Slavery & Southern Antebellum Society

Yeoman —A funny wordYeoman —A funny word Yeoman (plural Yeomen)Yeoman (plural Yeomen)

Not Yoeman, nor Yo-Man, nor YowmanNot Yoeman, nor Yo-Man, nor Yowman Definition—An independent farmer. Definition—An independent farmer.

What makes one independent?What makes one independent? Another definition “A self-working farmer”Another definition “A self-working farmer” So… did yeomen own slaves?So… did yeomen own slaves?

Some did…but would only be 1-2 & they worked Some did…but would only be 1-2 & they worked alongside themalongside them

What percentage of the South’s population were What percentage of the South’s population were Yeomen?Yeomen?

Approximately 80%Approximately 80%

Yeoman FarmerYeoman Farmer

Andrew Jackson’s Houses:Andrew Jackson’s Houses:Social Mobility Did Exist in the SouthSocial Mobility Did Exist in the South

Harmony actually existed between Harmony actually existed between Slaveowners & Non-SlaveownersSlaveowners & Non-Slaveowners

1. Non-slave owners aspired to become slaveowners

2. If slavery exists, there’s always somebody lower than you

3. Kin – most non-slaveowners had at least 1 relative that did own slaves

4. Political power is held by the common man – all yeoman farmers could vote & slaveowners were taxed for their property (slaves)

5. Economic transactions occurred between non-slave and slave owners…renting of cotton gins for example

Good SocietyGood SocietyArgumentArgument

By 1830s slavery seen as a positive good – benefits rising for N & S

One of long-term effects of economic profitability of slavery via Whitney’s cotton gin

Replaced Jeffersonian view that slavery was a necessary evil with no real solution

COTTON IS KING!

50% of all exports after 1840 S produces 50% of world’s cotton supply 75% of BR cotton comes from S – BR is

world’s leading industrial power

Before Ind. Rev., most Southern planters made little profit from slave labor

BUT, invention of cotton gin by ELI WHITNEY made slave labor profitable throughout the South Positive Effect:

Production increased ; cotton is biggest export

Negative Effects: More Americans began to

think of slavery as a “positive good” - less criticism of slavery

Slave labor quintupled between this invention & the Civil War

Where did slaves work?

Cotton 55 percent Tobacco 10 percent Sugar/rice/hemp 10 percent Servants 15 percent Trades/industry 10 percent

Slave Crops

Cotton—4.5 million bales (1860)

Slave Distribution

RATIO OF SLAVEHOLDERS TO FAMILIES, (1860)

STATE: SLAVEHOLDERS TOTAL FAMILIES PCTMISSISSIPPI 30943 63015 49SOUTH CAROLINA 26701 58642 46 GEORGIA 41084 109919 37 ALABAMA 33730 96603 35 FLORIDA 5152 15090 34 LOUISIANA 22033 74725 29TEXAS 21878 76781 28 NORTH CAROLINA 34658 125090 28VIRGINIA 52128 201523 26 TENNESSEE 36844 149335 25 ARKANSAS 11481 57244 20

Total 316632 1027967 31

Works out to 1 in 3 families actually owned slaves – 31% of families in the South

PLANTERARISTOCRACY

Government by the few in the South

Wealth & power concentrated in the hands of an elite upper class – cottonocracy 1,733 families

own 100+ slaves

SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH: Planter Aristocracy on top (Whigs) “Lesser Masters” (less than 10 slaves- most own 1 or 2) Yeoman Farmers (subsistence farmers - usually

Democrats) Majority of white population by 1860 “crackers, hillbillies, clayeaters” Aspire to slaveowning

Non-slaveholding whites (approximately 1/4 of all southern whites)

“Poor white trash”- mountain whites (will support Union during war)

Slaves

FREE BLACKS South – 250,000, 1860 ManumissionManumission:

Upper – after Rev. War Deep – mulattos;

manumitted in willls Some purchased freedom Black slaveowners

Status: none – 3rd race, must carry papers

Some black slaveowners….

North Victims of prejudice &

segregation Schools, voting, housing,

conflicts with Irish Anti-black feeling

actually worse many times in N Little contact with blacks Friends of race, but don’t

like individuals

SlaveCodes

Slave laws are state laws & most define them as property – can be bought, sold, mortgaged, etc. Can’t testify, can’t own property, can’t have a family, etc. Note though that slaves WERE seen as people & not property in the criminal system…so slave

could be tried for crimes and it was also illegal to commit crimes against slaves – murder for ex.

Economic Weaknesses of Plantation System: Land intensive; leads to soil depletion Cotton production is monopolistic Involves huge capital investments in land and

labor Discourages economic diversification

Reliance on cotton; no manufacturing

Discourages immigration Slave labor, high cost of land, Europeans don’t know

cotton farming

PLANTATION ORGANIZATIONGang System was typical:

Owner—Planter (owns 20+ slaves) Overseer—Day-to-day authority figure

Occasionally would be a trusted slave (Jeffferson Davis)

Driver—Slave Foreman Field Hand—Men and women

SlaveTrade

Apprx. 900,000 sold in U.S. – sold “down river” – split many families Apprx. 20% of wealth from slavery comes from the internal slave trade

Slave Prices

Price of slaves quintuplesfrom 1800-1860

$35,000 to $40,000 intoday’s prices

Plantation SlaverySlave Quarters

Slave Weddings

Marriages not officially recognized

Plantation Slave Life Work from “kin to kin’t” (dawn to dusk) Kept in ignorance (9/10 illiterate) Whippings ……but why not beaten bloody on a

regular basis? Religion a big part of slave life – Sunday off Forms of resistance:

Work slowdowns Theft Sabotage (arson, crop destruction, tool breaking) Runaways & rebellions

Gabriel Prosser Conspiracy 1800 – “revolt” that never actually happened ….hanged anyway

Denmark Vessey Conspiracy 1822 – SC, over 30 hanged

Nat Turner’s RebellionVirginia, 1831

Preacher / slave 40 slaves killed over 60 whites (in bed at night) Turner eventually caught, hanged, skinned Sets off mob & revenge lynchings of blacks Effect: solidified the greatest fears in the South and caused the end of abolitionism in

the South

Fugitive Slaves

Running away was most common way of resisting slavery

Most ran away for a short time due to feeling they had received an unjust punishment or to look for a family member

Whipped 10 times for each day they were gone

Slave “Diseases” Drapetomia

“Disease” that caused them to run away & the cure is to whip it out of them

Dysaethesia Aethiopica Caused slaves to be “rascals” To be insubordinate & commit

minor sabotage Cure was whipping or isolation

Dr. Samuel Cartwright

Leading internationallyrecognized scientist fromMS that studied slaves

EARLYABOLITIONISM

Quakers were first as early as Revolutionary War

1816 – American Colonization Society Liberia, 1822 (capital – Monrovia) 15,000 transported Most didn’t want to go – by 1860, most slaves

were American born Lincoln favored this early on

1830s influences: BR emancipation in 1833 & 2nd Great Awakening

Theodore Weld, Grimke Sisters

British Colonization Society symbol

Anti-Slavery AlphabetAnti-Slavery AlphabetAnti-Slavery AlphabetAnti-Slavery Alphabet

QUAKERSQUAKERS are the early leaders in the abolitionist movement.

RADICAL ABOLITIONISM William Lloyd Garrison

Sees Constitution as an “agreement with hell” The Liberator, 1831 Comes out same year as Turner’s rebellion – Garrison

seen as a terrorist

American Anti-Slavery Society, 1833 Garrison

Wendell Phillips Elijah Lovejoy

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (1801-1879)(1801-1879)

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (1801-1879)(1801-1879)

Slavery undermined republican values.

Slavery was a moral, notan economic issue.

Immediate emancipation with NO compensation to owners.

Full and complete equal rights for blacks.

Despised in S, but also seen as too radical in N

R2-4

The Tree of Slavery—Loaded with the Sum of All Villanies!The Tree of Slavery—Loaded with the Sum of All Villanies!

Other White Other White AbolitionistsAbolitionistsOther White Other White AbolitionistsAbolitionists

Wendell Phillips

Theodore Weld

James Birney Liberty Party. Ran for President,

1840 & 1844.

Elijah Lovejoy

Northern Reaction to Abolitionists Most treat abolitionists as

radicals The North has a significant

economic interest in Dixie! Violence:

Lewis Tappan’s house ransacked in 1834

Broadcloth Mob drags Garrison through Boston streets in 1835

Rev. Elijah Lovejoy killed in IL in 1837

Black AbolitionistsBlack AbolitionistsBlack AbolitionistsBlack AbolitionistsDavid Walker(1785-1830)

1829 Appeal to the Coloured Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the WorldCitizens of the World

Fight for freedom rather than wait to be set free by whites; violence is only way to freedom

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)

1845 The Narrative of the Life Of Frederick Douglass1847 “The North Star”

Believes in power of education

Differs from Garrison in that he does NOT want to do away with Constitution

Sojourner Truth (1787-Sojourner Truth (1787-1883)1883)

or or Isabella BaumfreeIsabella Baumfree

Sojourner Truth (1787-Sojourner Truth (1787-1883)1883)

or or Isabella BaumfreeIsabella Baumfree

1850 The Narrative of Sojourner Truth R2-10

Ain’t I a woman?Ain’t I a woman?

Harriet Tubman(1820-1913)Harriet Tubman(1820-1913) Helped over 300

slaves to freedom. Known as the “Black

Moses” $40,000 bounty on

her head. Served as a Union spy

during the Civil War.

“Moses”

Leading Escaping Slaves Leading Escaping Slaves Along the Underground Along the Underground

RailroadRailroad

Leading Escaping Slaves Leading Escaping Slaves Along the Underground Along the Underground

RailroadRailroad

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroade “Conductor” ==== leader of the

escape

e “Passengers” ==== escaping slaves

e “Tracks” ==== routes

e “Trains” ==== farm wagons transporting the escaping slaves

e “Depots” ==== safe houses to rest/sleep

Events securing Southern support of slavery:

Defeat of VA’s emancipation proposals (1831) Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831) Nullification Crisis (1832) Proslavery efforts to defend the “peculiar institution”

Christianity arguments Defense of master-slave relationship as father-child relationship Myth of happy slave vs. the oppressed N industrial worker

Government crackdown on free speech (Jackson) 1835 Postmasters restrict transmission of abolitionist literature

through the mails – in response to rioting in SC where mob burned abolitionist propaganda

1836 Gag Rule in House – all anti-slavery appeals tabled

SLAVE CONCENTRATION BY 1860

What is the Mason-Dixon Line?