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Slavery in the Antebellum SouthChapter 16
Unit 5(?) – Chapters 16-19
How did we get from this:
To This: Outline:
• The Cotton Revolution
– The 2nd Middle Passage
• Plantation Slavery in the 19th Century
– Defense
– Slave Resistance
• Freedmen in the North and South
• Abolitionism
The Cotton Revolution
• 1793- Eli Whitney develops the Cotton Gin
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By the 1850s the
U.S. was producing
almost 75% of the
world’s cotton
supply
The 2nd Middle Passage
• 1808 – Congress
declares the
international slave
trade illegal in the
U.S.
– Does nothing to the
domestic trade
– Slaves began to be
sold to plantations
in the deep Cotton
South.
– 1 Million slaves
made the journey
Consequences of 2nd Middle Passage
• Slaves became more valuable
• Freed blacks kidnapped and sold back into slavery
• Additional Social Control:
– To be “sold down the river”
Antebellum Plantation Slavery
Slavery in the 19th Century• While slavery was
insignificant as a labor force in the North:– Slave trade was large part of
Northern economy in 18th
century
– Slavery began to disappear in Northern states
– Legacy of slavery in the North: segregation
– Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery in NW territories
– Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery above 36’30
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The Constitution – A Slave Document
• U.S. Constitution
permitted slavery
through compromise
– 3/5 compromise
– No Slave Trade Ban
until 1808
– Fugitive Slave Law
In the North…• By 1860
– 450,000 Freed blacks lived in the North
• North was very racist
– Minstrel shows stereotyping black culture
– Segregation
Meanwhile in the South…• Slavery became further
codified in the South
• Slave codes:
– Limited mobility, activities, literacy
– Forced manumitted slaves to leave state
– Made manumission difficult
– Established food, clothing, and shelter standards
• Routinely ignored on Plantations
Slavery Debilitates Southerners
• Slavery destroyed everything
– The Slave
– The Owner
– The Poor Farmer with No
Slaves
• Slavery established an
Oligarchy
– Only 25% of White
Southerners owned slaves
• Slavery and Slave codes
established a caste system
centered on the racial divide
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Slavery’s Debilitating Consequences
• Lack of Internal
Improvements
• Lack of Education
• Lack of Industrialization
• Lack of Cities and Ports
• Lack of Social Mobility
– Mountain Whites
(hillbillies)
Southern School House
Southerners Rationalize Slavery
• As slavery grew and the international
abolitionist movement grew, Southerners
began to rationalize their “peculiar
institution”:
– “necessary evil”
– Racial and Religious rationale
– “positive good”
– Southern Paternalism
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Southern PaternalismEven in the Afterworld
Scientific/Religious Rationale
Slave Resistance• Slaves found ways to resist their lack of human dignity
and their station in society:
– Soft Resistance:
• Families and Extended Families
• Vandalism
• Theft
• Folk Tales
• Religion
• Songs
• Slower work pace
• “cooperation”
• RUNAWAY
– Hard Resistance:
• Rebellion
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Folktales
Go Down Moses “Sambo”• Some slaves reacted to
slavery through deception/flattery
– In front of whites:
• Act docile
• Act like you like slavery
• Be Funny
• This quickly became a Southern stereotype:
– Sambo (clownish)
– Nat (rapist)
– Jack (deferential)
Runaways
Very Few ran away permanently
Avg. about 100 permanent annually
Most for 1-2 months and would return
Rebellions
• Rarely did slaves resort to violence or rebellion
– Slaves codes kept slaves from organizing, reading and writing, and owning firearms
• 4 Noteworthy Rebellions/Conspiracies:
– Stono Rebellion - 1739
– Gabriel Prosser
– Denmark Vesey
– Nat Turner
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Gabriel Prosser - 1800
• Attempted to start large slave rebellion in Virginia
• Found out and caught before rebellion could begin
• Excecuted
Denmark Vesey - 1822
• Free black
• Conspired to start
large slave rebellion
• Caught before
rebellion could begin
• Tried and executed
Nat Turner
Abolitionism
• Causes of Abolitionist movement
– Declaration of Independence
• “all men are created equal”
– 2nd Great Awakening
• Moral reform of Country
• Need to rid the U.S. of “sin” of slavery
– International Pressures
• Britain
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American Abolitionism• Quakers
• Moderate/Racist Abolition– Gradual emancipation
– Compensation
– Colonization• American Colonization Society
• Liberia
• Radical Abolition– William Lloyd Garrison
– Frederick Douglass
– The Liberator
– David Walker
– Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Southern Response to Abolitionism
• Growing Paranoia
– Called for increased fugitive slave law
– Called for the gag resolution (1836)
• Renewed urge for territorial expansion
– Texas
– Cuba
– Nicaragua
– Kansas/Nebraska
• Growing entrenchment and stubbornness…
In Conclusion
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In Conclusion• As the North committed more and more to commercial
agriculture, manufacturing, ‘free’ labor, and industrialism
• Southern leadership entrenched itself into tradition, way of life, and slave-based labor
• As these 2 societies formed and the cultural gap widened… the Civil War became more and more inevitable…
• All that was needed was a catalyst:
– Territorial Expansion!
• HENCE: Chapter 17 – Manifest Destiny