The Antebellum South

1. The Antebellum South Adapted from: Ms. Susan M. PojerHorace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY

2. Early Emancipation in the North

3. Missouri Compromise, 1820

4. Antebellum Southern Society

5. Characteristics of the Antebellum South • Primarily agrarian. • Economic power shifted from the “upper South” to the “lower South.” • “Cotton Is King!” * 1860--> 5 mil. bales a yr. (57% of total US exports). • Very slow development of industrialization. • Rudimentary financial system. • Inadequate transportation system.

6. Southern Society (1850) “Slavocracy”[plantation owners] 6,000,000 The “Plain Folk”[white yeoman farmers] Black Freemen 250,000 Black Slaves3,200,000 Total US Population --> 23,000,000[9,250,000 in the South = 40%]

7. Southern Population

8. Antebellum Southern Economy

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

10. Southern Agriculture

11. Slaves Picking Cottonon a Mississippi Plantation

12. Slaves Using the Cotton Gin

13. Changes in Cotton Production 1820 1860

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

15. Slaves Workingin a Sugar-Boiling House, 1823

16. The South's "Peculiar Institution"

17. Southern Pro-SlaveryPropaganda

18. Getting Here: the Middle Passage

19. Slave Auction Notice, 1823

20. Slave Auction: Charleston, SC-1856

21. Slave Accoutrements Slave MasterBrands Slave muzzle

22. Slave Accoutrements

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

24. Slave Branding amphlet

25. On Submissiveness • How did slave owners keep their slaves from escaping? • Culture of keeping blacks submissive and in “their” place • GOAL--> raise the “exit cost.” * Slave patrols. * Southern Black Codes. * Cut off a toe or a foot.

26. Slave Resistance & Uprisings

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

28. Runaway Slave Ads

29. 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.

30. Slave Rebellions Throughout the Americas

31. Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South Gabriel Prosser1800 1822

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

33. Antebellum Southern Plantation Life

34. Slave-Owning Population (1850)

35. Slave-Owning Families (1850)

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

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

38. A Real Georgia Plantation

39. Scarlet and Mammie(Hollywood Again!)

40. A Real Mammie & Her Charge

41. The Southern “Belle”

42. A Slave Family

43. Five Generations of Slaves

44. The Legacy of Slavery

45. The Culture of Slavery • We don’t have primary sources from slaves on slave life, but we can document their experience by going through their cultural production. • 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].

46. African American History • Black have contributed to this country economically & culturally • Have fought wars even when they themselves lacked equality • Would America have been America without the negro? • Not only are they not acknowledged, but discriminated against. *notes from Politics of Black Culture taught by Professor Thomas Holt, UChicago