Chapter 11

Cotton, Slavery, and the Old South

Objectives

 1. How cotton became “king” and the role it played in shaping the “Southern way of Life.”  2. The continuing historical debate over the South, its “peculiar institution,” and the effects of enslavement on the blacks

 Trade made the South a major force in international commerce and created substantial wealth  Southern society, culture, politics all changed in response to these important demographics and economic changes  “The South grew, but it did not develop.”

Cotton Economy

 Demand for cotton was growing rapidly  1820 – 500,000 bales of cotton  1850 – 3 million bales  1860 – 5 million bales  Nearly 2/3 of the total export trade of the US  South produced 85% of world’s cotton crop

Southern Trade and Industry

 Inadequate transportation systems  Crude roads  Little or no real railroads

Southern Differences

 No commercial or industrial economy  Traditional values of chivalry, leisure, and elegance  “Cavaliers” – people happily free from Yankee values  Refined and gracious way of life rather than with rapid growth and development

WHITE SOCIETY IN THE SOUTH

 Only a small minority of southern whites owned slaves  Planter Class – apex of society. Determining the political, economic, and even social life  Like to compare their planter class to the old upper class of England  Code of Chivalry

The “Southern Lady”

       Affluent white women occupied roles similar to those of middle-class North Served as companions and hostesses Nurturing mothers Spinning, weaving, agricultural tasks Supervise the slave work force Less access to education Subordinate in southern culture

 Half of children born in 1860 did not reach age five  Some male slave-owners had sexual relationships with slaves. White women would take out their feelings on these slaves.

 “Women, like children, have but one right, and that is the right to protection. The right to protection involves the obligation to obey.”

The Plain Folk

 Typical white southerner was not a great planner and slaveholder – but a modest yeoman farmer  ¾ of all white families owned no slaves  Men were unquestioned masters of tehir homes

Degraded Class

 Crackers, Sand hillers, poor white trash  Resorted to eat clay at times  Formed true underclass and were worse than that of African-American slaves  Poor whites still considered themselves member of the ruling class

THE “PECULAR INSTITUTION”

 South in the mid 19 th Century was the only Western world (except Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico) that had slaves  Slaves developed a society and culture of their own  Bond between Master and Slave was both ways

Varieties of Slavery

 Could not hold property  Could not leave without permission  Not out after dark  No firearms  Could not strike a white person  Could not learn to read or write  No legal marriage

 Could be killed while being punished and nothing happened to the owner  Anyone rumored to posses any trace of slave blood was presumed to be black unless they could prove otherwise  Most masters possessed very few slaves.

 Master – slave relationship like parent to child

  Most preferred to live on large plantations – more privacy and chance to build a cultural and social world Plantation had two methods: – Task System – once finished your task the slave would have the rest of the day off – Gang System – worked in gangs and worked all day long

Life Under Slavery

 Adequate diet, could grow gardens  Clothing and shoes  Cabins  Doctors  Children started with light tasks

 Women – cooking, cleaning, and child bearing  Life for slave may have been better than those of many northern factory workers  Hired labor would be used for dangerous work – Irish could be hired for $1.00 a day – Slaves cost $300 – 1000 to replace

Slavery In The City

 Urban slaves gained opportunities to mingle with free blacks and with whites  Some Free Blacks owned slaves  In some states, owners could not free (Manumit) their slaves  Abolitionists worked to abolish slavery

The Slave Trade

 Domestic slave trade was essential to the growth and prosperity of the whole system  There were stereotype: Sambo, shuffling, grinning

Ways of Revolt

 Slave revolts did happen: 1831 and Nat Turner  Running away  Most important ways of revolt – Refusal to work – Breaking tools – Cutting off their own fingers – Killing themselves

Culture

 Retained a language of their own  Music – banjo (from Africa)  Religion was more emotional than whites