The Old South or the Antebellum South

1. The Old South or the Antebellum South Chapter 10

2. CHAPTER OBJECTIVE HOME 10 C H A P T E R The Union in Peril To understand the conflict over slavery and other regional tensions that led to the Civil War

3. King Cotton • The spread of cotton stimulated the nation’s economic growth after the War of 1812. • Cotton was king in the Old South. • Economic Exploitation: Cotton was the primary export and the major source of southern wealth. • By 1860 the United States produced three-fourths of the world’s supply of cotton. • The world’s dependence on cotton made slaves extremely profitable. Thus, slavery was the base on which the South’s economic growth rested.

4. King Cotton • Upper South vs. Deep South • The upper South turned increasingly to wheat and corn, crops that required less labor. • Increasingly, they began selling their excess slaves to cotton and sugar planters in the Deep South. • The removal of the southern Indian tribes opened land for white settlement and allowed cotton to push westward.

7. Characteristics of the South • Low Population Density • 12 million in 1860 • roughly 2/3rds white • 1/3 black slaves • 2 percent free blacks

8. Characteristics of the South • Overwhelmingly Rural • Lack of manufacturing • only 9 percent of nation’s manufactured goods • Absence of cities • New Orleans the only truly southern city of significant size • Little Interest in Education • Exception: Wealthy planters • By 1820, slavery was confined to the South. The “peculiar institution”

11. Slavery • Background • 1808 – end of international slave trade • Made slaves more valuable • Had the unexpected effect of tempering some of slavery’s harsher features (Paternalism) • Gave rise to a flourishing domestic trade • 1860 – 4 million slaves

12. Nature of Southern slavery • Slavery as a Labor System • First and foremost a system to manage and control labor • Profitability of slavery • The Plantation system • Racial Control • A caste system based on color • Muted class conflict among whites • Planters and aristocratic values • Base on which the South’s way of life rested.

13. The White South • The Slaveowners • Planters – owned 20 or more slaves • Only 1 out of 30 white southerners • Wealthy Planters – At least 50 slaves • Only 1% of white population

14. The White South • Yeoman Farmers (about 50%) • Owned no slaves • Farmed 80 to 160 acres of land • Accepted slavery as a means to control an “inferior social class”

15. The Peculiar Institution: Labor • Conditions varied widely • Depending on size of farm or plantation, crop, master, absentee owner. • Organization of slave labor • Gang system • Task system • Slaves’ workday • Rewards & Punishment

16. Material Existence • Plantation: 20-50 slaves; 800-1000 acres • Housing • Clothes • Food • Health

17. Slave Response • Resistance • Rebellion • Running away • Day-to-day resistance (most common)

18. Slave Culture • Strong sense of family • Breakup of families • Extended families • Slave spirituals (protest and celebration) • Folk Tales (Trickster stories) • Conjurer (magic / spiritual powers) • Religion (mixture of Christianity and African religion)

19. Free People of Color • About 300,000 in 1860 • 7% of black population • 2% of total population • Methods of obtaining freedom • Occupations • Restrictions • Occupied an uncertain position is southern society. • Above black slaves but distinctly beneath even poor white southerners.

20. Southern Slavery and the Proslavery Argument • Religious Arguments • Law of Moses: Jews were authorized to enslave heathens. • The Bible does not condemn slavery. • Slavery traced to curse on Canaan (allegedly black grandson of Noah). • Defended slavery as a Christian institution.

21. Southern Slavery and the Proslavery Argument • Social and racial arguments (Paternalism) • African Americans were an intellectually and emotionally inferior race and needed to be cared for by white masters. • Slavery a more humane system of labor than what existed for northern workers.

22. Abolitionism and the Antislavery Argument • Slavery was immoral because it was contrary to the teachings of Christianity. • Violated the principle of the American Revolution that all human beings had natural rights (individual freedom and self-reliance). • Opponents and Divisions • Divisions among abolitionists: gradual emancipation vs. immediatism.

23. Slavery • “The system of slavery is like holding a wolf by its ears: and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go”. • -Thomas Jefferson

24. National Unity • Both North and South adhered to the teachings of evangelical Protestantism. • Methodist and Baptist churches split into northern and southern branches in the 1840s. • Shared a belief in democracy and white equality. • Equality in the Declaration of Independence applied only to whites (white males). • It was only in the mid-1840s that westward expansion would cause people to wonder if the nation could survive half slave and half free.

25. Sectional Politics Chapter 10 continued

26. The Rise of theSlavery Issue • Should slavery be allowed in the Mexican Cession? • David Wilmot (Penn.) had already suggested that slavery be outlawed in the Mexican cession. • The Wilmot Proviso • John C. Calhoun (S.C.) wanted to allow slavery. • A more moderate proposal by Pres. Polk was to extend the Missouri Compromise • Others such as Lewis Cass (Mich.) and Stephen Douglass (ILL.) wanted popular sovereignty • Allow the people of each territory rather than Congress decide the status of slavery.

27. Presidential election of 1848 • Both parties tried to avoid the issue of slavery • Democrats nominate Lewis Cass (and deny power of Congress to interfere with slavery) – popular sovereignty • Whigs choose Zachary Taylor, a slaveholder from Louisiana who owned more than 100 slaves(Political views unknown) • Development of the Free Soil Party • Rebellious northern Democrats • Antislavery Whigs (“Conscience” vs. “Cotton” Whigs) • Members of the antislavery Liberty party • Nominate Martin Van Buren-Against the expansion of slavery into new territories • Slogan: “free soil, free speech, free labor, free men” • Taylor won because the Free-soil Party took northern Democrat votes away from Cass

28. California Statehood • By 1849 California had enough residents to be admitted as a state (Gold Rush). • The balance of power between the North and the South stood at 15 each. • Taylor calls for admission of California as a free state and thought slavery should be banned in all of the Mexican cession. He was convinced that slavery would never flourish in the West. • Taylor’s suggestion touched off the most serious sectional crisis the Union had yet confronted.

29. The Great Debate • Henry Clay decided that a grand compromise was needed to end all disputes between the North and the South and to save the Union. • Already, Mississippi had summoned a southern convention to meet in Nashville to discuss the crisis and extremists were pushing for secession. • The Senate debated the compromise for six months. Finally Stephen Douglass took over and passed each part of the compromise individually. President Taylor’s death in July 1850 helped push forward the compromise.

30. The Compromise of 1850 • California admitted as free state • Rest of Mex. Cession divided into two territories: New Mexico & Utah under popular sovereignty • The slave trade, not slavery itself, would be abolished in the District of Columbia • A new, more rigorous Fugitive Slave Law

32. The Fugitive Slave Act • Enabled southerners to reclaim runaway slaves in the North • Denied an accused runaway a trial by jury and it required all citizens assist federal marshals in its enforcement • Underground Railroad-Harriet Tubman

33. Fugitive Slave Law • Fugitive Slave Law • Created an office of commissioners who decides if a slave was a runaway received $10 to return a runaway slave to the South/ $5 to free the runaway slave • Denied accused runaway slaves trial by jury and the right to testify in their own defense • Required citizens to assist in catching runaways • Citizens helping a runaway slave faces a $1000 fine and 6 months in jail • The Fugitive Slave Law was very unpopular in the North because it forced northerners to accept slavery. However, it was tough to enforce

34. Fugitive Slave Law • Question: How did northern state governments make the Fugitive Slave Act difficult to enforce?

35. Fugitive Slave Law • Answer: Personal liberty laws were passed making it possible for slaves to get lawyers. Anti- kidnapping and no cooperation laws were also passed. However, the Supreme Court declared these laws unconstitutional in Prigg vs. Pennsylvania, ruling that state governments could not pass laws obstructing the right of slave owners to reclaim slaves.

36. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) • By Harriet Beecher Stowe • A tremendous commercial success, it was perhaps the most effective piece of antislavery propaganda. • Presented a powerful moral indictment of the law and of slavery as an institution. • Dramatized the plight of runaway slaves • Degraded slave master • Exposed the break-up of black families • Made a mockery of Christian morality of the South • The South fired back, criticizing the “cruelties of northern factory owners” • 5years sold 500,000 copies in US and was translated into 20 languages • Stowe had never been to the South • Rumor has it she was invited to the Whitehouse and greeted by Lincoln who said “you are the little women who started this great war”

37. The Election of 1852 • Both the Whigs and the Democrats endorsed the Compromise • Democrats turn to Franklin Pierce who defeated Whig candidate Winfield Scott • Even more significantly, the antislavery Free Soil Party did not receive many votes. • With the slavery issue seemingly losing political force, it appeared that the Union had weathered the storm unleashed by the Wilmot Proviso.

38. Sectional Changesin American Society • The Growth of a Railroad Economy • In the 1850s, railroad construction took cotton’s place as the driving force behind the economy. • Reorientation of western trade • Urbanization in the North reached over 50% for first time in 1860 • Rising Industrialization in the North • Influx of immigrants in the 1840s and 1850s threatened the sectional balance of power.

40. Sectional Changes in American Society • Southern economic dependence

41. The Gadsden Purchase, 1853 • Ideas for a transcontinental railroad • President Pierce wanted to build a southern route for a railroad • With the Gadsden Purchase, the U.S. gained 45,000 square miles of Mexican desert, which contained the most practical southern route for a transcontinental railroad.

43. The Railroad Affects Politics • Sen. Stephen Douglas (Ill.) wanted to build a transcontinental railroad from Chicago. • This could not be done until the rest of the Louisiana Purchase was organized.

44. Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) • Repealed the Missouri Compromise • Created two territories based on popular sovereignty, • Most northern opponents of the bill focused on the expansion of slavery and the Slave Power rather than the moral evil of slavery. • Once President Pierce endorsed the bill, it passed and the Missouri Compromise was repealed

46. The Political Realignment of the 1850s • Collapse of the Second American Party System • The fight over the bill divided the political parties along sectional lines and effectively destroyed the Whig party and the Republican Party emerged to take its place, uniting around the ideal of free labor. • The Republican Party • No base in the South. • Intended to elect a president by sweeping the free states, which now controlled a majority of the electoral votes.

47. Election of 1856 • Republicans • John C. Fremont • Free-soil in Kansas • Federal prohibition of slavery • Free labor society with expanded opportunities for white workers • 114 electoral/ 1,335,264 popular • support from the North • Democrat • James Buchanan • Popular sovereignty • 174 electoral votes/ 1,838,169 popular • support from the North and South • American Party • Millard Fillmore • Compromise 8 electoral/ 874,534 popular • Nativism • Anti- Catholic • Democrats worried even though they won because the divided opposition gained more popular votes. The election of 1856 spelled trouble for the Union because the make-up of the political parties was beginning to go back to regional rather than political. • Election of 1856 • Democrat James Buchanan (Penn.) beats Republican John C. Freemont (Calif.) in a close election. Republicans began preparing for 1860.

48. The Worsening Crisis • Bleeding Kansas • Violence broke out between two rival governments: one free & one slave • Bleeding Sumner • The violence spread when Congressman Preston Brooks (S.C.) attacked Sen. Charles Sumner (Mass.) with his cane. • The Dred Scott Decision • Chief Justice Taney says that African-Americans could not be citizens and that Congress could not ban slavery. • Encouraged political extremism.

49. Dred Scott Continued • Chief Justice Roger B Taney was from Maryland (a slave state) • No black-slave or free could be a citizen of the United States • Court defined slaves as property protected by due process of law. Thus, slave holders could take their “property” anywhere in the nation without restriction. • Ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional because it deprived the right of slaveholders to own property. • Congress did not have the constitutional right to prohibit slavery • Congress did have the constitutional duty to protect the property of the citizens it governs

50. The WorseningCrisis • The Panic of 1857 • Economic issues increase sectional tensions • The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) • Douglas and Lincoln on the slavery issue. • Lincoln lost the senatorial contest in Illinois. • Lincoln’s performance marked him as a possible presidential contender for 1860 • Attempting to lure Douglas into a trap, Lincoln asked him how popular sovereignty could work under the Dred Scott decision