The South and the Slavery Controversy
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Transcript of The South and the Slavery Controversy
THE SOUTH AND THE SLAVERY
CONTROVERSY1793-1860
The Slave Narrative of Olaudah Equiano
“King Cotton and the Cotton Kingdom”
Family, Church, and Neighborhood: The White South Southerners remained
localistic and culturally conservative
Prospects for most Southern whites: inherited land and family
Southerners were grounded in authority of patriarchs and integrity of families
Paternalistic Society
Southern Families Family members: representatives of
families, rather than individuals – duty to their family
Reputation and defense of the family name and honor
Family honor more important than wealth Southern code of honor Honor the obligations to which one is
born
Southern Entertainments Rural character of South meant fewer
commercial entertainments English literature preferred
Sir Walter Scott and Chivalry Hunting and fishing Commercial entertainment
Showboats along river towns Horse racing New Orleans
Religious Conservatism Misfortune is divine punishment Southern cultural conservatism was
rooted in: Religion The family A system of fixed family roles
Proslavery Christianity By 1830 South was minority in a
democratic and capitalist nation Northern middle-class: made a
connection between material and moral progress Individual autonomy and universal rights
Radical northern minority advocated abolition of slavery
Southern response: moral and religious defense of slavery Rejects Jefferson’s “self-evident” equality of
man
The Private Lives of Slaves Plantation
slaveholders knew their success depended on slaves’ labor and obedience in exchange for allowing slaves some privilege and autonomy
The Slave Family Most precious slave
privilege: right to make and maintain families
Slave marriages Slave families vulnerable
Slaves used for sex by owners
Slaves were assets that were sometimes liquidated
Slaves modified their relations in anticipation of uncertainties
Extended kinship
White Missions Missions to slaves
Owners responsible for spiritual welfare of slaves
Slave Christians Slaves ignored much of missionary
teachings Slaves embraced Christianity:
transformed it into an independent African American faith
Incorporated social and ritual practices passed down from West Africa
Religion and Revolt Slave revolt rare Running away
common form of rebellion
Christianity convinced slaves that justice would come to them
Denmark Vesey Vesey plot (1822)
Nat Turner Nat Turner’s
Rebellion (1831) Instrument of
God’s wrath Virginia: 60 slaves
killed 55 whites Deeply troubling for
Southern whites
The Politics of Race Traditional view: God gave white males
power over others Whig evangelicals
Marriage changes from rank domination to sentimental partnership
The emergence of a radical minority envisioning a world without power
Attacked slavery and patriarchy as national sin
Free Blacks North: states began to abolish slavery
Revolutionary idealism Slavery was inefficient and unnecessary
Gradual emancipation (Pennsylvania model)
Free black populations grew and moved into the cities
Many took stable, low-paying jobs
Discrimination Discrimination rises
White workers drive blacks out of skilled and semi-skilled jobs
Blacks increasingly politically disenfranchised
Segregated schools Blacks build their own
institutions African Methodist Episcopal
Church (1816) Black Anti-slavery activism
David Walker: Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829)
Harriet Tubman Frederick Douglass
The Beginnings of Antislavery First anti-slavery efforts die out in early
1800s American Colonization Society (1816)
Gradual, compensated emancipation “Repatriation” to Liberia
Slavery abolished many places outside the U.S. Toussaint L’Ouverture and Haiti South American Republics British Caribbean
Abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison
The Liberator (1831) American Anti-Slavery
Society (1833) Abolition a logical
extension of middle class evangelicalism
American Anti-slavery Society demands: Immediate emancipation Full civil and legal rights
for African-Americans