq. mile in N. Carolina. Many Southerners believed education was a private matter and it was a hardship to send their kids to school, so they didn’t send them.