King Cotton

• South produced more than ½ the world’s cotton

• Prosperity of both N, S, and Britain depended on cotton (and slaves)• N shippers reaped profit from trade

• South was aware that Britain was economically dependent on cotton• “Cotton was King”

• Gave South power

Planter “Aristocracy”• Before Civil War, South was more of an oligarchy than a

democracy – “Cottonocracy”• 1850 – 1,733 families owned >100 slaves

• Provided political and social leadership

• Effects:• Widened gap b/w rich and poor• Hampered public schooling – rich sent children to private

schools

• Southern Women• Control (large household staffs)• No bonds of womanhood – slaveholding women rarely

supported abolition and did not protest when husbands split slave families

Slaves and the Slave System• Plantation agriculture was wasteful

• Excessive cultivation or “land butchery”• Led to exodus of population to N and NE

• Monopolistic• Small farmers sold holdings to others and left

• Big get bigger, Small get smaller

• Financial Instability of Plantation System• Over-speculation of lands and slaves• Dangerous dependence on one-crop economy

• No diversification of agriculture or manufacturing

• Repelled European immigration• Competition with slave labor• High cost of fertile land• Europeans didn’t know how to grow cotton

The White Majority

Only about ¼ owned or belonged to slave owning

families

1,733 families own > 100 slaves

Smaller slave-owners usually lived on modest farms and worked beside their

few slavesWhites who owned no slaves, Subsistence farmers

Had no direct stake in continuing slavery, but were some of the most active supporters. Why?

Free African Americans• Most free African Americans in the south

were mulattoes (freed children of a white planter)

• Some purchased their freedom • Many free blacks owned property (New

Orleans)• Some owned slaves (however, very few)

• Unpopular in South and North• Irish competition for jobs• Anti-black feelings were often stronger in

North than South• Spread of slavery = prejudice

Plantation Slavery• Legal importation of African slaves ended in

1808• Significance?

• Smuggling• Natural Reproduction!

• Slaves were seen as investments• By 1860 – Deep south states (SC, FL, MS, AL,

LA) were over 50% African American• Also had about ½ of ALL slaves in the south

• Division of families on auction block• Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Life Under the Lash• Conditions varied for slaves

• No civil or political rights• Marriages not legally recognized

• Floggings• However, lash marks hurt resale value• Typical planter had too much of his own prosperity riding

on the backs of his slaves

• Forced Separation of Families• More common on smaller plantations• AA were able to sustain family life – most raised in stable

two-parent homes

• Maintained cultural roots• Did not intermarry (unlike planter aristocracy)• Religion – mixture of African and Christian elements

Fighting back• Slaves were denied dignity and education.

• No sense of responsibility or independence – stripped from them.

• 9/10 of adult salves were illiterate in 1861.

• How did they rebel?• Slowed labor• Stole food and other goods• Sabotaged equipment• Poisoned mater’s food• Ran away• Armed insurrection

• Gabriel – Richmond, VA – 1800• Denmark Vesey – Charleston, SC – 1822• Nat Turner – VA -- 1831

Early Abolitionism• Anti-slavery societies

• Quakers – American Revolution

• Some believed in transporting back to Africa• American Colonization Society (1817)• Republic of Liberia (1822)• Appealed to early antislavery crowd like Lincoln

• Abolition gains momentum• 1833 – Britain frees West Indies slaves• 2nd Great Awakening

• Grew more radical – William Lloyd Garrison w/ The Liberator and Frederick Douglas

South Responds to Calls for Abolition

• VA legislature debated (and defeated) several emancipation propositions in 1831-1832• Slave states tightened their slave codes

• Slavery Supporters Respond• Slavery was supported by the Bible

• Good for Africans

• Happier in the south than working in the North• Fresh air

• Sunlight

• No worries of unemployment

• Cared for in their old age

Abolitionist Impact• Endangered free speech

• Gag Resolution – anti-slavery appeals are to be tabled w/out debate (right of petition)

• 1835 -- Postmasters ordered to destroy abolitionist material (freedom of press)

• Abolitionists (radical ~ Garrison) were unpopular in the North• Northerners revered the Constitution

• talk of succession angered many in the North – created disorder

• Economically tied to the South

• $300 million in loans to the South

• Cotton to NE textile mills

• By 1850, abolitionists had made impact• However, many N did not support outright abolishment

• Opposed extending it to the western territories