Slavery and Society 1800 1860 Slavery and Society

Slavery and Society, 1800 -1860

Slavery and Society, 1800 -1860 • King Cotton & the Old South ▫ Economics ▫ Identity ▫ Culture • Slave Life ▫ Population ▫ House and Field • Community • Resistance

King Cotton and the Old South • Cotton and the South ▫ Climate, geography ▫ Profitable ▫ England/industry • Cotton gin • Outlawed int’l trade in 1808

King Cotton and the Old South • Economics ▫ 60% of U. S. exports ▫ Basis of southern economy • Linked N & S • Linked U. S. & Britain

Cotton, slavery, race identity • Southern Identity ▫ Rural ▫ White privilege ▫ “Honor” • Fear of uprisings • “Dependence”

Cotton Culture • “…people live in cotton houses and ride in cotton carriages. They buy cotton, sell cotton, think cotton, eat cotton, drink cotton, and dream cotton. They marry cotton wives and unto them are born cotton children…” • British visitor Hiram Fuller’s views of Mobile, AL in 1858

Slavery and Expansion • • Post 1812 & Indian Removal Westward expansion Missouri Compromise Texas “Independence” • Louisiana, ARK, OK, TX • Profits used to buy more land, more land=more slaves, more crops=more profit=more land=more slaves=more crops

American Slavery • 19/55 signers of the Constitution owned slaves • Majority of southern Congressmen owned slaves • 4/6 Presidents up to and including Jackson owned slaves • $25 million in U. S. revenue vs. $1 billion in slave “property” • Shipping & ship building, insurance, banks, factories in the North

Population • 1790: 700, 000 • 1850: 4 million • 1850: 50% grew cotton • 25% of whites had slaves • 50% of owners had less than 5 slaves • 5% of planters owned 40% of all slaves in south

Slave Life • Mortality rates were 3 times higher • Life expectancy ▫ Blacks 20’s ▫ Whites 40’s • 25% sick

Slave Codes • State laws to limit movement of slaves and define them as property • Cannot own a gun • Marriages not legally recognized • No alcohol • Passes to leave plantation • Illegal to teach slaves to read or write • Legalized homicide as “punishment”

“House slaves” • • • 15%-20% Constant contact Raise children Gendered violence Reading News

“Field Slaves” • • 75% of slaves 18 hours Overseer Music and group identity

African American Community • • • Family Auctions Fictive kin Tribal culture Music, dance, spirituality

Christianity • 2 nd Great Awakening • Lay preachers • Justice, salvation • “Call and Response” • Gospel • African American Methodist Church, 1816

Free Blacks • • Non-slaves in the South 6% of total Black population 3% of total population Laws limited their rights and citizenship, papers, no access to courts • Most descended from blacks freed in Upper South • Mainly manual labor • Racial hierarchies based on skin color

Resistance • • • Work slow “Sick” Break tools “Theft” Run away Rebellion Gabriel Prosser

Resistance • • • Run away slaves Over 1, 000 Upper south Canada West

Harriet Tubman • Underground Railroad • Homes, barns, woods, trails north • 19 missions • 300 people

Family on Underground Railroad

Slave Rebellions • Gabriel Prosser 1800 ▫ ▫ Literate Richmond, VA 1000 slaves “Death or liberty” • Denmark Vescey, 1822 ▫ Telemanque, born in Africa or W. Indies ▫ Free, literate, preacher ▫ Charleston ▫ Missouri Compromise ▫ 100 men

Rebellions • Nat Turner, 1831 ▫ Virginia ▫ Literate, preacher ▫ Killed 70

Situation in 1850 s

Concluding Thoughts • Despite dependence on cotton and slavery, Southern economy became more diverse • Slavery in Upper South declined • Immigration provided cheap & flexible labor • Changes to economy made slave owners more worried • More rebellions, abolitionists, Westward expansion, made slave codes more harsh