1. Machinery sales began to increase dramatically in the early-to-mid 1800s. Who purchased a...

1. Machinery sales began to increase dramatically in the early-to-mid 1800s. Who purchased a majority of these finished products?

2. How did westward expansion impact mechanical and agricultural innovation?

3. How did McCormick help the North, and Whitney help the South?

4. Concerning industrial progress, what was the American System?

5. What contributed to rising prosperity during the early-to-mid 1800s?

6. What more than anything contributed to the increased sales of newspapers in the early 1800s?

7. Who enjoyed the Minstrel shows the most?!

8. What did PT Barnum contribute to America?

9. Why did fiction take off as a literary genre during this time period?

10. Define Transcendentalism.

Chapter 12

Forced the South to rethink slaveryMany in Virginia began to wonder if

gradual emancipation would be a wise choice

Others begin to double down on the structural control of the institution

Nate Turner’s Rebellion

How did this happen?The South gradually expanded south and westIndian removal made this expansion easierBritish textile industry was a boom

King Cotton

Lower South was suited to the cultivation of cottonWet springs and summers, dry autumns

Cotton requires neither expensive irrigation canals nor costly machinery

Did not even require an abundance of slavesIn 1860 between 35-50% of cotton

farmers did not own slaves

The Lure of Cotton

However, southern slave population nearly doubled in the early 1800s, and cotton employed ¾ of all southern slaves

The numbers of growth grew togetherCotton was also compatible with the growing

of corn (planted and harvested before or after)

Acreage of corn in the South exceeded cottonThis did allow the South to be somewhat self

sufficient (money did not drain out of the region)

1. residents in the Lower had come from the Upper

2. all white southerners benefited from the 3/5 compromise

3. abolitionists clumped all southerner together

4. profitability of cotton and sugar increased the price of all slaves throughout the region

Ties between the Lower and Upper South

North continued to urbanize; the South continued to remain rural

South’s urban was ½ that of New England and the mid-Atlantic states

Why?Lack of industries (only 10% of U.S.

manufacturing)Industrial output was less than New

Hampshire’s

The North and South Diverge

Why?Southern factories were small and

produced for local marketsExamples: grain to flour; corn to meal; logs

to lumberIndustrial slavery scared Southerners

Too much independenceProblem of money, not labor

Give up slaves (status); cash crops were a “sure thing”

South also has an “education deficiency” Reluctance to tax propertyRejection of compulsory natureUnconvinced of the needLittle dependency on the written wordFew complex economic transactionsPlanters did not care for an educated poor

white workforce

The PlantersThe Small SlaveholdersThe YeomenThe People of the Pine Barrens

Social Groups of the South

Twenty+ slavesPlantations with a high level of division of

laborDomestic staff, pasture staff, outdoor

artisans, indoor artisans, and field handsPlanters vie with one another for stately

mansionsHowever the wealth is in the slaves ($1700

per slave)If one sells a slave, he gives up his

prestigious status

The Planters

Plantations were expensive with high fixed costs

Large plantation owners were often indebted to agents

Planters often moved and it disrupted their social connectionsThey coped by sometimes leaving the

plantations to overseers

Plantation mistresses had many responsibilities

Had to deal with the abundance of mulatto children

88% of all slaveholders owned fewer than 20 slaves; most fewer than 10

1 of every 5 slaves employed outside of agriculture

These slave holders were younger

The Small Slaveholders

Nonslaveholding family farmers – largest single group of southern whites

Most were landowners (50-200 acres) and did hire slaves at harvest time; most of their acreage was subsistence crops

Tended to settle in the upland regions (Piedmont, hill country)

Leading characteristic was self-sufficiency, with modest profit; most transactions took place within the community

The Yeomen

10% of southern whitesLived where they did by choiceThey were the evidence by northerners

that slavery degraded poor whitesHowever, they could feed themselves

where the urban poor could not

The People of the Pine Barrens

The Americans of the South are brave, comparatively ignorant, hospitable, generous, easy to irritate, violent in their resentment, without industry or the spirit of enterprise.Alexis de Tocqueville

Conflict and Consensus in the White South

Planters and urban commercial were Whig

Yeomen tended to be DemocratsThe four social groups tended to settle in

different regionsMore mingling in the Upper South than

the LowerWhites did not work for whites, so there

was a certain amount of independence

Conflict over SlaveryBetween 1830-60 slaveholders gained an

increasing proportion of the South’s wealthThe size of this class shrank to 25% from 36%

during that same timeSome southerners began supporting

reopening the slave trade to cash in on statusOthers took to Hinton Helper’s The

Impending Crisis of the SouthCalled on nonslaveholding class to end slavery

for their own self interest

Why not attack the institution?Hope to become a slaveholderAcceptance of racial assumptionsEmancipation meant a race war

The Proslavery ArgumentPositive good instead of a necessary evil

Ancient civilizations had itBetter than “wage slavery” of the North

Religious argument beganSt. Paul’s wordsAbolitionists were trying to destroy the

familyChurches split into southern wings

They provide the opportunity for Christian responsibility

Violence of the Old SouthMurder rate was 10X higherSlavery helped create the violent white

southHonor and a sensitivity to ones

reputationDueling was a refined alternative to

random violence of the lower classesRecourse through the law struck many

as cowardly Gentlemen could recognize gentlemen

1700s and 1800s was different1700s- young, diverse regional origin,

mostly menSlave trade ended in 1808After that, male/female balance created

a native-born slave population

The Maturing of the Plantation System

Northern factory workers did not have drivers

White overseers and black driversAdvancement within slavery was the

goal for manyHouse slave often had disdain for the

field hands and poor whites

Work and Discipline of Plantation Slaves

Law provided neither recognition nor protection of the slave family

A slave could witness the sale of 11 family members

Marriage? Until death or distance do you part

Slaves created their own family morality

Fictive kin

The Slave Family

North America is #11. gender equalized more rapidly2. other crops, etc.

The Longevity, Diet, and Health of Slaves

Perennial shortage of white laborSlave or free, nonagricultural labor

was easier to find in the SouthNo immigrantsLure of cotton farming to poor whites

Slaves off Plantations

Free Blacks in the Old South