Southern Culture and Slavery Chapter 16 Early Emancipation in the North Missouri Compromise, 1820 1
Characteristics of the Antebellum South 1. Primarily agrarian. 2. Economic power shifted from the upper South to the lower South. 3. Cotton Is King! * 1860à 5 mil. bales a yr. (2/3 of total US exports). 4. Very slow development of industrialization (making about 15% of nation s manufactured goods by 1850). 5. Rudimentary financial system. 6. Inadequate transportation system. Cotton Gin Invented by Eli Whitney, ties Southern economy to King Cotton Plantation system Only plantations could afford gins, so gap between rich and poor was wide Southern Agriculture 2
Changes in Cotton Production 1820 1860 Southern Cotton Half of our country s exports by 1840 Largest producer of cotton in the world U.S. produced over half of the world s cotton 75% of England s cotton came from U.S. South Benefit to Northern textile mills Tied Southern economy to cotton. Very little industry Value of Cotton Exports As % of All US Exports 3
Southern Economy Chained to Cotton Quick profits Lots of bountiful land Very reliant on slavery Number of slaves in 1820: 1.5 million Number of slaves in 1860: 4 million 75% in agriculture (55% cotton) Domestic servants, mining, industry The Cotton System Relied on international markets Heavy investment in slaves Dangerous to depend on one-crop economy Lots of land speculation Lots of debt Southern Society (1850) 6,000,000 Slavocracy [plantation owners] The Plain Folk [white yeoman farmers] Hillbillies Black Freemen Black Slaves 3,200,000 250,000 Total US Population à 23,000,000 [9,250,000 in the South = 40%] 4
Southern Hierarchy 1850: 1700 families owned 100 or more slaves Controlled political and social leadership Rich often sent kids to private school Slave-Owning Families (1850) Yeoman Farmer 70% of farmers owned less than 100 acres 2/3 of hog raising in South 75% of southern whites owned no slaves and lived on family farms Resembled northern farmers Worked the land along side slaves Many forced to sell land to plantations and move West or North 5
A Group Below Yeoman Farmers Sometimes called Hillbillies, Dirt Eaters, Poor White Trash Lived in marshes, barrens of South OR the Appalachian Mts ( Mountain People ). Grew vegetables, fished, hunted, hired themselves as farm hands Poor diet, bad living conditions Higher rate of disease School attendance rates were lower Perception of being lazy Whites Without Slaves Protected system Some wanted to own slaves Protect racial superiority Some who lived in Appalachian Mountains were detached from slavery and cotton plantations Some of these would be abolitionists Some just detested slavery and the plantation system Free Blacks 250,000 in South Many were mulatto Purchased freedom Racism limited job opportunities Denied civil rights 250,000 in North Mulatto, born into freedom, ran away Purchased freedom or ran away Racism limited job opportunities Denied civil rights 6
Plantation Slavery 4 million slaves in 1860 Southerners invested nearly $2 billion into slavery by 1860 Average slave was worth $2,000 in 1860 South had less capital than North to invest in industry Slaves Work from dusk til dawn No civil or political rights Punishment for not working hard Southern Population Slave Families Most had 2-parent households in Deep South More likely to form African-American culture on plantations Smaller farms meant more contact with whites, separation from families 7
Early Abolition By 1820: 120 abolitionist groups in the U.S. Most advocated a slow, moderate ending of slavery ( Gradualists ) Payment to slaveholders Did not advocate equality for blacks Abolitionist Movement e 1817 à American Colonization Society created (gradual, voluntary emancipation. Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Marshall, James Monroe British Colonization Society symbol Abolitionist Movement e Create a free slave state in Liberia, West Africa. e Capital was Monrovia e No real anti-slavery sentiment in the North in the 1820s & 1830s. e Second Great Awakening inspired many to believe slavery was a sin e Great Britain freed slaves in W. Indies in 1833: influenced many in U.S. Gradualists Immediatists 8
William Lloyd Garrison (1801-1879) e Slavery undermined republican values. e Slaves were Americans, not Africans e Deserve equal rights e Immediate emancipation with NO compensation. e Slavery was a moral, not an economic issue. R2-4 The Liberator Premiere issue à January 1, 1831 R2-5 Black Abolitionists David Walker (1785-1830) 1829 à Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World Fight for freedom rather than wait to be set free by whites. Outlawed in most states. 9
Anti-Slave Pamphlet Southern Pro-Slavery Propaganda Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South: Nat Turner, 1831 10
Nat Turner s Revolt (1831) Bloodiest slave rebellion in American History Turner and 60 slaves attack plantations of Virginia 55 whites killed Turner s men were captured or lynched Anti-slavery propaganda and abolitionists blamed Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) R2-12 1845 à The Narrative of the Life Of Frederick Douglass 1847 à The North Star Slave Resistance Refusal to work hard. Isolated acts of sabotage. Escape via the Underground Railroad. 11
Harriet Tubman (1820-1913) e Helped over 300 slaves to freedom. e $40,000 bounty on her head. e Served as a Union spy during the Civil War. Moses The Underground Railroad Leading Escaping Slaves Along the Underground Railroad 12
Runaway Slave Ads Abolitionist Impact on North Unpopular at first North dependent on South South owed Northern creditors $300 million Propaganda began to change some Northern attitudes Many did not want slavery expanded into territories Republican party formed in 1850s Free-Soilers growing in strength and numbers Opposition to Abolitionists Grows Many felt ending slavery would hurt Southern economy and society Abolitionist propaganda made illegal Gag Rule in House (1836) Attacks on Abolitionists Considered outside agitators Some Northerners did not want job and housing competition Mainly working class whites 13