Baltimore Polytechnic Institute November 17, 2010 A.P. U.S. History Mr. Green

Objectives: Describe the economic strengths and weaknesses of the Cotton Kingdom and its central role in the prosperity of Britain as well as the United States. Outline the hierarchical social structure of the South, from the planter aristocracy to African American slaves. Describe the non-slaveholding white majority of the South, and explain why most poorer whites supported slavery even though they owned no slaves. AP Focus The South in the antebellum period is dominated by the planter- slaveholder class, which comprises only a small percentage of the South’s white population—approximately two-thirds of southern whites own no slaves. So important is cotton to the South’s—and, some contend, the nation’s—economy that it is referred to as King Cotton. The life of freed slaves, while appreciably better than that of their enslaved brethren, is precarious. Freed slaves did not find a panacea to their problems and treatment in the North either.

CHAPTER THEMES The explosion of cotton production fastened the slave system deeply upon the South, creating a complex, hierarchical racial and social order that deeply affected whites as well as blacks. The economic benefits of an increasing production of cotton due to the cotton gin and slavery were shared between the South, the North, and Britain. The economics of cotton and slavery also led to bigger and bigger plantations, since they could afford the heavy investment of human capital.

Focus Questions Due for Chapter 16 on Thursday. Submit Presidential Election Charts 1828, 1832, 1836, 1840-you are losing points if you have not submitted them for grading Decades Chart for the 1830’s due today

Northern shippers-profits from cotton shipped to England Half the value of all American exports after 1840 South produced ½ the world’s cotton Southerners in the cotton industry believed that it gave them an advantage over England and the North

Widened gap between rich and poor Hampered tax-supported public education Rich planters sent children away to school Quickly exhausted the soil-soil butchery Financial instability of the plantation system over-speculation of land slave costs/runaways Limited diversification of agriculture/manufacturing/ethnicities

¼ of white southerners owned slaves or belonged to a slave-owning family Small farmers worked alongside slaves Non-slave owners were subsistence farmers removed from the Cotton life. Poor whites-staunchest supporters of slavery, even though they owned no slaves. status American Dream Mountain whites-completely removed from the heart of the Cotton Kingdom

250,000 Free Blacks in 1860 in the South 250,000 Free Blacks in 1860 in the North Denied basic rights such as voting, employment, public school As the international slave trade ended in the US in 1808, and vibrant internal slave trade boomed. Treated as property and sparred dangerous jobs as roofing and swamp clearing Mulatto population increase as slave owners fostered affection to the female slave

Compare and contrast the lives lived by free blacks to that of plantation slaves. Be sure to include all aspects of society. You may use a Venn Diagram to organize your thinking, but you are required to submit this in standard writing from.

 Finish reading all of Chapter 16  5 Question reading check at the beginning of class.