Transcript Discovering Our Past, Grade 8

• Unlike the North, the Southern economy
remained mainly agrarian.
• For many reasons, industry developed slowly in
the South.
Rise of the Cotton Kingdom
•
Most Southerners lived along the Atlantic
coast in Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, and
North Carolina.
•
This area became known as the Upper
South.
•
By 1850 the population had spread inland to
the states of the Deep South—Georgia,
South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas, and Texas.
•
After the American Revolution, demand for
cotton increased.
•
European mills wanted Southern cotton to
make into cloth.
Rise of the Cotton Kingdom
•
Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, a
machine that removed seeds from cotton
fibers more quickly than could be done by
hand.
•
Because cotton could be processed more
quickly, Southern farmers wanted to grow
more.
•
They depended on slave labor to plant and
pick cotton.
The Deep South grew cotton, rice, and
sugarcane.
•
•
The Upper South produced tobacco, hemp,
wheat, and vegetables.
Rise of the Cotton Kingdom
Industry in the South
•
The South remained primarily an agricultural
economy, with little industry, because cotton
was so profitable.
•
Another reason was because Southerners
invested in land and enslaved workers and
did not have capital—money to invest in
business.
•
Because many Southerners were enslaved
people, who did not have money to purchase
goods, the market was smaller.
Industry in the South
•
Some Southerners simply did not want
industry in the South.
•
Others, wanted factories to be built, arguing
that industry would help the region remain
independent and develop its economy.
•
William Gregg opened a textile mill in South
Carolina.
•
Joseph Reid Anderson took over a factory
in Virginia that became one of the nation’s
leading producers of iron.
Cotton farming expanded into Mississippi,
Alabama, and Arkansas which led to their
statehood.
•
Industry in the South
Industry in the South
Industry in the South
•
The main mode of transportation in the
South was by boat on natural waterways.
•
Southerners also built railroads, but these
rail lines were short, local, and did not link all
parts of the South.
•
This railway shortage would cause problems
for the South during the coming Civil War.
• The success of cotton production in the South
kept it an agrarian region.
• Lack of capital, a small market for manufactured
goods, and a desire to remain agrarian hindered
the growth of industry in the South.
• Most farmers in the South did not own slaves
and lived in poor rural areas.
• Plantations varied in size and wealth and
contained varying numbers of enslaved people.
• The South was home to several large cities, and
education began to grow in the mid-1800s.
Life on the Small Farms
•
Most white Southerners were
small farmers without—or with
just a few—enslaved workers.
•
Only a handful of planters could
afford both a large number of
slaves and grand mansions.
Yeomen made up the largest
group of whites in the South and
were farmers who did not have
slaves.
•
•
Tenant farmers worked on their
landlords’ estates, not their own
land.
Life on the Small Farms
Life on the Small Farms
•
Rural poor people in the South would not
take jobs that resembled the work of
enslaved people.
•
They were proud and self-sufficient, although
other Southerners looked down on them.
•
They planted their own food and hunted and
fished.
Most Southerners lived in simple homes,
such as cottages made of wood and plaster
with thatched roofs.
•
•
Later many lived in frame houses or log
cabins.
Plantations
•
Plantations were large estates, some
covering several thousand acres, with
comfortable farmhouses.
•
Plantation owners measured their wealth by
the number of enslaved workers they had.
•
About 12 percent of the Southern population
had more than half of the slaves.
Plantations
•
Some free African Americans had enslaved
workers.
•
Most of these African Americans purchased
their own family, so they could free them.
•
Plantations had fixed costs—regular
expenses such as housing, food for workers,
and maintenance of cotton gins.
•
These prices remained the same, while
cotton prices changed from season to
season.
Plantations
•
Planters sold their cotton in cities
such as New Orleans, Charleston,
Mobile, and Savannah to get the
best prices.
•
These trade centers were important
to the
cotton economy.
•
The agents of the cotton exchanges
extended credit—a form of loan—to
planters and then would hold the
cotton for several months, waiting for
the prices to rise.
Plantations
•
Plantation wives were responsible for
watching over household slaves,
tending to them when they were sick,
serving as the plantation’s
accountant, and supervising the
plantations’ buildings and the fruit and
vegetable gardens.
•
Large plantations had many enslaved
people to perform different duties.
•
Some slaves were domestic servants,
blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers,
and weavers.
•
Others tended livestock. Most slaves
worked in the fields, planting and
harvesting crops.
•
They were supervised by an
overseer, or plantation manager.
City Life and Education
•
Several cities in the South were located at
the crossroads of rail lines.
•
These cities included Columbia, South
Carolina; Chattanooga, Tennessee;
Montgomery, Alabama; and Atlanta,
Georgia.
In the cities, free African Americans could
form their own communities, although they
still had limited rights.
•
•
They could not move to other states and
were not given equal rights in politics.
City Life and Education
•
Plantation owners and other wealthy
Southerners sent their children to private
schools, where they learned mathematics,
religion, Greek, Latin, and public speaking.
•
Although no statewide public school system
existed, some Southern cities established
public schools.
•
By the mid-1800s there were hundreds of
public schools operating in North Carolina.
•
Kentucky had also established a funding
system for public schools.
City Life and Education
•
Despite the growth in education, the South
lagged behind the North in literacy.
•
Because homes were far apart, it was a great
hardship for people to send their children to
school.
•
Some Southerners also believed that
education was a private matter and that the
state should not fund education.
• Many farmers in the South were yeoman who
lived in poverty on small farms.
• Many plantations were small and had relatively
few slaves.
• By the mid-1800s, the number of cities in
the South was increasing, and education
was growing.
• Enslaved African Americans faced many
hardships but were able to create family lives,
religious beliefs, and a distinct culture.
• Many enslaved people fought against slavery.
Life Under Slavery
•
Enslaved people faced many uncertainties.
•
At any time, family members could be sold to
another planter, or a slaveholder’s death
could lead to the breakup of a family.
•
Close-knit extended families became a vital
feature of African American culture.
•
If a parent were sold away, another family
member could raise the children left behind.
Life Under Slavery
•
Enslaved African Americans
fused their own culture with
American elements.
•
They practiced African music
and dance and passed African
folks stories to their children.
•
Some wore African clothing
and followed many of their own
African religious practices.
Enslaved people were not
allowed to marry by law, but
they created their own
marriage ceremonies.
•
Life Under Slavery
•
In 1808 Congress passed a law prohibiting
new slaves from entering the country, but
slavery was still legal.
•
The growth of the African American
population came from children born in the
United States.
• Christianity became a
religion of hope and
resistance to enslaved
African Americans.
•
Their beliefs were
expressed in spirituals,
African American folk
songs.
Resisting Slavery
•
Between 1830 and 1860, the slave codes—
laws in the Southern states that controlled
enslaved people—became more severe.
•
The slave codes prevented enslaved people
from assembling in large groups or learning
to read and write.
•
Some enslaved people planned uprisings.
In 1800 Gabrial Prosser planned a
rebellion in Virginia but was convicted and
executed before the rebellion occurred.
•
Denmark Vesey planned a slave revolt in
1821 but was betrayed at the last minute by
some of his followers.
Resisting Slavery
•
Nat Turner, an African American slave and
popular religious leader, led a group of
followers in a brief rebellion in 1831 in
Virginia.
•
The rebellion led to more severe slave
codes.
• Enslaved people
resisted slavery by
working slowly or
pretending to be
sick.
•
Some set fire to
plantation buildings
or broke tools.
Resisting Slavery
•
Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass were two
African Americans born into slavery, who later escaped
to the North to freedom.
•
Most escaped slaves who succeeded were from the
Upper South.
•
They traveled on the Underground Railroad —a
network of safe houses owned by free blacks and
whites who opposed slavery.
•
Life in the North was not always safe for escaped
slaves.
•
Some fugitive slaves were captured and returned to
the South.
•
Runaways who were returned to their masters faced
harsh discipline.
• Enslaved Southerners developed a culture
and religion that had both African and
American elements.
• While some enslaved people attempted to rebel
openly against slavery, others resisted by
running away, refusing to work, or destroying
farm tools.