1. The South and the Slavery Controversy
Chapter 16
Honors American History

2. COTTON IS KING 1800- Slavery faced an uncertain future
Some talked of freeing the slaves
Unprofitability would kill it
The Cotton Gin-
Made possible the wide-scale cultivation of cotton. Cotton became the dominant crop
Demand for slaves and land increased

4. COTTON IS KING Northern Shippers received a large part of the profits.
Cotton accounted for half the value of American exports after ½ of the worlds cotton supply.
Most of America’s cotton was shipped to Britain.
The South felt that Britain was dependent on southern Cotton

5. THE PLANTER ARISTOCRACY
Oligarchy- Government by the few
,733 families owned more than 100 slaves
Planters-
Political and social leaders
Educated class, wealthy
Undemocratic
Southern Women-pg. 352
The South became slaves of the system. Pg
Plantation agriculture was wasteful
Southern economy became monopolistic
Financial instability of the plantation system
Dangers of a one-crop economy
Southern economy made the northern middleman rich
Southern economy repelled European immigration

6. THE WHITE MAJORITY 1850- 345,000 owned fewer than 10 slaves
Only about ¼ of white southerners owned slaves
Lesser slaveholders were small farmers
Non-slave holding whites
Poorest land
Subsistence farming
Isolated lives
Hillbillies, red-necks, poor white trash
These people defended the slave system. Why?
Mountain Whites Pg. 341

7. FREE BLACKS- Slaves w/o Masters
,000 free blacks in the South
Mulattoes-children of white men and slave
Some purchased their freedom
Some owned property and even slaves
Free blacks were a “third race” pg 356
250,000 free blacks in the North
Denied basic civil rights
Competed for jobs with whites

8. PLANTATION SLAVERY 1860- 4 million slaves in the south
Natural Reproduction- Breeding and Mulattoes
Slaves were an investment
$1,800 a slave
1860- $2 Billion investment
Cared for fairly well
Kept from doing dangerous jobs
Slave auctions and the dividing of the family
Life Under the Lash- pg

9. THE BURDEN OF BONDAGE

10. THE BURDEN OF BONDAGE Slavery was degrading to the victims
Lacked dignity, resonsibility, and choices
No rights or education
No incentive to work
Laziness, stealing and sabatoge
Slaves hoped for freedom
Some actually rebelled
Gabriel- 1800
Denmark Vessey- 1822
Nat Turner- 1831
These revolts left a mark on the whites

11. EARLY ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT
American Colonization Society- 1813
Send slaves back to Africa (Republic of Liberia)
Most balcks had no wish to go to a strange country
1830s- Abolitionist movement turned to freeing the slaves
Became a moral issue and Religious movement
Theodore Weld
Lyman Beecher

12. RADICAL ABOLITIONISTS
I will be harsh as truth, and uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen;—but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—AND I WILL BE HEARD.1
William Lloyd Garrison- “The Liberator” pg 350
American Antislavery Society- 1833
Fredrick Douglas- Runaway Slave-Great Speaker-352
Developed into political Parties
1840- Liberty Party
1848- Free-Soil Party
1850s’- Republican Party

13. THE SOUTH LASHES BACK
Pro-slavery whites launched a massive defense of slavery
Supported by the Bible
It was good for Africans
Saved them from the barbarism of the jungle
They could receive the blessings of Christianity
Happy servants vs. overworked northern WAGE SLAVES
Attack on free speech