Upper South Lower South Wheat replaced tobacco Longstaple

Upper South Lower South

Wheat replaced tobacco

Long-staple (Sea Island) easy to harvest; primarily grow along sea coast Short-staple—hardier, coarser, grow well in several climates/soils, but harder to process Cotton Engine revolutionized the South and the institution of slavery 1820: ½ million bales/year; 1850: 3 million bales/year; 1860: 5 mil b/year 1861: cotton 2/3 US exports; $200 million/year

1820 1860 1820 -1860: AL 41 K-435 K MS: 32 K-436 K 1840 -1860: 410 K slaves from U. S. to L. S.

Tredegar Iron Works, Richmond, VA

Factors: brokers who üMarketed planters’ crops üLived in large cities of towns of the South üMaintained a very rudimentary financial syst. üServed as bankers/creditors for planters üVery influential throughout the South Lack of adequate transportation systems üLimited investment in transportation üNo canals üCrude roads, unsuitable for heavy vehicles üRailroads: local and limited üPrimary transportation: river or sea

De Bow’s Review Albert Pike James B. D. De Bow Hey! That De Bow guy actually looks like me!

Why did the South do so little to develop a larger industrial and commercial economy of its own? • Great profitability of agricultural system & cotton • Little incentive for planters to look beyond emerging capitalist economy of South • So much capital invested in land slaves; little capital remained for other investments • Southern climate—less suitable for industrial development • Southern work habits impeded industrialization

What proportion of southern whites owned slaves? • Minority • 1860—White population = 8 million 383, 637 owned slaves • One quarter of families owned slaves • Very small number of people owned slaves in large numbers

The Planter Aristocracy • Owned >800 acres of land • Owned 40 -50 slaves or more • Exerted great power • Apex of society—determined political, economic and even social life of region • Others deferred • Landed aristocracy

The Southern Aristocracy and the code of Chivalry • Avoided “coarse” occupations • Those who did not become planters: military Raised in a culture in which medieval knights were a popular and powerful image Code of chivalry—obligated to defend honor of families Often through dueling Enormous stock in conventional forms of courtesy and respect

Southern Ladies • Men: defense of women (important) • Men: more dominant; white women were more subordinate • No access to public world • 25% completely illiterate • Birthrate in South 20% higher than rest of US • Half of children died before age 5 (1860) • Male slave owners “affairs” with slave women (humiliating to wives)

Slave Codes • Slaves could not hold property • Slaves could not leave masters’ premises without permission • Slaves could not be out after dark • Slaves could not congregate with other slaves except at church • Slaves could not carry firearms • Slaves could not strike a white person • Whites could not teach slaves to read or write • Killing a slave: not a crime

Who was defined as Black? • Anyone with even a trace of African ancestry or even rumored to possess any such trace—burden of proof on person accused to be black to prove otherwise But: uneven enforcement Some lived in prisonlike conditions Some had autonomy Enforcement of codes was spotty & uneven Some slaves learned to read/write & got property

Slave-Master Relationships • Depended on the size of the plantation • Most masters—few slaves • White farmers with few slaves supervised directly and often worked side-by side • Whites and Blacks in such situations formed a type of intimacy unknown on larger plantations • But Blacks preferred to live on larger plantations where they had more privacy and a chance to build a cultural and social world of their own

Two impulses of reform movements Optimistic faith in human nature Desire for order and control Nostalgia for better or simpler times Hudson River School

Melville Thoreau Walt Whitman Poe

Ralph Waldo Emerson: the most important intellectual of his age. Brook Farm

The Oneida Community

Shakers

Joseph Smith Brigham Young

Charles G. Finney

Phrenology

By the beginning of the Civil War, the U. S. had one of the highest literacy rates of any nation in the world at 94% of the population of the North and 83% of the white population of the South (53% total) Horace Mann Thrift, order, discipline, punctuality, respect for authority Things I like!

Asylum movement Criminals of all kinds were crowded together indiscriminately —prisons/jails were holes in ground 1820 s: replaced with penitentiaries & mental institutions; rigid prison discipline; silence & solitary confinement to meditate on wrongdoings. But, what happened?

Sarah Grimke Angelina Grimke

Women’s Movement Temperance Movement Abolitionist Movement

Catherine Beecher Harriet Beecher Stowe

Lucretia Mott Elizabeth Cady Stanton Dorothea Dix

Seneca Falls (NY) Convention of 1848 Declaration of Rights and Sentiments All men and women are created equal, and have certain inalienable rights Most prominent demand: Right to vote American Colonization Society— resettlement of Blacks to Africa or Caribbean Monrovia Liberia

Abolitionism By 1820 s, more than 100 antislavery societies in USA Most radical white abolitionist: William Lloyd Garrison Editor of The Liberator Called for immediate emancipation with no repayment to holders

Sojourner Truth Frederick Douglass

Prudence Crandall Uncle Tom’s Cabin By Harriet Beecher Stowe

Amistad Case (1839) Slaves took over a ship bound for Cuba U. S. Navy seized ship Abolitionists argued the slave trade had been illegal in U. S. since 1808 (per the Constitution) John Quincy Adams argued before Supreme Court declared Africans free based on U. S. law