1. The
Antebellum
South
By:Ms. Susan M. Pojer, Horace Greeley HS,Chappaqua, NY; edited by J. Gelber

2. Early Emancipation in the North

3. Missouri Compromise, 1820

4. Antebellum
Southern
Society

5. 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.

6. 7. Uneducated populace
By 1850s, no free education in South (unlike in North)
Difficult to set up schools b/c low population density, very spread out
Also refused to educate slaves
But mostly indifferent b/c felt no need for educated white work force!

7. Outside visitors saw the South as somewhat backwards
--less literate than North
--slavery practice
--old fashioned (still engaged in dueling!)
Both sides began to view the other as promoting inequality…

8. 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%]

9. Non-slaveholders in the South
Two types, mostly living in “backcountry” (land not fertile for cash crops):
--”Yeoman farmers” (subsistence)
--”Squatters” (lowest of whites)
Raised livestock, hunted & distilled whiskey

10. Lower-class whites often resented planter elite
But they were also NOT abolitionists
EVERYONE aspired to own slaves, the ticket to move up social ladder

11. Southern Population

12. Upper South (NC, Md, Va, Del, Ky, Tn & Mo) resembled more free North
WHY?
Diversification of agriculture
Also many more white than blacks, so races tended to work together more

13. Why did Upper South identify w/ Lower South-- not North?
Both benefit politically from 3/5ths compromise
Many Lower South came from Upper South states
Upset by abolitionists who lumped them all together
Econ ties: interstate slave trade
--  

14. Why didn’t South develop industry?
Concern slaves could become harder to control
Lack of capital for investment in factories
Lack of $$ for improving transportation & marketing (ended up mostly using NY middlemen)
Fear of impact of unhealthy urban factories
White (anti-slavery) immigrants might come South for jobs

15. Antebellum
Southern
Economy

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

17. Southern Agriculture

18. Slaves Picking Cotton on a Mississippi Plantation

19. Slaves Using the Cotton Gin

20. Changes in Cotton Production
1820
1860

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

22. “Hauling the Whole Week’s Pickings” William Henry Brown, 1842

23. Slaves Working in a Sugar-Boiling House, 1823

24. The South's
"Peculiar
Institution"

25. Slave Auction Notice, 1823

26. Slave Auction: Charleston, SC-1856

27. Slave Accoutrements
Slave Master Brands
Slave muzzle

28. Anti-Slave Pamphlet

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

30. Antebellum
Southern
Plantation Life

31. Slave-Owning Population (1850)

32. Slave-Owning Families (1850)

33. Only 1% had 100 or > slaves
Maybe 4% held 20 or > slaves
App 20% (small slaveholders) owned 20 slaves or less (some were doctors, lawyers, merchants)
That meansapp 75% Southern whites owned no slaves!

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

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

36. A Real Georgia Plantation

37. Scarlet and Mammie (Hollywood Again!)

38. A Real Mammie & Her Charge

39. The Southern “Belle”

40. A Slave Family

41. The Ledger of John White
Matilda Selby, 9, $ sold to Mr. Covington, St. Louis, $425.00
Brooks Selby, 19, $ Left at Home – Crazy
Fred McAfee, 22, $ Sold to Pepidal, Donaldsonville, $
Howard Barnett, 25, $ Ranaway. Sold out of jail, $540.00
Harriett Barnett, 17, $ Sold to Davenport and Jones, Lafourche, $900.00

42. US Laws Regarding Slavery
U. S. Constitution: * 3/5s compromise [I.2] * fugitive slave clause [IV.2]
1793  Fugitive Slave Act.
1850  stronger Fugitive Slave Act.

43. Southern Slavery--> An Aberration?
1780s: 1st antislavery society created in Phila.
By 1804: slavery eliminated from last northern state.
1807: the legal termination of the slave trade, enforced by the Royal Navy.
1820s: newly indep. Republics of Central & So. America declared their slaves free.
1833: slavery abolished throughout the British Empire.
1844: slavery abolished in the Fr. colonies.
1861: the serfs of Russia were emancipated.

44. Slavery Was Less Efficient in the U. S. than Elsewhere
High cost of keeping slaves from escaping.
GOAL  raise the “exit cost.”
Slave patrols.
Southern Black Codes.
Cut off a toe or a foot.

45. Slave
Resistance
&
Uprisings

46. Slave Resistance
“SAMBO” pattern of behavior used as a charade in front of whites [the innocent, laughing black man caricature – bulging eyes, thick lips, big smile, etc.].

47. Slave Resistance Refusal to work hard. Isolated acts of sabotage.
Escape via the Underground Railroad.

48. Runaway Slave Ads

49. Quilt Patterns as Secret Messages--myth?
--Some claim that the Monkey Wrench pattern, on the left, alerted escapees to gather up tools and prepare to flee; and that the Drunkard Path design, on the right, warned escapees not to follow a straight route.
--Scant documentary evidence to support this

50. Slave Rebellions Throughout the Americas

51. Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South
New Orleans 1811
Gabriel Prosser 1800
1822

52. Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South: Nat Turner, 1831

53. Second Seminole War (1835-1842)— a less known Slave Rebellion
The U.S. fought rebels from three distinct communities:
(1) Seminole Indians
(2) Black Seminoles (also known as “maroons” or “Seminole Negroes”)
(3) Escaped plantation slaves

54. Black Seminoles had long history of living with or alongside Seminole Indians in Fla.
John Horse, Black Seminole leader and advisor to Osceola
Chief Osceola, who may have had a black wife

55. Result of rebellion?
Destroyed many sugar plantations in central Fla. before defeated by US troops
Several hundred plantation slaves involved in rebellion gained freedom and accompanied Seminoles in removal to Okla Territory

56. The Culture of Slavery
Black Christianity [Baptists or Methodists]: * more emotional worship services. * negro spirituals.
“Pidgin” or Gullah languages.
Nuclear family with extended kin links, where possible.
Importance of music in their lives. [esp. spirituals].

57. Southern Pro-Slavery Propaganda