1. Antebellum
Southern
Society

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

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

4. Southern Population

5. Antebellum
Southern
Economy

6. Graniteville Textile Co.
Founded in 1845, it was the South’s first attempt at industrialization in Richmond, VA

7. Southern Agriculture

8. Slaves Picking Cotton on a Mississippi Plantation

9. Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin
As Eli Whitney left New England and headed South in 1792, he had no idea that within the next seven months he would invent a machine that would profoundly alter the course of American history.

10. The Effects of the Cotton Gin
After the invention of the cotton gin, the yield of raw cotton doubled each decade after 1800.
By mid century America was growing 3/4 of the world's supply of cotton, most of it shipped to England or New England where it was manufactured into cloth.

11. Changes in Cotton Production
1820
1860

12. Value of Cotton Exports As % of All US Exports

13. The South's
"Peculiar
Institution"

14. Slave Auction Notice, 1823

15. Slave Accoutrements
Slave Master Brands
Branding Slaves

16. Anti-Slave Pamphlet

17. Slave Accoutrements
Slave leg irons
Slave tag, SC
Slave shoes

18. Antebellum
Southern
Plantation Life

19. Slave-Owning Population (1850)

20. Slave-Owning Families (1850)

21. Slaves posing in front of their cabin on a Southern plantation.

22. Tara – Plantation Reality or Myth?
Hollywood’s Version . . .

23. A Real Georgia Plantation

24. Scarlet and Mammie (Hollywood Again!)

25. A Real Mammie & Her Charge

26. The Southern “Belle”

27. A Slave Family

28. Southern Pro-Slavery Propaganda