The Politics & Morality of Slavery
American Dreams Teacher Institute
Dr. David Brodnax, Sr.
Slave population in 1860
• 4 million slaves in the United States• Quintupled since 1790• 25% of white southerners owned slaves• 1% of slaveholders owned more than 50• Male field hand cost $1,200 ($21,000 today)
Slave population, 1820 & 1860
1820 1860United States 1,538,125 3,953,760North 19,108 64South 1,519,017 3,953,696Upper South 965,514 1,530,229Delaware 4,509 1,798Kentucky 127,732 225,483Maryland 107,397 87,189Missouri 10,222 114,931North Carolina 205,017 331,059Tennessee 80,107 275,719Virginia 425,153 490,865Washington D.C. 6,377 3,185Lower South 533,503 2,423,467Alabama 41,879 435,080Arkansas 1,617 111,115Florida 61,745Georgia 149,654 462,198Louisiana 69,064 331,726Mississippi 32,814 436,631South Carolina 258,475 402,406Texas 182,566
Slave concentration, 1820
Slave concentration, 1860
Working cotton
Working cotton
Working cotton
Working cotton
Working cotton
Working cotton
Working cotton
Working corn
Working corn
Working rice
Working rice
Working rice
Fishing
Fishing
Fishing
Herding cattle
Domestic servants
Domestic servants
Domestic servants
Domestic servants
Domestic servants
Artisans/Craftsmen
Cities with large slave populations
• Baltimore• New Orleans• Atlanta• Richmond• Washington D.C.• Charleston• Memphis• Louisville
Urban slavery
Urban slavery
Urban slavery
Urban slavery
Urban slavery
Making turpentine
Cutting timber
Slave family
Slave wedding
Slave row
Slave row
Slave row
Slave clothing
Keeping a garden & chickens
Br’er Rabbit
Social life
Social life
Social life
Social life
Social life
Social life
The “Invisible Institution”
Ring shout
Slave funeral
Slave funeral
Types of slave resistance
• Large-scale resistance
• Small-scale resistance– Running away
• Permanent• Temporary• Marronage
– Resisting while remaining a slave
Runaway slave
Seminole Country
Great Dismal Swamp
Great Dismal Swamp
Haitian Revolution (1791-1804)
Haitian Revolution (1791-1804)
Haitian Revolution (1791-1804)
Gabriel’s Conspiracy: Richmond, VA (1800)
German Coast Rebellion:New Orleans area (1811)
Denmark Vesey Conspiracy: Charleston, SC (1822)
Nat Turner Rebellion: Southampton County, VA (1831)
Nat Turner Rebellion: Southampton County, VA (1831)
Nat Turner Rebellion: Southampton County, VA (1831)
Nat Turner Rebellion: Southampton County, VA (1831)
Southampton County, VA
Brodnax, VA
William Seward: “Irrepressible Conflict”
Abolitionist movement
Emancipation datesHaiti 1793
Dominican Republic 1822
Chile 1823
Costa Rica/El Salvador/Guatemala/ 1824
Honduras/Nicaragua
Mexico 1829
Bolivia 1831
British West Indies 1838 (1834)
Uruguay 1846 (1830)
French West Indies 1848
Danish West Indies 1848
Colombia/Ecuador/Peru/ 1854 (1821)
Panama/Venezuela
Argentina 1861 (1813)
Paraguay 1862 (1842)
Netherlands Antilles/Suriname 1863
United States 1865
Puerto Rico 1873
Cuba 1886 (1880)
Brasil 1888 (1871)
Frederick Douglass & William Lloyd Garrison
Douglass & Garrison
Abolitionist movement
Abolitionist movement
Elijah Lovejoy’s murder in Alton (1837)
Free Soil Doctrine
“Necessary evil”
“Positive good”
Proslavery Doctrine
• Religious Argument
• Economic Argument
• Comparative Argument
• Humanitarian Argument
• Scientific Argument
Proslavery Doctrine
• Religious Argument
• Economic Argument
• Comparative Argument
• Humanitarian Argument
• Scientific Argument
Proslavery Doctrine
• Religious Argument
• Economic Argument
• Comparative Argument
• Humanitarian Argument
• Scientific Argument
Proslavery cartoon (1841)
Proslavery cartoon (1851)
Proslavery Doctrine
• Religious Argument
• Economic Argument
• Comparative Argument
• Humanitarian Argument
• Scientific Argument
Proslavery Doctrine
• Religious Argument
• Economic Argument
• Comparative Argument
• Humanitarian Argument
• Scientific Argument
Missouri Compromise (1820)
Compromise of 1850
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852)
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
Antislavery broadside
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas
Preston Brooks’ assault on Charles Sumner (1856)
Dred Scott decision (1857)
John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry (1859)
John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry (1859)
John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry (1859)
John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry (1859)
John Brown
John Brown
John Brown
The war begins (April 1861)
“General Strike”
“General Strike”
“General Strike”
“General Strike”
“General Strike”
“General Strike”
“General Strike”
Union laborers
Union laborers
Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
U.S. Colored Troops
Private Charles Griffin, 29th U.S.C.I.
African American visions of freedom
• (1) family• (2) land• (3) safety• (4) voting rights• (5) education
Family
Family
Family
Family
Land
Safety
Voting rights
Education
Churches
Churches
Education
Education
Freedman’s Bureau
President Andrew Johnson
14th Amendment (1868)
Black Congressmen
Ku Klux Klan (1866)
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Redemption
“Birth of a Nation” (1915)
• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6688165513470959198&q=birth+of+a+nation
“Birth of a Nation” (1915)
The “Lost Cause” Ideology
War of Northern Aggression
Lee’s tomb
Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Stonewall Jackson
Stonewall Jackson
General James Longstreet
Racial stereotypes: Mammy
Racial stereotypes: Jezebel
Racial stereotypes: Uncle Tom
Racial stereotypes: Uncle Tom
Racial stereotypes: Sambo
Racial stereotypes: Pickaninny
Racial stereotypes: Pickaninny
Racial stereotypes: Brute
Racial stereotypes: Brute
William A. Dunning of Columbia
“Waving the bloody shirt”
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
50th Anniversary of Gettysburg
50th Anniversary of Gettysburg
Stone Mountain, GA
Stone Mountain, GA
Robert E. Lee memorial
Stonewall Jackson memorial
Stonewall Jackson memorial
Jefferson Davis memorial
“Faithful Slave” memorial
“Gone with the Wind” (1939)