1. The South, Slavery, and Abolition

2. Southern Agriculture At first tobacco, rice, indigo
Cotton booms and need for slaves rises
Cotton gin removes seeds faster and easier, south becomes almost all agricultural

3. Southern Society
1/3 of southerners owned slaves, half of them were plantation owners (more than 20 slaves)
Most were yeomen –small farmers with a few acres and 1-2 slaves
Tenant farmers –don’t own the land, pay % of crops to land owners
Poor white –lived in shacks, hunt/fish

4. Slave Life and Culture Work sunup to sundown
Age 10 until physically unable
Fieldwork, house slaves
Considered property, families sold and broken apart
Whippings, beating, poor living conditions, set examples, broken feet/toes for runaways caught
Spirituals– mix of African folktales and Christianity
Slave codes– laws that restricted slaves freedom, can’t travel, learn to read, carry a gun

5. Challenging Slavery
Small ways to fight back: fake sick, work slowly, break/hide tools
Attempts to escape, underground railroad- secret routes to north, safehouses, signals
Nat Turner’s Rebellion– led slaves in VA, killed over 50 whites, rebellion put down and slaves executed

6. Abolition Movement Abolition– movement to end slavery, abolitionists
Emancipation– freeing of the slaves
Northerners who were educated, Quakers, upper class women, ministers
William Lloyd Garrison-- started anti-slavery newspaper– Liberator
Grimke sisters– from SC slave holding family, move north and speak out against it

7. African Americans Challenge Slavery
Frederick Douglass– taught himself to read as a slave, escaped, gave speeches all over, AA newspaper (North Star), wrote books
Harriet Tubman– famous conductor on Underground RR, “Grandma Moses”, never lost a person on escapes