The South and Slavery

1. The South and Slavery King Cotton Reigns

2. The Cotton Kingdom • Post Revolutionary recession results in decline in slavery • Ideals of the Revolution conflict with slavery. • Some owners free their slaves.

3. Slavery Expands and Cotton Become King • Cotton Gin • Trade • Cotton exported to England; $ from sale of cotton used to buy northern goods • Britain heavily dependent on cotton to feed its textile factories (80% came from U.S.) • Cotton accounted for 50% of all American exports after 1840. • South produced 75% of world’s cotton.

4. Slave Rebellions • Stono Rebellion, 1739 • South Carolina slaves fled toward Florida killing whites along way • Gabriel Prosser, 1800 • Rebellion did not materialize and Prosser and 26 others were hanged. • Denmark Vesey 1822. • A slave informer advised his master of the plot • Vesey and 30 others publicly hanged

5. Slave Rebellions • Nat Turner’s revolt -- 1831 • Sixty Virginians slaughtered, mostly children and women • Wave of killing slowed down revolt’s aim of capturing armory • Largest slave revolt ever in the South • Over 100 slaves were killed in response; Turner was hanged. • Southern states made it increasingly difficult for masters to free their slaves

6. Slave Rebellion Cont. • The most common form of resistance on the part of black Americans slaves prior to the Civil War • passive resistance, including breaking tools and slightly slowing the pace of work

7. The Planter "Aristocracy" • South an oligarchy • Ruled by wealthy plantation owners • 1850, only 1,733 families owned more than 100 slaves; yet dominated southern politics

8. Peculiar Institution • Economic structure of South was monopolistic, dominated by wealthy plantation owners • Plantation system • Risky : Slaves might die of disease, injure themselves, or run away. • System required heavy investment of capital • One-crop economy (cotton) • Discouraged a diversification of agriculture and esp. manufacturing

9. Peculiar Institution • Southerners resentful the North made huge profits at their expense • Resented being so dependent on northern manufactures & markets • Repelled large-scale European immigration • Only 4.4% of foreign-born part of South’s pop. in 1860; 18.7% in North.

10. Plantation Slavery • Nearly 4 million slaves by 1860; quadrupled in number since 1800 • Legal imports of slaves ended in 1808 • Countless slaves smuggled in despite death penalty for slavers • Burdens of slavery • Slaves deprived of dignity and sense of responsibility that free people have • suffered cruel physical and psychological treatment • Denied an education since • seen as dangerous to give slaves ideas of freedom

11. Plantation Slavery Cont • The increase in the South's slave labor force between 1810 and 1860 • Natural population increase of American-born slave • White slave owners often fathered sizable mulatto population. • Most remained slaves • Slaves seen as valuable assets and primary source of wealth • Slave auctions one of most revolting aspects of slavery • Punishment often brutal to send a message to other slaves not to defy master’s authority

12. The White Majority • By 1860, only 1/4 of white southerners owned slaves or belonged to slave-owning families • Small slave owners made up a majority of masters. • 75% of white southerners owned no slaves at all. • Mostly subsistence farmers; didn’t participate in market economy

13. The White Majority • Fiercely defended the slave system as it proved white superiority • Poor whites took comfort that they were "equal" to wealthy neighbors • Poor Southern whites someday hoped to own slaves and realize the "American dream."

14. Slavery- The South’s “Peculiar Institution”-- Kenneth Stamp

15. Slave control & growing opposition • A Slave Catechism • Religion was a means of control • Rising opposition to slavery • Natural rights theory of the revolution

16. Slave trade banned by the Constitution in 1807 • Britain bans the slave trade - William Wilberforce BRITISH PM • The ideas of the 2nd Great Awakening

17. The Domestic Slave Trade • Center Washington D.C. • Advertisements • Breeding practices • Family splitting- Josiah Henson • “Being sold down river”

18. Slave Revolts • Constant fear in the south. • New York fire & riot 1741 • The Gabriel Conspiracy • Denmark Vesey 1822 • The Nat Turner Revolt 1831

19. The South strikes back! • New Slave codes and defense of slavery • Slaves denied any status as human beings • Use of “slave patrols” • Congressional “gag resolution”

20. The Positive Good theory of slavery • Edward Brown • John Hammond -mudsill theory • George Fitzhugh “Cannibals All” claimed Africans have produced no culture. • Dr. John Van Evrie did a brain size study.

21. THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT • THE EARLIEST ABOLITION SOCIETIES FORMED IN 1815 • KEY LEADER BENJAMIN LUNDY • CALLED FOR GRADUAL EMANCIPATION • AND COLONIZATION BACK TO AFRICA • RELIED ON PERSUASION & CONCILIATION

22. LUNDY PUBLISHES THE GENIUS OF UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION 1821 • WALKED FROM TOWN TO TOWN PREACHING GRADUAL EMANCIPATION. • WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING - BOSTON CLERGYMAN DELIVERED THE SAME MESSAGE • “SLAVERY IS YOUR CALAMITY NOT YOUR CRIME”

23. BY 1830 IT WAS CLEAR PERSUASION WOULD NOT WORK • VOLUNTARY EMANCIPATION WAS RARE. • THE MOVEMENT BECOMES MORE MILITANT. • THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY FOUNDED 1833 • GOAL TO “ABOLITIONIZE THE COUNTRY”

24. WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON LAUNCHES THE LIBERATORIN 1831 • SLAVERY SHOULD END NOW! • “I WILL NOT EQUIVOCATE, EXCUSE OR RETREAT A SINGLE INCH…I WILL BE HEARD!” • SLAVERY IS A CRIME AND A SIN. YOU CAN NOT COMPROMISE WITH SIN.

25. WENDELL PHILLIPS “THE GOLDEN TRUMPET OF ABOLITION.” • OTHERS JOIN THE CAUSE • THEODORE PARKER A UNITARIAN MINISTER. • WRITER JOHN GREENLIEF WHITTIER • ALL ARE VIEWED AS DANGEROUS RADICALS AND TROUBLE MAKERS IN BOTH THE NORTH & SOUTH.

26. ELIJAH P. LOVEJOY • PUBLISHER OF THE OBSERVER. • LOVEJOY IS MURDERED IN ALTON, ILLINOIS IN 1837 • FIRST WHITEMAN TO BE KILLED IN THE CAUSE OF ABOLITION. • GARRISON NEARLY LYNCHED

27. ABOLITIONISTS TENDED TO OVERSIMPLIFY • DEPICTED ALL SLAVE OWNERS AS WICKED BRUTES • NO COMPROMISE • GARRISON: “THE CONSTITUTION IS A COVENANT WITH DEATH AND THE DEVIL.” • ATTACK MADE SLAVE OWNERS DEFENSIVE.

28. ABOLITION MOVEMENT SPLIT IN 1840 • ANTI-GARRISON BRANCH FORMS THE LIBERTY PARTY. • TAKE A “FREE SOIL” POSITION • WANTS TO USE POLITICAL MEANS TO END SLAVERY. • LIBERTY PARTY OFFERS JAMES G. BIRNEY AS PRESIDENT IN 1840 & 1844.

29. THE GARRISON BRANCH OFFERS NO COMPROMISE. • POSITION : YOU CANNOT WORK WITHIN THE SYSTEM. • HELPS TO ORGANIZE THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. • WHICH ASSISTS SLAVES TO RUNAWAY. • THE OHIO RIVER IS THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN FREE & SLAVE TERRITORY

31. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD • HELPED ABOUT 2000 SLAVES TO FREEDOM EVERY YEAR. • SOUTH DEMANDS ENFORCEMENT OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT. • IN 1850- CONGRESS PASSES A STRONGER FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT.

32. SOUTHERN REACTION TO ABOLITION MOVEMENT • LABELS THEM CRIMINALS • CONGRESS PASSES THE “GAG RULE” NO DEBATE OF SLAVERY • BANS DISTRIBUTION OF ABOLITIONIST PAPERS. • BLAIMS GARRISON FOR NAT TURNER REBELLION.

33. THE SOUTH’S ERROR WAS TO OVER-REACT TO THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT • IT WAS ALWAYS A MINORITY IN THE NORTH. • SOUTHERNS CAME TO VIEW ALL NORTHERNERS AS ABOLITIONIST.