Georgia and the American Experience

Chapter 7:The Antebellum Era,

1838-1860Study Presentation

Mr. Smith’s Classes

Georgia and the American Experience

Section 1: Manifest Destiny Section 2: Deepening DivisionsSection 3: Slavery as a Way of LifeSection 4: Antebellum GeorgiaSection 5: The Election of 1860

Section 1: Manifest Destiny

• Essential Question –How did Americans apply the concept

of manifest destiny during the Antebellum period?

Section 1: Manifest Destiny

• What words do I need to know?

–Manifest Destiny–annex–skirmish

Manifest Destiny • A Northern journalist (1845) wrote that

the manifest destiny of the U.S. was “to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free descendants of our yearly multiplying millions”

• The country’s leaders steadily increased territory and fought to protect its citizens across the continent

The Nation Grows • Texas won independence from Mexico in

1836; annexed as the 28th state in 1845• The U.S. declared war on Mexico to secure

Rio Grande as the Mexican/U.S. border• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) gave the

U.S. the territory encompassing California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, most of New Mexico, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado.

• Gadsden Purchase (1853) bought the southern part of New Mexico

Oregon Territory and Western Migration

• Area west of the Rocky Mountains and north of California

• In 1818 treaty, the U.S. and Great Britain set boundary between the U.S. and Canada at the 49th parallel

• The Oregon and Santa Fe trails were the favored routes west by settlers

• Between 1848 and 1850, the population of California increased tenfold; most of these settlers were seeking gold

The Mexican War was a training ground for American soldiers who would fight each other in the Civil War.

The Donner Party met disaster on the westward trail. Trapped by deep snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains, 42 0f 87 members of the party eventually died. Some survivors resorted to cannibalism in order to survive.

Section 2: Deepening Divisions

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION–How did the North and South differ

before the Civil War?

Section 2:Deepening Divisions

• What words do I need to know? – states’ rights– Missouri Compromise– sectionalism– Compromise of 1850– Kansas-Nebraska Act

States’ Rights • States’ rights: Belief that the state’s interests

take precedence over interests of national government

• Northern states believed that all states should abide by laws made by the national government

• Southern states believed that states had right to govern themselves and decide what would be best for their own situation

Differences: North and South• Class Structure: North generally based on wealth;

South based on wealth and being “born into the right family”

• Slavery: North wanted it abolished; South supported it

• Southern planter system consisted of large and small categories; the wealthiest had the most land and the most slaves

• Economy: Northern based on mining, industry, banks, stores, and railroads; Southern based on agriculture, including cotton, rice, and indigo

• Southerners resented tariffs, which raised import prices; the South imported more than the North

• South dependent on slave labor

Many thousands of Africans died during the voyage from freedom in Africa to bondage in America.

Three ways slavery was profitable:

1. labor

2. speculationLetting (renting out)

slaves

Freed Blacks and Slaves

• 500,000 freed blacks; only 6 percent lived in South (mostly Virginia and Maryland)

• By 1860, 11.5 percent of nation’s 4 million slaves lived in Georgia

• 3,500 freed blacks lived in Georgia by 1860• Slaves in the lower South cultivated “King

Cotton,” which accounted for 50% of America’s exports

The Abolitionists• Led the movement to do away with slavery• Many northern whites, some southern and free blacks were involved• Made speeches, wrote books and articles,

and offered their homes as safe houses for runaway slaves

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), by Harriet Beecher Stowe, portrayed slavery’s evils; the book sold more than 1 million copies

• North Star and The Liberator were anti-slavery newspapers

• South believed the Constitution protected their right to own slaves

William Lloyd Garrison, publisher of The Liberator.

Frederick Douglass, publisher of The North Star.

An abolitionist newspaper

The Missouri Compromise• Approved in 1820; Maine entered the Union

as a free state, and Missouri entered as a slave state

• 11 states allowed slavery and 11 states did not

• Prohibited slavery north of 36°20' latitude (the southern border of Missouri), and included Louisiana Territory lands west of Missouri

• Temporarily solved slavery controversy between the states

The Compromise of 1850• California would enter Union as a free state• New Mexico territory would not become part of

Texas or a guaranteed slave state• The District of Columbia would no longer trade

slaves, but slave owners there could keep their slaves

• Runaway slaves could be returned to their owners in slave states

• Utah and New Mexico territories could decide if they wanted to allow slaves or not

The Kansas-Nebraska Act • Created the territories of Kansas and

Nebraska• Those territories had right of popular

sovereignty • Popular sovereignty: When a territory asked

for statehood, the people could vote on slavery

• Freesoilers in those territories fought against Abolitionists and proslavery supporters

The Dred Scott Decision

• Supreme Court ruling in 1857• A slave filed suit after he lived in free states

with his owner but was returned to slave state• Court ruled that slaves were not citizens and

could not file lawsuits• Court also ruled that Congress could not stop

slavery in the territories• Decision further separated the North and

South

At the time the Constitution was adopted, the Chief Justice wrote, blacks had been "regarded as beings of an inferior order" with "no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

Dred ScottChief Justice Roger Taney

Section 3: Slavery as a Way of Life

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION–What was life like for Georgia slaves

during the Antebellum period?

Section 3: Slavery as a Way of Life • What words do I need to know?

–driver–slave code–arsenal–Underground Railroad–overseer

Three Ways Slavery Was Profitable

1. Labor

2. Letting (renting out)

3. Speculation

River Street Slave Barracoons

Interior of River Street Slave Barracoons

Cotton bound for New York being loaded in Savannah.

Hard work, Simple living

• Slaves worked long hours in swampy rice fields or tobacco and cotton fields

• Work began at sunup and continued until sundown; overseers punished slaves who did not harvest enough

• Drivers, older slaves trusted by the plantation owner, also supervised the field hands

• Slave children, as young as five, also worked hard on the plantations and farms

• Slave cabins were small, very simply furnished, and crudely built; foods were basic

rhythmhttp://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/february03/worksongs.cfm

Music was very important to slaves. Often the lyrics had a hidden meaning:

Swing Low, Sweet ChariotI looked over Jordan (Ohio River) and what did I see?Coming for to carry me home!A band of angels (abolitionists) coming after me.Coming for to carry me home! (to freedom)“Call and response” singing maximized efficiency by keeping workers’ labor at the same pace and allowed the overseer to keep track of the day’s progress.

Slave Family Life• Slave families often became separated• Owners encouraged marriage; slave children

became property of the mother’s owner• Religion was important; black preachers

spoke of freedom and justice• Spiritual songs encouraged slaves throughout

their lives• Education was nearly nonexistent, although

minimal reading and writing skills were permitted by some slave owners

The Br’er Rabbit stories were a source of hope and encouragement for slaves.

Slave Rebellions

• 1800 – Gabriel Prosser, Richmond, VA (1,000)• 1822 – Denmark Versey, Charleston, SC (5,000)• 1831 - Nat Turner led a rebellion in Virginia; at

least 57 and perhaps as many as 85 whites died; Turner was hanged

• Nat Turner’s Rebellion and other unsuccessful rebellions prompted strict laws across the South designed to curtail slave movements, meetings, and efforts to learn to read and write

• These laws applied to both slaves and freed blacks

Slave Codes• Took away nearly all rights of slaves• Slaves could not carry weapons, make

any contact with white people• People who tried to teach people of

color were punished; slaves could not work any job involving reading and writing

• Slaves had little time to talk together

John Brown• White abolitionist led a raid on federal arsenal

(arms storehouse) at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia• Brown wanted ammunition to lead a rebellion to

free the South’s slaves• He was captured and hanged for treason • The Brown raid added to fear and distrust,

especially in the South; to many Northerners, Brown became a hero

The Underground Railroad• Network of roads, houses, river crossings,

boats, wagons, woods, and streams operated by blacks and whites

• Provided a trail of flight for runaway slaves seeking freedom in Canada or the Northern states

• Safe stops along the way called stations• Former slave Harriet Tubman personally

helped more than 300 slaves escape to freedom

The North Star (Polaris) pointed the way to freedom for runaway slaves.Big Dipper

Little Dipper

Section 4: Antebellum Georgia

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION–What was Georgia like before the

Civil War?

Section 4:Antebellum Georgia

• What words do I need to know?–Know-Nothing Party–Great Revival Movement–Milledgeville

Georgia’s Pre-War Economy • 68,000 farms by 1860; cotton was chief crop• 500 plantations (500 acres or more); most

farms were less than 100 acres• 60 percent of Georgians owned no slaves;

only 236 had 100 or more slaves• Half of Georgia’s total wealth was in slaves

($400 million) • 1,890 factories in Georgia by 1860; about $11

million in value

Education• Most Georgians had little education • 20 percent of Georgians were illiterate in

1850 • $100,000 allotted in 1858 to begin free

schools; the outbreak of the Civil War delayed these plans

• Georgia’s first law school founded in 1859 (Athens)

• Slaves were not given educational opportunities

In this house, located in Savannah’s Historic District, Jane Devereaux taught slave children to read and write for 32 years!

Religion • Georgians involved in the Great Revival

Movement of the early 1800s• Camp meetings popular, especially

among Methodists• By 1860, Georgia second only to

Virginia in the South in number of churches

• Methodists and Baptists most common denominations

Camp Meeting

Antebellum Georgia Politics • Democrats and Whigs were two major

political parties• Democrats supported states’ rights;

took strong stand for slavery• Whigs mainly from upper social classes;

favored moderate protective tariff and federal help for the South

• Most governors were Whigs; most legislators were Democrats

Know-Nothing Party• Leading Georgians formed two new political

parties; one party favored the Compromise of 1850 while the other did not

• A secret party, the Know-Nothing party, did not want immigrants to become citizens or anyone not born in the United States to hold political office

• Members answered all questions, “I don’t know” 

• By 1856, Democrats were dominant party; Dem. Joseph E. Brown, elected governor in 1856, served before, during, and after the Civil War                 

Section 5: The Election of 1860

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION–What steps led to Georgia’s

secession from the Union in 1861?

Section 5:The Election of 1860

• What words do I need to know?– Republican Party– secession– platform– ordinance– Confederate States of America

The Republican Party• Republican Party formed in 1854 in free

states• Antislavery Whigs and Democrats joined• Nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois as their

candidate in 1860 • Southern and Northern Democrats split over

slavery issues and nominated separate candidates

• Southerners angrily viewed the plans of the Republicans as non-beneficial to the South

http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?off=0&year=1860

Georgia and Lincoln’s Election

• Georgians were, for the most part, for the Union; however, they were strongly for states’ rights

• Despite lawmakers’ strong debates for and against secession, a Secession convention began in January 1861 in Milledgeville, the capital

• A secession ordinance (bill) passed 208-89• The Southern states which seceded met in

Montgomery, Alabama in February, 1861 and formed the Confederate States of America; Jefferson Davis was selected to be President

Georgians in Leadership• Robert Toombs named Secretary of

State of the Confederate States of American (CSA)

• Alexander H. Stephens named Vice-President

• Governor Joseph E. Brown favored secession and used his terms as governor to prepare Georgia for war