1. Period 5 The Old South and Slavery 1830-1860
Chapter 12
Period 5
The Old South and Slavery

2. 12.1
King Cotton

3. Introduction Nat Turner’s Rebellion Aug. 1831 60 whites were killed
Created a panic among whites about slave insurrections

4. Introduction (cont.) Because of Nat Turner’s Rebellion
Whites took indiscriminate revenge on blacks
The Viginia legislature came close to passing an emancipation bill (winter of )that would have freed the slaves making it illegal
After the bill failed to pass, white opposition to slavery in Virginia and throughout the South gradually disappeared

5. Introduction (cont.) Upper South Lower South Virginia N Carolina
The Upper South relied less on slavery and cotton than the Lower South
Upper South seceded from the Union more hesitantly
From 1832 on, what united and created the region the “Old South” was its defense of slavery
Its “peculiar institution”
Upper South
Lower South
Virginia
N Carolina
Tennessee
Arkansas
S Carolina
Georgia
Florida
Alabama
Mississippi
Louisiana
Texas

6. Guiding Questions
1.) How did the rise of cotton cultivation affect the society and economy of the Old South?
2.) What major social divisions segmented the white South?
3.) Why did non-slaveholding whites feel their futures were tied to the survival of slavery?
4.) What were the distinctive features of African- American society and culture in the South?

7. King Cotton Introduction
The main cash crop of the colonial South was tobacco
Tobacco declined in the late 1700’s
Cotton culture revived southern agriculture
Encouraged rapid expansion southward and westward
Cotton growing was stimulated by:
the growth of the British textile industry
Development of the cotton gin
Removal of Indians form southern and western lands

8. Value of Cotton Exports as a Percentage of All U.S. Exports, 1800–1860
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

9. The Lure of Cotton
The climate of the Lower South was ideal for growing cotton
The invention of the Cotton Gin made the processing of cotton much easier, quicker and cheaper
Intense demand in Britain kept prices high
Cotton could be grown profitably on any scale
small farms or large plantations
With or without slave labor
Cotton cultivation and the institution of slavery increased side by side
Cotton and corn were often grown together so that the South did not have to spend money on imported food

10. Growth of Cotton Production and the Slave Population, 1790–1860
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

11. The Cotton Gin

12. South Carolina Cotton Plantation

13. Mississippi Cotton Plantation

14. Slaves Working the Fields (notice the children working)

15. Every dot on the map represents a cotton plantation with slave labor.

17. Ties Between the Lower and Upper South
The Upper South identified with the Lower South rather than the free states:
Many of the Lower South residents had migrated from the Upper South
All southern whites benefited form the 3/5’s clause in the Constitution
Almost all southerners resented the criticism form northern abolitionists
The residents of the Upper South enjoyed a large, profitable business in the sale of slaves to the Lower South

18. The North and South Diverge
While the North was rapidly industrializing and urbanizing, the South remained primarily rural and agricultural
Slaves could be and were employed in southern factories
Much of the South’s capital was tied up in slave ownership
Not available for investment in industrial development

19. The North and South Diverge (cont.)
Southerners believed that raising cash crops through slave labor would continue to be profitable
They lacked the incentive to switch their capital from land and slaves to financing industry

20. The North and South Diverge (cont.)
The South’s slave economy did not require a high rate of literacy
The Old South made less provision for public schools than the North
School attendance was not compulsory for southern whites
The law forbade teaching slaves to read and write

21. The Social Groups of the White South
12.2
The Social Groups of the White South

22. The Social Groups of the White South
Introduction
In 1860
1/4 of southern whites owned slaves
1% of southern whites owned 100 or more
The whites of the Old South fit into 4 classes:
1.) planters
Owners of more than 20 slaves
2.) small slaveholders
3.) yeoman
Nonslaveholding small family farmers
4.) people of the pine barrens

23. Planters and Plantation Mistresses
The plantation was almost a factory in the field
High degree of division of labor
The pursuit of profit led planters to:
look constantly for additional and more fertile land
Organize their slave crews as efficiently as possible
Seek favorable merchant-banker connections

24. Planter and Plantation Mistresses (cont.)
To supplement their income
Many opened their homes to visitors
Responsibility of hospitality falling to their wives
Psychological strains that plantation agriculture placed on planters and their wives included:
Isolation from other whites of their class
Frequent moves
Crude living conditions
Especially those who lived on the new frontier
Responsibilities of running a major economic enterprise

25. Planter and Plantation Mistresses (cont.)
An additional stress on planters’ wives was the sexual double standard
Accepted illicit sexual relations between masters and their bondswomen
Demanded absolute sexual purity from white females

26. The Small Slaveholders
There were many more small slaveholders than planter
“In 1860, 88% of all slaveholders owned fewer than 20 slaves.”
In the upland regions
Small slaveholders tended to identify with the more numerous yeomen
In the low country and delta
They identified with the planters
Aspired to rise into that class
Sometimes they did

27. The Yeoman Nonslaveholding family farmers
Largest group among southern whites
Most yeoman grew some crops for sale
A few were only subsistence farmers
Farms ranged in size from 50 to 200 acres
Congregated in the upland, hilly, and less fertile regions
Proud
Self-sufficient

28. The People of the Pine Barrens
Made up about 10% of white population
Did not own land or slaves
Squatted on unfenced land
Subsistence farming
Grazed hogs and cattle
Grew corn
Refused to work as hired help for others
Survived in this manner

29. Social Relations in the White South
12.3
Social Relations in the White South

30. Social Relations in the White South
Introduction
Southern white society showed a mixture of aristocratic and democratic elements
There were great differences in wealth between classes
Most whites did own land
Planters were overrepresented in state legislatures
Did not always pass laws that only benefited themselves

31. Conflict and Consensus in the White South
Planters leaned towards the Whigs
Yeomen towards the Democrats
Other characteristics of the Old South were minimized in conflict
The 4 main social groups were clustered in different regions and had little contact
Yeomen and planters were independent landowners
Whites rarely worked for other whites
Many worked side by side with their slaves

32. Conflict and Consensus in the White South (cont.)
Planters dominated state legislatures
All white men had the right to vote by 1820’s
The planters could not ignore the desires of the yeomen majority

33. Conflict over Slavery
There was a potential for conflict between slaveholders and nonslaveholders
But the majority of nonslaveholding southerners supported slavery
Why?
Some hoped to become slaveholders
Many feared freedmen would demand social and political equality with whites
Feared a race war

34. Conflict over Slavery (cont.)
Throughout the South there was a fear of a race war
Many whites also shared racist beliefs about blacks
Feared that emancipation would be followed by a race war
Which would endanger the lives of all whites

35. The Proslavery Argument
The proslavery argument was also used as a tool to unite southern whites behind the institution
The proslavery argument was constructed by southern intellectuals between 1830 and 1860
The argument claimed that slavery was a positive good rather than a necessary evil

36. The Proslavery Argument (cont.)
It claimed that slavery was sanctioned by history and the bible
Southern slaves were treated better than northern factory “wage slaves”
By the 1830’s, most southern churches had adopted the proslavery position

37. The Proslavery Argument (cont.)
Southerners persuaded themselves of the righteousness of their “peculiar institution”
They also increasingly suppressed all public criticism of slavery
They seized and destroyed abolitionist literature mailed to the South
Smashed the presses of southern antislavery newspapers

38. Violence in the Old South
During the colonial and pre-Civil War periods, violence was more prevalent among southern whites than it was among white people in the North
The murder rate was as much as 10 times higher in the South
Physical prowess became a badge of honor

39. The Code of Honor and Dueling
Behind much of the southern violence was an exaggerated notion of personal pride
White men must “react violently to even trivial insults in order to demonstrate that they had nothing in common with slaves.”
Among gentlemen this pride took the form of a code of honor.
Any intentional insult to one’s reputation had to be redressed by a challenge to a duel

40. The Southern Evangelicals and White Values
The code of honor was potentially in conflict with the values preached by southern evangelical churches
Humility and self-restraint
From the 1830’s on, evangelical religion grew in influence to the point that some southern gentlemen did denounce drinking, gambling, and dueling as un-Christian practices
On the other hand, southern churches partly endorsed the gentry’s code of honor

41. 12.4
Life Under Slavery

42. Life Under Slavery Introduction
Slavery was an exploitative institution that took by force the life and labor of one race for the profit of another
Slaves could be found in cities or on farms
In the fields or around the house
As the central units of an economic institution slave life depended not only on the kindness or cruelty of masters but also on unseen market forces

43. The Maturing of the Plantation System
The institution of slavery changed between 1700 and 1830
In the earlier period
the majority of the black population was recent African or Caribbean arrivals
Disproportionately young males
Spoke little English
Isolated on small farms

44. The Maturing of the Plantation System (cont.)
By 1830
There was a more even balance between males and females
Most were American born and English speaking
Most worked on large plantations
These changes facilitated a more rapid natural increase in the black population

45. Work and Discipline of Plantation Slaves
No other 19th century Americans worked as many hours under as harsh discipline as slave field hands
Either worked in gang labor or under the task system
Slave craftsmen and domestics on the plantations
had higher status
easier work
but also were subjected at times to physical brutality

46. The Slave Family
The slave family was not recognized or protected by southern law
Husbands and wives, parents and children were separated by sale
Sexual demands were made on black females by masters and other white men
Despite these problems, the black family did not dissolve

47. The Slave Family (cont.)
Despite these problems, the black family did not dissolve
It evolved in ways that were different from those of middle-class whites
In the place of the nuclear family, fictive kin networks allowed slaves to assimilate to new environments

48. The Longevity, Diet, and Health of Slaves
Slaves in the Old South lived longer and reproduced faster than those in Brazil or the Caribbean
More even sex ratio
Adequate diet
Southern slaves had a higher mortality rate than their white countrymen

49. Slaves off Plantations
The majority of slaves worked on plantations
Other jobs for slaves
Mining
Lumbering
Manufacturing
Performed a variety of skilled artisan jobs in cities and villages

50. Life on the Margin: Free Blacks in the Old South
Not all blacks in the Old South were slaves
More than 250,000 free blacks in 1860
From the 1830’s on, the position of the free black in the South deteriorated
Southern law forbade teaching blacks (free or slave) to read

51. Life on the Margin (cont.)
Obstacles were put in the way of manumission (freedom)
Free blacks were barred from entering or remaining in many states
Many of the post-Civil War black leaders came from this group

52. Slave Resistance
Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion was the only one in which whites were killed
2 earlier planned insurrections were betrayed before they got underway
Gabriel Prosser’s (1800)
Denmark Vesey’s (1822)

53. Slave Resistance (cont.)
The Old South experienced far fewer uprisings than South America and the Caribbean
Slaves did not form a large majority anywhere in the South
Whites had all the weapons and soldiers
Blacks were reluctant to endanger their families
Black rarely had allies in southern Indians and never in nonslaveholding whites

54. Slave Resistance (cont.)
An alternative way to freedom was to try to escape to the North
Black abolitionists who escaped
Frederick Douglass
Harriet Tubman
Josiah Henson

55. Slave Resistance (cont.)
Underground Railroad
Way to help slaves escape to the north
Underground railroad map
PBS summary
Relatively few slaves made it to the North successfully

56. Fugitives Arriving at Indiana Farm

57. Slave Resistance (cont.)
More than be either running away or violent revolt,
slaves resisted slavery by furtive means:
Theft
Negligence
Arson
Poisoning
Work stoppages and slowdowns

58. The Emergence of African American Culture
12.5
The Emergence of African American Culture

59. The Emergence of African-American Culture
Introduction
American blacks under slavery developed a distinctive culture
Drew on African and American cultures
But was “more than a mixture of the two.”

60. The Language of Slaves
During the colonial period, verbal communication between slaves was difficult
Variety of African languages they spoke
By the time most slaves were American-born, they had developed their own language
Pidgin English
This was an indispensable tool for communication
A bridge to a distinctive black culture

61. African American Religion
The first Africans brought to the South were Muslims or followers of a variety of indigenous African religions
By 1800 many had been converted to Christianity
Methodists and Baptists
Masters hoped that by preaching Christian humility and acceptance to their slaves, they could make blacks docile and obedient
This did not work
Many of the rebels and their followers were devout Christians

62. African American Religion (cont.)
While Christianity did not turn most slaves into revolutionaries
It did serve as a unifying force among blacks
A source of hope and comfort

63. Black Music and Dance
Compared to the cultural patterns of upper-class whites in the Old South, the culture of blacks was “extremely expressive”
Expressed their feelings in shouts, music, and dance
They composed work songs and religious songs (spirituals)
PBS songs

64. Conclusion Slavery is what unified the Old South
Though the majority of white southerners owned no slaves, they had become convinced that the perpetuation of the “peculiar institution” was in the best interests of the entire South

65. Conclusion (cont.)
Northerners believed that slavery made the South backward and bankrupt
Southern whites reacted to outside criticism by defending slavery as a benevolent way to handle the innate inferiority of the black race
Few slaves agreed

66. Conclusion (cont.)
While most of slaves did not revolt or escape successfully, they did engage in covert resistance
White masters hoped black conversion to Christianity would render their slaves submissive
When blacks accepted Christianity, they read into it the message that slavery was a gross injustice