1. Slavery and Society, 1800-1860

2. King Cotton & the Old South ▫Economics ▫Identity ▫Culture Slave Life ▫Population ▫House and Field Community Resistance

3. King Cotton and the Agrarian South The Plantation/Cash Crop…Eli Whitney/Cotton Gin The Peculiar Institution Codes Dehumanizing Social Structure

4. King Cotton and the Old South Cotton and the South ▫Climate, geography ▫Profitable ▫England/industry Cotton gin Outlawed int’l trade in 1808

5. King Cotton and the Old South Economics ▫60% of U.S. exports ▫Basis of southern economy Linked N & S Linked U.S. & Britain

6. Cotton, slavery, race identity Southern Identity ▫Rural ▫White privilege ▫“Honor” Fear of uprisings “Dependence”

7. Cotton Culture “…people live in cotton houses and ride in cotton carriages. They buy cotton, sell cotton, think cotton, eat cotton, drink cotton, and dream cotton. They marry cotton wives and unto them are born cotton children…” British visitor Hiram Fuller’s views of Mobile, AL in 1858

8. Slavery and Expansion Post 1812 & Indian Removal Westward expansion Missouri Compromise Texas “Independence” Louisiana, ARK, OK, TX Profits used to buy more land, more land=more slaves, more crops=more profit=more land=more slaves=more crops

9. American Slavery 19/55 signers of the Constitution owned slaves Majority of southern Congressmen owned slaves 4/6 Presidents up to and including Jackson owned slaves $25 million in U.S. revenue vs. $1 billion in slave “property” Shipping & ship building, insurance, banks, factories in the North

11. Population 1790: 700,000 1850: 4 million 1850: 50% grew cotton 25% of whites had slaves 50% of owners had less than 5 slaves 5% of planters owned 40% of all slaves in south

12. Free Blacks Non-slaves in the South 6% of total Black population 3% of total population Laws limited their rights and citizenship, papers, no access to courts Most descended from blacks freed in Upper South Mainly manual labor Racial hierarchies based on skin color

14. Slave Life Mortality rates were 3 times higher Life expectancy ▫Blacks 20’s ▫Whites 40’s 25% sick

15. Slave Codes State laws to limit movement of slaves and define them as property Cannot own a gun Marriages not legally recognized No alcohol Passes to leave plantation Illegal to teach slaves to read or write Legalized homicide as “punishment”

16. “House slaves” 15%-20% Constant contact Raise children Gendered violence Reading News

17. “Field Slaves” 75% of slaves 18 hours “Gangs” Overseer Music and group identity

20. “Virginian Luxuries,” nd. Anonymous

21. African American Community Family Auctions Fictive kin Tribal culture Music, dance, spirituality

22. Christianity 2nd Great Awakening Lay preachers Justice, salvation “Call and Response” Gospel African American Methodist Church, 1816

23. Resistance Work slow “Sick” Break tools “Theft” Run away Rebellion Gabriel Prosser 

24. Resistance Run away slaves Over 1,000 Upper south Canada West

25. Slave Rebellions Gabriel Prosser 1800 ▫Literate ▫Richmond, VA ▫1000 slaves ▫“Death or liberty” Denmark Vescey, 1822 ▫Telemanque, born in Africa or W. Indies ▫Free, literate, preacher ▫Charleston ▫Missouri Compromise ▫100 men

26. Rebellions Nat Turner, 1831 ▫Virginia ▫Literate, preacher ▫Killed 70

27. Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Homes, barns, woods, trails north 19 missions 300 people

28. Family on Underground Railroad

29. Situation in 1850s Radical Abolitionism Radical/Absolute/Militant William Lloyd Garrison The Liberator David Walker Appeal To Colored Citizens of the World 1829 Sojourner Truth, Martin Delaney, Frederick Douglas The South Reacts Gag Resolution 1836

30. Concluding Thoughts Despite dependence on cotton and slavery, Southern economy became more diverse Slavery in Upper South declined Immigration provided cheap & flexible labor Changes to economy made slave owners more worried More rebellions, abolitionists, Westward expansion, made slave codes more harsh TEXAS…..why?