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Decline of the Tobacco Economy
The market for tobacco was extremely unstable.
It exhausted the land quickly, causing the old tobacco-growing regions to switch to new crops (wheat.)
Tobacco cultivation was moving westward to the Piedmont area.
Old Tobacco-growing Regions
Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina
Crop Cultivation in the Coastal South
South Carolina, Georgia and Florida → Rice
The Gulf Coast (Louisiana and Texas) → Sugar
Other regions of the coastal southeast → Long-Staple Cotton
Long-staple Cotton
Also known as Sea Island Cotton.
Grown only in the coastal regions of the Southeast.
Short-staple Cotton
Hardier and coarser strain of cotton & more adaptable in a variety of climates and soils.
Spread of Cotton Production
Moved westward
South Carolina and Georgia → Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas
Nicknames for the cotton producing regions of the South
lower South, Deep South, Cotton Kingdom
“Cotton is king!”
A Growing Business Class
The South was developing a business class of manufacturers and merchants, but it would never reach the level of the Industrial North.
Southern Industry & nonagricultural sector.
Upper South → Flour milling, textile, and iron manufacturing.
New Orleans , Charleston, Mobile, Savannah → “factors”
Common professional people → lawyers, editors, doctors, and etc.
Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond
A leader in iron manufacturing in the South.
Comparable to the best iron mills in the North.
“Factors”
Brokers/merchants that marketed the planters’ crops/served as bankers
Inadequacy: Infrastructure
Southern banking was primitive, and unable to allow development of services and structures for industrial development.
Canals were nonexistent, roads were crude, and railroads failed to interconnect the South.
Inadequacy: Effects
Sea and river transport remained the most common mode of transportation.
Being limited to bodies of water hindered development.
Railroads in the South
Charleston, Atlanta, Savannah, and Norfolk → Memphis & the Northwest
The Virginia Central & the Memphis and Charleston Railroad
Albert Pike
“From the rattle with which the nurse tickles the ear of the child born in the South to the shorud that covers the cold form of the dead, everything comes to us from the North.“
James B. D. De Bow
Resident of New Orleans.
Wrote De Bow’s Review
“I think it would be safe to estimate the amount which is lost to us annually by our vassalage to the North at $100,000,000. Great God!“
De Bow’s Review
Magazine that advocated the commercial and agricultural expansion in the South.
Said the “colonial relationship” was dangerous.
Highlighted how the South depended on the North
Was printed in the North because there wasn’t a large enough printer in the South to do it
Cavaliers/Cavalier image
Southerners
People happily free from base.
The idea that they were more concerned with a gracious and refined way of life rather than industrial development
Yankees
Northerners
Planter Aristocracy
Plantation owners were economically, politically, and socially dominant in the South.
Plantations were quite isolationist, so planters began to travel or host grand social events.
The Truth of the Cavalier Image
Planters invested almost everything into their land and slaves, so in reality they lived modestly.
Aristocratic Values
Those who weren’t planters were often members of the military.
They viewed the military like medieval knights, like those in Walter Scott novels.
They had worked hard to get to where they were. Because of this, they were determined to defend slavery
Honor & Dueling
Southern men adopted codes of chivalry, and would defend their honor through duels,
Cult of Honor
The South was extremely against anything challenging manhood, dignity, social station.
EX: South Carolina congressman Preston Brooks, rode into the chamber of the US Senate and beat Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner.
Subordinate Status of Women
Protecting women was an extremely important task for Southern men. This meant men were even more dominant over women.
George Fitzhugh
One of the South’s most important social theorists in the 1850’s.
George Fitzhugh Quote
Women, like children, have but one right, and that is the right to protection. The right to protection involves the obligation to obey.
“plantation mistress”
Southern women were ornaments for their husbands, and were not given access to the public world.
Women primarily got education so that they could be good wives.
Other Burdens Southern Women Faced
High birth rate, high infant mortality, mulatto children (insult to wives)
“plain folk”
Typical white southern farmer, also known as a yeoman farmer or plain folk.
Owned few slaves, owned their own land, and had to partake in subsistence farming instead of market crops.
Limited Educational Opportunities
The elementary and secondary schools of the South were fewer and inferior to those in the Northeast.
"Hill People”
Those who lived in the Appalachian ranges east of the Mississippi/”hill county”/”backcountry”
Opposd the planter elite, disapproved of slavery, had older political views
Close Relations with the Plantation Aristocracy
There were classes, but they were tied really close because of familial bonds. The poorest man could be a cousin to the richest man.
Crackers/Clay eaters
Sand hillers or poor white trash, they took no part in the plantation economy of the south, as they owned infertile lands, and supported themselves by foraging or hunting
Frederick Law Olmsted Quote
“From childhood, the one thing in their condition which has made life valuable to the mass of whites has been that the —— are yet their inferiors”
“Peculiar Institution”
Slavery
Legal Basis of Slavery
Slavery was enforced by law. (Slave codes)
Slave codes were extremely restrictive.
Common Slave Codes
Forbade enslaved people to hold property, to leave the premises without permission of the slaveholder, to be out after dark, congregate with other slaves except at church, carry firearms, or to hit white people.
They were also not permitted to learn how to read or write in most areas.
Reality of Slavery
Some slaves lived in prison like conditions, while others could learn how to read and write. Conditions and punishments depended mainly on the owner.
“Head drivers”
trusted and responsible slaves that acted as overseers as foreman.
They also acted with several subdrivers.
Task System
Slaves were assigned a task every morning, and were free the rest of the day once they completed it.
Gang System
Slaves were divided into groups and compelled to work until the overseer was satisfied.
Life Under Slavery
Slaves recieved enough necessities to live and work
Lived in slave quarters
Slave Women
Provided medical care- “healers”/midwives/mothers
Worked in the field with men but also chores in the house
1808
Intenational slave trade in America becomes illegal
Continued to smuggle slaves
Living Conditions of Slaves
Lower life expectancy
Material conditions could have been better than those of some northern factory workers
Conditions were better than slaves in the Caribbean and South America
Growing cotton was less intensive than growing sugar
Owners had an incentive to make sure the slaves were alive to do work.
Household Servants
Slaves often did housework, along with manual labor.
On large estates the could also live close to the slaveholder as nursemaids, housemaids, cooks, butler,s or coachmen.
Elizabeth Keckley
Enslaved woman who bought freedom for herself and her son from money she earned from sewing.
She would also later become a seamstress, personal servant, and companion of Mary Todd Lincoln in the White House.
John Randolph
400 of his slaves were freed in 1833 when he died
Tightented Restrictions on Free Blacks
Caused by Nat Turners’s revolt, a growing (and therefore more threatening) population of free blacks, and a growing abolitionsist movement in the North.
Became virtually impossible for owners to set slaves free
Free blacks lived in complete poverty, but preferred it over slavery
Domestic Slave Trade
Professional slave traders often moved slaves throughout the South
Dehumanized slaves, separated relationships
Central Slave Markets
Natchez, New Orleans, Charleston, and Mobile
Foreign Slave Trade
Badly conducted
Importing slaves became prohibited 1808
William L. Yancey
“If it is right to buy slaves in Virginia and carry them to New Orleans, why is it not right to buy them in Cuba, Brazil, or Africa?”
The Amistad
53 slaves took charge of a ship transporting slaves.
The ship was captured by the US Revenue Service.
John Quincy Adams argued that they could not be returned to slavery because the Amistad was foreign trade which was illegal.
The slaves were freed.
1841 Slave Ship
In 1841 slaves took over and steered the ship to the British Bahamas where slavery was illegal. The slaves were freed.
“happy with their lot”
Slaveowners post-emancipation argued that slaves were generally content.
They were generally not content.
Sambo
The deferential slave who acted out the role that the White world expected of them
Slave rebel
Refused to accept slavery and remained forever rebellious
Gabriel Prosser
In 1800 he organized 1,000 rebellious slaves, but was stopped before they could stage an uprising
Denmark Vesey
In 1822 this person and a following of a rumored 9,000 slaves were preparing to revolt- again they were found out and stopped before they could actually act
Nat Turner
In 1831 he led a band of African Americans who went house to house in Southampton County, Virginia, killing 60 Whites.
Running away
Primary form of slave resistance
Underground railroad
System created by Whites to help slaves escape from the South
Slave patrols
Stopped any wandering Blacks and checked if they had a permit.
If they did not they were arrested.
Employed bloodhounds to help
Refusal to work hard
Most important method of slave resitance
Stole tools, broke tools, performed tasks improperly
Pidgin
Simple common slave language
Developed to help slaves communicate with eac other
Drew primarily from English
Slave songs
Used to pass time
Could be emotionally rich and politically challenging
Baptist/Methodist
Main denominations of African Americans- usually the same as their owners
Evolved into slaves’ own version of Christianity
Freedom/Deliverance
Main emphasis of slave religion
“call us home,” “deliver us to freedom,” take us to the Promised Land”
Whites assumed they were talking about an afterlife, but slaves used it to express their dream of freedom in the present world
Central to Prosser, Vesey, and Turner
Slave Families
The “nuclear family” was its main structure
Slave Marriages
Slaves lacked legal marriage
Women bore children at younger ages
Did not condemn premarital pregnancy
Couples lived together before marriage
Marriages often occured between slaves living in differnet plantations
Kinship Networks
This became a strong/important idea among slaves
1/3 of all Black families were broken apart by the slave trade
Reuniting with people became a main cause for slaves trying to escape
Paternalism
Relationship between slaves and their masters
Provided food/clothing/shelter, security, protection
Could be harsh or kind
VItal instrument of White control
Note
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