Slavery and the Old South

1800 -1860

Study Guide Identifications

• Mono-cropping• Cotton Belt• Internal Slave system• Demography of Slavery• Slave Codes• Conditions of slavery• Resistance and Rebellion

Study Guide Questions• How did the increasing demand for cotton in the

lower south impact the institution of slavery?

• What factors led to a decline of slavery after 1800 in the economy of the upper south?

• What were the conditions that enslaved peoples Experience and how did they respond?

• How did advocates of black enslavement justify such an institution?

Charleston Slave Auction

The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave by Henry Byam Martin, 1833.

Plantation labor

• Plantations of the cotton belt – most intensely commercialized

farms in the world– Huge demand in Europe and

United States– Lower south led the nation in per

capita income

The Lower South

• After 1790 Cotton Boomed

• Cotton Belt by 1850 – South Carolina– Georgia– Florida– Alabama– Mississippi– Texas

Mono-cropping

• Cotton Plantations – huge profits in good years but in bad years sent

planter into debt and forced them to sell slaves and land.

– organized their labor in ways to maximize production and reinforced the dominance of the white men who owned the farms.

Slave Trade

• By 1860 nearly 4 million slaves lived in the south– 250,000 had been smuggled in after the ban on the

African slave trade in 1808

Slave trade 1830-1850

Internal Slavery

• ½ of all slave sales separated families• Slave children born in the upper south: 1:3

chance of being sold

• By 1850 almost all southern slaves were native born – African Americans

Demography of SlaveryWhite Minority1% Big Planters – 50+slaves3% 20-49 Slaves Controlled wealth & politics20% small slave holders

White Majority

• 75% White Majority• 1860 ¾ owned no slaves, worked land with

family labor– 1 in 5 owned no land or slaves and squatted on

least desirable lands– Grew corn– Grazed livestock

• Cities: artisans & day laborers

Free Black Society• 3% if all free families• 6% of Southern Blacks free• 80% of free blacks in upper south• 70% of blacks mulattoes

• Tradition of racially mixed unions under French & Spanish Rule established free elite – Creole societies in Charleston, Mobile and New Orleans– Greater white patronage, monopolized best jobs,

Octoroon Balls

Status of Enslaved Peoples

• Slave codes– laws defining the status of slaves and the

rights of the masters, the codes gave slave owners near-absolute power over their human property

– Prohibited • own property• make contracts• possess guns or alcohol• legally marry (except LA) • leave plantations without the owners

permission• testify against their master or any other

white persons in a court of law.• read and write• It was illegal for a slave to kill a master,

but not for a master to kill a slave.

Torture Mask, 1807

Conditions

Clothes: They were provided one set of winter and one set of summer clothes

Housing:15x15 cabin for 6 or more people.

Conditions• Diet – Cornmeal, salt pork and vegetables made up a poor

• Diseases from Malnutrition– Beriberi

– vitamin deficiency disease caused by inadequate bodily stores of vitamin B1 or thiamine

– Damages the heart and nervous system. – Pellagra

– Deficiency of niacin and amino acids– scaly skin sores, diarrhea, inflamed mucous membranes, and mental

confusion and delusions

• Diseases from poor Hygiene– Dysentery & Cholera

• Contaminated food & water • diarrhea, vomiting, and leg cramp, dehydration, death• Due to overcrowded and unsanitary conditions

Conditions

• Life expectancy – Half that of whites. (20-22 years compared to 40+)

• Gang Labor System– 20 + blacks on a gang with an overseer or driver to

clear, plow or how the land and pick cotton at a steady pace

– Overseers admitted they relied on whippings to make them work.

Rural Slavery• 80-90% of slaves worked on farms

and plantations

– 15-20% of plantation slaves were house servants or skilled artisans

– Lighter less regimented workloads than field hands

Urban Slavery

• Artisans• Semi-skilled laborers• Domestics

• Declined from 1820-1860 as slaves decreased from 22% to 10% of the urban population

Industrial Slavery

• 5-10% Industrial Slavery – lumbering and mining – The Tredegar Iron, Richmond, VA• after 1847 used slaves to curb strikes by white workers

– Industrial slaves had more independence off the job and had greater opportunities to earn money

– Competed w/ free whites

Slave Families

• Marriages produced enduring commitments • Until death or 1/3 broken by re-sale, 2/3 had both

parents• Supportive moral code• Fathers hunted & fished to supplement diets, risked

beating and death to protect women from sexual abuse• Mothers endured burdens of pregnancy, child care,

laundry & cooking in addition to field work

Survival skills

• Taught Survival Skills• Keep feeling hidden, tell what they want to

hear• Extensive kinship/support network–All elders: Aunt & Uncles–All peers: Sisters& brothers

West African Tradition

• Followed & Blended West African Religious traditions

• Prohibited marriages between cousins• named children after grandparents• Brush Harbor meetings

– Blended natural & spiritual world

Upper South

• Slavery entrenched but less dominant than in lower south

• 2/3 of all whites in 1860 held 45% of all slaves• Following War of 1812– Economic slump– Depopulation 1820-30s– Soil depletion – land values fell– Immigration west ward

Growing Urbanization• Slavery declining by 1850 in the Upper South– Delaware– Kentucky– Missouri– Virginia

• Factors of Decline– Economic recovery– Agricultural diversification– Relied less on slaves– Expanded urban markets – Network of internal improvements facilitated transition to

general farming

Open Resistance

“Sold Down the River” or killed

Work slow down, theft, tool loss, arson…

Rebellions Frequent

– 4 Major Rebellions in 19th C• Gabriel Prosser 1800

– 50 armed slaves, Richmond, Prosser +25 executed

• New Orleans Rivers parishes 1810– March on city, 60 died, heads of leaders posted on poles

along river

• Denmark Vesey, 1822– Literate carpenter & preacher, Charleston, target municipal

guard house & arsenal, 35 executed, 37 banished

• Nat Turner, 1831– South Hampton, Virginia, killed 60 whites, whites killed 30

followers plus 100 more.

Slavery Defense

• Justification of a “necessary evil”

Slavery Defense

– 1830’s following Nat Turner Rebellion & abolitionist crusades• White mobs emerged to stifle open criticism

– “Positive good”& “Disinterested Benevolence”• Mild, paternalistic, caring, provided Christian

instruction to heathens• Foundation of white prosperity and democracy• Blacks not fit for freedom will turn violent & assault

white women– Moral Justifications• 1850s politicians, intellectuals, evangelical ministers

argued institution is ordained by GOD

Theater Poster: Uncle Tom’s Cabin