1. King Cotton and The Peculiar Institution

2. The “Profitability” Issue
Many thought that slavery had reached its peak
Tobacco depleted soil
Shift to wheat and corn
Agricultural land reached limits

3. The Rise of the Cotton Kingdom
1793 Invention of Cotton Gin
Could be grown anywhere south of Virginia and Kentucky
Westward expansion helps cotton
Enough work to be done year-round

4. King Cotton Northern demand ¾ of world’s cotton comes from US south
Single commodity accounted for over half the total dollar value of American exports

5. The Second Middle Passage

6. Slave Distribution 75% of white southerners were non-slaveholders
Minority controlled the majority
Most slaves lived on a large plantation
Slaveholders controlled 93.1 percent of wealth

7. Yeoman farmers
Increasing consolidation of land -> many kicked off and had to sell land
Often rented slaves or worked side-by side with them
Didn’t participate in market revolution – isolated
Why did poor southern whites support an institution that they did not benefit from?

8. Positive Good
Paternalism
Bible/religious defense
Racism/Inferiority

10. Southern culture “cottonocracies”
Southern states were oligarchies
few had the money and leisure time for politics and statesmanship
Limited tax-supported schooling or other public services
Yeoman women “inferior” to northern women
Southerners felt they were surrounded by “enemies”
Southern nationalism arose

11. Impact of slavery on South
Soil erosion
lack of diversification
few cities and little infrastructure
lack of education
social stratification
Arguably anti-capitalist
Rampant speculation in land and slaves
At the mercy of foreign markets
All money went North

12. Slave Culture Local laws make respect for master mandatory
“chattel slavery” depends on dehumanizing slaves
Rebellion maintains dignity
Free blacks in the South (250,000)