1. Warm Up –
How do cultural and societal differences between peoples cause conflict?
Today I am learning about the Antebellum Period because the Antebellum Period sparked the division between the North and the South.

2. The South's
"Peculiar
Institution"

3. Cotton = Slavery

4. Slave Auction Notice, 1823

5. The Culture of Slavery
Black Christianity [Baptists or Methodists]: * more emotional worship services. * negro spirituals.
“Pidgin” or Gullah languages.
West African traditions combined with southern lifestyle to make a unique culture
Importance of music in their lives. [esp. spirituals].
Trickster tales
Southern foods

6. The Life of Slavery Lowest level of society
Worked from sunrise to after sunset
* break during rainy weather, winter months, and a few holidays.
*Except in the busy season, most owners gave slaves time off on Saturday afternoon and on Sundays.
Field hands, servants, cooks, nursemaids, skilled artisans and even factory workers
Best interest to keep them healthy and productive
Georgia did not legally recognize marriages

7. Slave Auction: Charleston, SC-1856

8. A Slave Family

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

10. Slave Accoutrements
Slave Master Brands
Slave muzzle

11. Anti-Slave Pamphlet

12. Slave
Resistance
&
Uprisings

13. 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.].

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

15. Runaway Slave Ads

16. Quilt Patterns as Secret Messages
The Monkey Wrench pattern, on the left, alerted escapees to gather up tools and prepare to flee; the Drunkard Path design, on the right, warned escapees not to follow a straight route.

17. Slave Rebellions Throughout the Americas

18. Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South
Gabriel Prosser 1800
1822

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

20. 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].

21. Southern Pro-Slavery Propaganda

22. Quick Write – write a diary entry of a day in the life of a slave.

23. Antebellum
Southern
Society

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

25. Antebellum Social Ladder Planters, bankers, lawyers, and merchants
Yeoman farmers
Poor whites
Free blacks
Black slaves

26. Yeoman Farmer’s Dogtrot Cabin

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

28. 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%]

29. Georgian Society (1850) “Slavocracy” [plantation owners]
600,000
The “Plain Folk” [white yeoman farmers]
Black Freemen
3,500
Black Slaves 381,600
Total US Population --> 23,000,000 [985,100 in Georgia = 4.3%]

30. Southern Population (1860)

31. Antebellum
Southern
Economy

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

33. Southern Agriculture

34. Slaves Picking Cotton on a Plantation

35. Slaves Using the Cotton Gin

36. The Growth of King Cotton
1820
1860

37. King Cotton in Georgia Late 1700s – Sea Island Cotton
1793 – Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
Short-fiber variety grows inland
Georgia’s Piedmont and Coastal Plain ideal
Georgia’s Fall Line attracted planters – fast moving water could power cotton gins, textile mills, and factories
1820s – Steamboats and 1840s – Railroad
By 1850 “Empire State of the South”

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

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

40. Antebellum
Southern
Plantation Life

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

42. Jarrell Plantation - Reality Jones County, GA Version

43. Life of a Planter Successful Plantation required hard work
Minimum of 20 field slaves
Often used overseers or trusted slaves to assist in running the operation
Typical plantation home - plain, unpainted, and modestly furnished
The wife often oversaw day-to-day needs
*food, clothing, and health needs of family and slaves

44. Slave-Owning Population (1850)

45. Slave-Owning Families (1850)

46. A Real Georgia Plantation

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

48. The Southern “Belle”

49. The Privileged Class… Elite of Georgian society
Enjoyed a comfortable life
* barbecues and political gatherings, church functions, frequent visitors, riding , hunting and traveling abroad
With a successful plantation, planters could spend time on political office
Many prided themselves on an extensive library
Young sent to private schools close to home
Sons often sent to the North for education and daughters to female seminaries

50. Scarlet and Mammie (Hollywood Again!)

51. A Real Mammie & Her Charge

52. 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

53. Antebellum
Southern
Society
Social Change

54. Education
Legislature called for schools in each county, but did not fund
Most Georgians believed education best left to the family, not the government
“poor school funds” – many too proud to send their children
“old field schools” – rural, one-room schools often built in old cotton fields
As late as 1850 – 1 in 5 white adults were illiterate
Higher education fared much better…

55. Old Field School

56. Higher Education
1785 The General Assembly chartered The University of Georgia (first classes 1801)
*with the help of Joseph Henry Lumpkin and T.R.R. Cobb would include one of the premier southern law schools
1828 Medical College of Georgia in Augusta
Religious denominations built new colleges
* Emory College in 1836 – Methodist
* Oglethorpe College in 1835 – Presbyterian
* Mercer University in 1837 – Baptist
Georgia Female College (Wesleyan College) began classes in Macon in 1839 – Methodist

57. The University of Georgia

58. Wesleyan College - Macon

59. Religion
Early Protestant – Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Moravian, and Baptist
Early 1800s, the Great Revival swept the South – camp meetings and revivals
Predominant churches became the Baptists and Methodists
Early on, slaves often attended church services with their master
African Methodist Episcopal (AME) and African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AME Zion) developed in North and were anti-slavery
Black churches in the South were primarily Baptist and could not preach about slavery

60. Southern Slave Church

61. Georgian Social Reform
Began to deal with criminals and needy in a more humane approach
Abolished laws that allowed for cruel punishments
1817 state opened first penitentiary (repent)
1818 provided blankets, food, clothing, etc. to county prisoners
1842 an asylum was built in Milledgeville
1847 a school for the deaf in Cave Springs
1852 took responsibility for helping the blind at the Georgia Academy for the Blind in Macon

62. Georgia Academy for the Blind

63. Georgia Lunatic Asylum

64. Ticket Out the Door – Which compromise was the best for the nation
Ticket Out the Door – Which compromise was the best for the nation? The worst?