APUSH Chapter 16 Flashcards

A comprehensive set of flashcards based on Chapter 16 of APUSH, covering key concepts, figures, and events related to slavery in the American South.

What was a major effect of the cotton gin's introduction?

Slavery was reinvigorated.

Who dominated society and politics in the South?

Members of the planter aristocracy.

What percentage of the world's cotton supply did the South produce?

More than half.

Why was plantation agriculture considered wasteful?

Its excessive cultivation of cotton despoiled good land.

What role did plantation mistresses typically have?

They commanded a sizable household staff of mostly female slaves.

What characteristic of the plantation system made it increasingly monopolistic?

The inability to expand westward.

What was a weakness of the slave plantation system?

It relied on a one-crop economy.

Why was European immigration to the South discouraged?

Competition with slave labor.

What fraction of white southerners owned slaves or belonged to a slaveholding family?

About one third.

Who said, 'I think we must get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom'?

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

What crop did southern subsistence farmers primarily raise?

Corn.

Who were the majority of white southerners?

Subsistence farmers.

What did most southern whites do instead of owning slaves by 1860?

Eeked out a living in the mountains and backcountry raising corn and hogs.

How did slaves regard nonslaveholding whites?

As violent, rabble-rousers who often picked on slaves.

How many black people were enslaved in the South by 1860?

Approximately 4 million.

By the mid-nineteenth century, what was true regarding southerners' views on slavery?

Southerners were growing defensive about slavery.

Who wrote 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'?

Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Why did most southern whites not own slaves?

They could not afford the purchase price.

Who were the most pro-Union white southerners?

Mountain whites.

In what ways did some southern slaves gain freedom?

By purchasing their way out of slavery with money earned after hours.

What caused the great increase of the slave population in the first half of the nineteenth century?

Natural reproduction.

How can northern attitudes toward free blacks best be described?

Politically sympathetic but socially segregationist.

What was common for free blacks living in the North?

Discrimination was common.

What is true about free blacks in the North?

They were vulnerable to being hijacked back into slavery in the South.

What was the profitable southern slave system's effect on economic development?

It hobbled the economic development of the region as a whole.

What were slaves generally given regarding work assignments?

Some were sometimes spared dangerous work.

What theme did Harriet Beecher Stowe highlight in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'?

The enforced separation of slave families.

Where were slaves concentrated by 1860?

In the Deep South states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

What was the primary motivator used by slaveowners instead of a wage incentive system?

The whip as a motivator.

What characterized slaves in the mid-nineteenth century United States?

Slaves had no civil or political rights.

In some counties of the Deep South, what percentage of the population were blacks?

More than 75 percent.

Where was life for slaves most difficult by 1860?

In the newer states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Where was forced separation of families most common?

On large plantations and in the upper South.

What is true of slavery in the frontier compared to more settled areas?

Slave life on the frontier was harder than in more settled areas.

Where were most slaves raised?

Without the benefit of a stable home life.

Why were slaves denied an education?

Masters believed that reading brought new ideas that might lead to their discontent.

In what ways did slaves resist the system of slavery?

By running away from their masters.

What theory developed due to white southerners' treatment of slaves?

A theory of biological racial superiority.

What was the least uncommon form of slave resistance in the pre-Civil War South?

Armed insurrection.

Which individual least aligns with other prominent abolitionists?

John Quincy Adams.

What did the idea of recolonizing blacks back to Africa express?

Widespread American racism.

What event involved enslaved Africans in a revolt in 1839?

The uprising aboard the Amistad.

Which abolitionist published 'The Liberator'?

William Lloyd Garrison.

What was the objective of many abolitionists in 1840?

To back the presidential candidate of the Liberty party.

What did the voice of white southern abolitionism do at the beginning of the 1830s?

Fell silent.

How did proslavery advocates justify the institution of slavery?

They claimed slavery was supported by the Bible.

In arguments for the continuation of slavery after 1830, what did southerners emphasize?

They placed themselves in opposition to much of the rest of the Western world.

What did northern opponents of abolitionists believe?

These opponents of slavery were creating disorder in America.

What claim about slavery did Ulrich B. Phillips make that has been challenged?

Slavery was comparable to the Nazi concentration camps.

What did cotton's importance to the prosperity of both North and South result from?

Northern merchants handled the shipping of southern cotton.

What characterized the pre-Civil War South?

A widening gap between rich and poor.

Why did those who did not own slaves in the South support the institution of slavery?

They dreamed of one day owning slaves themselves.

What was the status of free blacks in the North before the Civil War?

They were often forbidden basic civil rights.

What was the primary characteristic of the slave culture?

A hybrid religion of Christian and African elements.

What was the cause for the more energetic tone in the abolitionist movement after 1830?

The success of the British abolitionists.

Which aspect did the South's 'positive good' argument for slavery emphasize?

Slavery was good for the barbarous Africans.

What was the general attitude of people in the North after 1830 regarding slavery?

They believed that Christianity and slavery were incompatible.