1. The Question of Slavery:
The Voice of Abolition is Raised

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 Population

4. What’s growin’ down on the farm??

5. Cotton Production in the South
by 1860

6. Slave Owning Families by 1850

7. slave holders in the South
Smaller slave owners
made up the majority of
slave holders in the South
Their goal was to achieve..
The American Dream
through slave ownership
-become larger land owners
-gain political strength =
part of the oligarchy

8. The Plantation myth
Not every Plantation was like Tara in Gone With the Wind…

9. Mountain Plantation Home
Typical plantation home

10. Gone With The Wind’s Tara Interior

11. Typical slave quarters

12. Interior of Slave Quarters

13. The Fields

14. Larger Plantations

15. A real Georgia Plantation

16. 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].

17. pattern of behavior used as a charade in front of whites
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.].

18. Isolated acts of sabotage. Escape via the Underground Railroad.
Refusal to work hard.
Isolated acts of sabotage.
Escape via the Underground Railroad.

19. Harriet Tubman (1820-1913) “Moses” Helped over 300 slaves to freedom.
$40,000 bounty
on her head.
Served as a Union spy during the Civil War.
“Moses”

20. The Underground Railroad
“Conductor” ==== leader of the escape
“Passengers” ==== escaping slaves
“Tracks” ==== routes
“Trains” ==== farm wagons transporting the escaping slaves
“Depots” ==== safe houses to rest/sleep

21. Runaway Slave Ads

22. Several Northern governments passed laws to undermine the FSA!
The Fugitive Slave Act
Part of the Compromise 1850
Allowed slave owners to retrieve “property” in any territory (free or slave)
Was based upon a simple description
Fugitives were denied trial by jury & unable to present evidence (free blacks could be enslaved)
Several Northern governments passed laws to undermine the FSA!

23. No real anti-slavery sentiment in the North
The Abolitionist Movement
1816  American Colonization Society called for gradual, voluntary emancipation.
No real anti-slavery sentiment in the North
in the 1820s & 1830s.
William Lloyd Garrison ( )

24. Garrison’s Position….. Garrison’s anti-slavery paper Premiere issue 
Slavery & Masonry undermined republican values.
Immediate emancipation
with NO compensation.
Slavery was a moral, not an economic issue.
Garrison’s
anti-slavery paper
Premiere issue 
January 1, 1831

25. Frederick Douglass Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Born into slavery in Maryland
Escaped to the North
Took up the cause of abolition
North Star – newspaper
Recruiter for the 54th Mass.
"Right is of no Sex — Truth is of no Color — God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren."

26. Sojourner Truth (1787-1883) or Isabella Baumfree
Originally a slave in New York
Ran away but was emancipated under NY law in 1827
Became a traveling missionary then an abolitionist speaker
Ain’t I a Woman
Petitioned on Women’s rights, abolition, & prisoner rights