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U.S. History 101Chapter 11
• By the 1800s slavery was entrenched into American Society. Lasting about 200 years
• After abolition in the North, slavery had become the “peculiar institution” of the South: institution unique to southern society
• Division at the Mason-Dixon Line• Two surveyors in the 18 century to settle a
boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania
• Dividing line between slavery and freedom
• By 1861 there were 4 million slaves in the U.S. of a population of 21 million
• 18th century cotton replaced sugar as the world’s major crop produced by slave labor
• Britain abolished slavery in 1833• Old South was the largest and most
powerful slave society the modern world has known.
• Congress prohibited importing slaves in 1808
• Between 1820 and 1860 over 2 millions were sold to the deep South
• Constitution required all states to return fugitives slaves to the South.
• Limited growth of industry, discouraged immigrants, inhibited technological progress
• New Orleans was the only significant (size) city in the South
• 168,000 in 1860• Worlds’ leading
exporter of slave-grown products
Southern Society
• 3 out of 4 families in the South did not own slaves
• Most families resided on marginal land in isolated hill areas and were self-sufficient.
• Racism, kinship, political culture, and regional loyalty was the common bond between the poor whites and plantation owners.
Planter Class
• 100-199 slaves 1,500 slaveholders
• 200 + 250 slaveholders
• Held the majority of slaves and controlled the most fertile land.
• Highest incomes dominated state and local offices• Women: cared for sick slaves, directed the
domestic servants, supervised the plantation when their husbands were away
Proslavery Argument
• Racism• Biblical passages: servants should obey
their masters• Essential to human progress• Greece, Rome, other great European
had slave labor.• Without slavery, planters would be
unable to cultivate the arts, sciences, and other civilized pursuits
Life under Slavery
• Brutal punishment• Fear that their families
would be destroyed by sale
• Slaves were property• Illegal to kill a slave
except in self-defense• Could have trial, but all
white juries.• Could not testify in court
against whites• Couldn’t sign contracts,
own property
• Could not Own firearms• Could not Hold meetings unless a white
person was present• Could not Leave the farm or plantation
without permission• Could not learn to read or write
• 90% of the slave population was illiterate in 1860
• Feed cornmeal and pork or bacon
• Wild game• Chickens and
vegetables they raised themselves
Slave Labor
• Butlers, waitress, nurse, dairymaid• Gardner, carpenters, shoemakers• Blacksmiths, wavers, cut wood• Worked in iron and coal mines• Repaired bridges and railroads
Slave Culture
• African influences were evident in the slaves music and dances, religious worship
• Use of herbs to combat disease
• Law did not recognize slave marriages• “jump over the broomsitck”• Needed to be approved by owner
• About 1 in 3 slave marriages were broken because of being sold.
• Equality of powerlessness• Men: chopped wood, hunted, and
fished• Women: washed, sewed, child care,
gardening
Religion
• Christianity offered salvation
• Baptist or Methodist• Plantations had its
own black preacher• Christianity offered
social control for the owners
Resistance to Slavery
• Silent sabotage: doing poor work & breaking tools
• Running away• Little knowledge of the geography• Estimates about 1000 per year escaped
The Amistad
• 1839 slave ship from Cuba• 53 slaves took over the ship• Landed in Long Island• President Martin Van Buren favored
returning the slaves to Cuba• Abolitionists brought their case to the
Supreme Court• John Quincy Adams argued in defends
and won their freedom
Nat Turner’s Rebellion August 1831
• 31 year black preacher planned and carried out a violent uprising
• Led 70 slaves in raids on white families in southeastern Virginia
• Killed more then 50 whites• Most were captured 20 hanged
including Turner• Crowds of angry whites killed about
100 innocent blacks
• Divisions within the Movement Women’s participation Race Tactics
• Abolitionists were a vast minority in the North
• They were nearly non-existent in the South
• Underground Railroad Harriet Tubman aka “Black Moses” 40,000+ slaves use to find freedom
Antislavery Movement
Harriet Tubman
Free Blacks
• 1861: 58,000 in Virginia most in the South
• Descendants of slaves freed by southern owners in the aftermath of the Revolution
• Purchased their freedom or succeeded in running away.
• Frederick Douglass Born in Maryland1818 as a slave Secretly taught himself to read and write Barrowed “free papers” from a black sailor and
escaped in 1838 Preeminent antislavery orator Published autobiography in 1845 Lecture about slavery throughout the North and the
British Isles. His accomplishments testified to the incorrectness
of prevailing ideas about blacks’ inborn inferiority Advised Lincoln to employment of black soldiers Advocate or giving the right to vote Died in 1895, with the new system of white
supremcacy
Antislavery Movement
Frederick Douglass
• 1822 – American Colonization Society establishes the colony of Liberia in West Africa to send emancipated slaves and free blacks
• 1831 – Newspaper publisher William Lloyd Garrison opens The Liberator, an antislavery newspaper calling for abolition
William Lloyd Garrison
HarrietBeecherStowe
(1811 – 1896)
HarrietBeecherStowe
(1811 – 1896)
“So this is the little lady who started the Civil War.” -Abraham Lincoln
“So this is the little lady who started the Civil War.” -Abraham Lincoln
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
1852
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
1852
Sold 300,000 copies in the first year.
2 million in a decade!
Detailed the harsh treatment of slaves
Sold 300,000 copies in the first year.
2 million in a decade!
Detailed the harsh treatment of slaves
