Chapters 14 and 15

Slavery: Perceptions and Reality &

The Civil War

Slavery existed in America for a little over 200 years• Indentured servants - were both black and

white and many died before their time was up; they were cheaper than buying a slave

• Slavery – African slaves seemed more resistant to diseases like malaria; used on tobacco farms where they were governed by slave codes for control

Slave Codes

Masters had ownership for life Offspring belonged to the master All slaves were property, not human

beings with human rights Slaveholders often resorted to violence

to keep slaves working

Slavery was strongest in the Chesapeake area (tobacco), then South Carolina (rice & indigo)

More than 50% worked on large plantations There were slaves in the North but not as

many; they worked on small family farms with rocky soil

Controlling slaves in cities was difficult Eventually, the North outlawed slavery

• Example: Vermont and then others

Even though the North outlawed slavery, they didn’t think blacks should have equal rights or share in the same privileges as whites

The North, at this time, didn’t impose abolition on the South

However, the importation of slaves was outlawed after 1808

Actually, as tobacco drained the soil of its nutrients, slavery almost died out at the end of the 18th century

2 factors helped keep slavery in tact:• British industrial revolution that specialized in

textiles; they needed the South’s cotton

• Eli Whitney’s cotton gin that separated the seed from the fiber without releasing the oil, and made the process easier and quicker

King Cotton

With the use of the cotton gin, the production of cotton expanded

There were more farms and plantations with slaves producing cotton

King Cotton - a labor intensive crop Great Britain was the chief buyer of U.S.

cotton

By 1860, the South produced 4.5 million bales of cotton per year

That was valued at $250 million Cotton was the chief export of the South and of

the United States This growing wealth of the South and the U.S.

was acquired through the tough, back-breaking work of the slaves

Slavery to many Americans was economically useful and saw it as a “necessary evil”

Other Americans saw it only as evil and began the Abolition Movement

One of the most famous abolitionists was William Lloyd Garrison who founded the Liberator newspaper devoted to the eradication of American slavery

His paper was banned in the South, and there was a price on his head

Some southern intellectuals constructed a defense of slavery saying it was a “positive good” rather than a necessary evil• Thomas Roderick Dew, a professor of

economics at Wm. & Mary, said slavery was a better way of organizing and controlling labor and it was a blessing

• George Fitzhugh, a sociologist, said slaves lived a better life than did northern wage earners or European peasants; he also said that someone has to do the work and at least slave owners took care of their slaves; paternalism

• Others pointed to the Bible as a defense of slavery saying the Hebrews had slaves

• Greece and Rome had slaves

Slaveholders saw themselves as humanitarians

Non-slave holding whites felt slavery had good and bad points• Good: it was a useful way to control blacks

and a good way to impose discipline

• Bad: it made a small number of wealthy planters very powerful

The majority of white Americans didn’t like slavery but could live with it for a while longer

Slave Life

Worked on plantations or smaller farms as field hands

Worked in the house for the master’s family

Some worked as blacksmiths or learned some other skill

If in a city, they might work on the docks

They were property to be bought, sold, or traded

Discipline was usually brutal, even for the pregnant; there were whippings, broken feet, or sexual exploitation

Most owners wouldn’t incapacitate them; they wanted them to continue working

Plantation labor was organized in 2 ways:• The gang system - consisting of field hands

• The task system - domestic workers

They would work from sun up to sundown - 16 hour days

Slave Culture

Family was all-important The law gave neither recognition nor

protection to slave families They followed gender roles

• Women: took care of house, hearth, and children

• Men: did outdoor work

Masters could sell a slave at will, breaking a family apart

One report said 600,000 slave husbands and wives were separated by sale from 1820-1860

Slaves practiced their native religions Some mixed Christianity with their native

religions

There were lively religious ceremonies They believed in an afterlife that would

be much better than their present lives They believed God would punish their

masters Spirituals developed as did other work

songs

Resistance

Broke tools and machinery, so they could take a break

Pretended to be sick or injured Stole goods Killed livestock from their masters and

ate the meat Pretended to be slow & ignorant Ran away

Frederick Douglass

Born on a plantation in Maryland Was sold to a Baltimore family at age 12 Was taught to read and write by his

mistress Worked on the docks Befriended free black sailors who helped

him escape to New York

He joined the Abolitionist Movement He spoke out and wrote articles

Slave Rebellions

During 200 years of slavery in the U.S., there were only 3 major slave rebellions

1800 - Gabriel Prosser• Planned a revolt near Richmond, Virginia

• The plot was discovered beforehand

• Prosser and dozens of co-conspiriters were killed

1822 - Denmark Vessey of Charleston, South Carolina• Planned a rebellion

• Plot was discovered ahead of time

• Vessey and his followers were killed

1831 - Nat Turner of Virginia• Felt God told him to lead his fellow black men

out of slavery

• His insurrection resulted in the deaths of 60 white Virginians

• The uprising was crushed

• Nat Turner was killed

Issues that led to Civil War

Kansas-Nebraska Act• A railroad was planned to cross the country

• Senator Stephen A. Douglas wanted it to go through Chicago, but that meant that the tracks would have to go through unorganized northern Louisiana Purchase

• Douglas pushed to get it organized as a territory

It would have to come in to the Union as a free state because it was north of the southern border of Missouri

Southern states would not vote for it Douglas proposed the official status of

free or slave be decided by the people who settled there

His Kansas-Nebraska Act passed

Party Splits• Discussions over slavery became heated

splitting parties in two between northern and southern members

• Whigs broke in two and joined the Southern Democrats or the new Know Nothing Party• Whigs were gone

• Know Nothings were anti-immigration & anti-catholic

• We now had 2 parties -- the Democrats and the Know Nothings

• The Know Nothings fell apart and were replaced by the Republicans

• The Democrats appealed to Southerners

• The Republicans appealed to Northerners and were anti-slavery

Kansas became disputed territory between the North and the South

New England Abolitionists felt if Kansas was left to decide its own fate, it would make slavery illegal

Just to help out, abolitionist Eli Thayer formed the New England Emigrant Aid Society• It financed anti-slavery New Englander who wished to

move to Kansas

Within 2 years 2,000 people moved there, stacking the deck

Few Southerners were willing to move west and the North had more people anyway

The South feared Kansas would not enter as a slave state

Violence erupted• Pro-slave groups from western Missouri

attacked those who wanted Kansas to be a free state

• These “Border Ruffians” crossed over into Kansas to vote illegally in elections and to harass northern settlers

Kansas experienced murders, beatings, and robberies• 21 May 1856 – Border Ruffians rode into

Lawrence, Kansas and set it on fire

• 24 May 1856 -- An act of revenge took place when fanatic abolitionist John Brown attacked a settlement on Pottawatomie Creek and ordered 5 pro-slavery ( he thought) Kansans executed with a scythe

Violence also spilled over into the Senate• Senator Sumner delivered an anti-slavery

speech and said nasty things about Andrew Butler of South Carolina

• Later Butler’s nephew, Preston Brooks, attacked Sumner with a cane

In the election of 1856 Democrat James Buchanan won and immediately had to deal with the Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court

Dred Scott was a slave who had lived in a free territory and sued for his freedom when he lived in Missouri, a slave state

In Missouri slaves were property, not people He remained a slave

John Brown

John Brown and 22 of his followers were hoping to encourage a slave rebellion by attacking the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry on 16 October 1859Col. Robert E. Lee and the U.S. Marines captured Brown who was tried, convicted, and hanged in December, 1859

Some saw Brown as a martyr

Election of 1860

Before the election, Southerners declared that if the anti-slavery Republicans won the presidency, the southern states would secede from the Union

There were 2 Democratic candidates for President - 1 for the North and 1 for the South

The Republicans had Abraham Lincoln Lincoln won 40% of the popular vote and

the majority of the electoral votes He was seen as a sectional candidate

and did not win a single southern state Lincoln had vowed to stop the expansion

of slavery

20 December 1860 - South Carolina seceded

January 1861 - 6 other southern states seceded

Pp. 430, 431 Map, p.438

The North wanted to work out a compromise with the South, but Lincoln would except no compromise

Southern states formed the Confederacy with Jefferson Davis as its President

2 U.S. garrisons were in the South Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor in South

Carolina was running out of food

The South wouldn’t let supplies in unless it surrendered

Supplies were sent from the North Ft. Sumter wouldn’t surrender and the

South attacked beginning the Civil War

The Civil War

For years the South had wanted to keep slavery, keep their economy and their society the same, and keep their states’ rights.

When the war began, CHANGE was the result• Their lives were turned upside down

• Most of the fighting and destruction took place in the South

Everyone thought it would be a short war, but it lasted 4 years

Battle of Manassas/ Bull Run• 1st major battle

• 21 July 1861

• Both armies were ill-trained

• The South won

Northern actions after Bull Run• Build-up of troops

• Blockade of Southern ports

• Ulysses S. Grant won at Shiloh in Tennessee with tremendous casualties on both sides

• Southerners enacted a draft

• Fought mainly on their own soil

• Jefferson Davis wanted the fight to move North

It did at the Battle of Antietam• 17 September 1862

• Sharpsburg, Maryland

• Bloodiest single day’s fighting – 24,000 casualties

• McClellan turned Lee back

After the Battle of Antietam and a northern victory, Lincoln said that on 1 January 1863 he would emancipate all slaves in the states of rebellion

It was passed in Congress as the 13th Amendment and called the Emancipation Proclamation

It inspired 150,000 former slaves to fight for the North, the Union

There were protests in the North against a draft and against Lincoln (this had to do with substitutes)

Some saw Lincoln as a dictator Picture, p. 443 Map, p. 445

There were 2 crucial military defeats for the South in 1863:• Fall of Vicksburg – gave the Union control of

the Mississippi River

• Battle of Gettysburg – southern defeat on 3 July 1863; 3-day bloody battle where Lee lost 28,000 soldiers & Union lost 23,000

The South never made another push north

In 1864 Grant was fighting Lee in Virginia

General Wm. Tecumseh Sherman was making his “March to the Sea” in Georgia where he destroyed everything in his path• It was to show the South that the Confederacy

couldn’t protect them

Sherman took Atlanta on 2 September 1864

He took Savannah on 21 December 1864

Sherman then moved on to the Carolinas and took Raleigh-Durham, N. C. on 14 April and Bentonville, N.C. on 19 May 1865

As he went along, slaves joined the fight for the northern side

Grant forced Lee to surrender Virginia on 9 April 1865• Troops laid down their arms

• Troops were released

• Jefferson Davis was captured

Lincoln had been re-elected in 1864, but didn’t live to see total peace

He was shot at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. on 14 April 1865 by John Wilkes Booth

He died on 15 April 1865 P. 448

Costs

Over 1 million were killed or wounded Farms and cities were destroyed as were

roads, railroads, and bridges Financial cost was over $20 billion

Now the question was:

What kind of life was waiting for the newly freed slaves?