HIST 105 Shae Cox pt. 2

King Cotton

• slavery touches every aspect of american life

• cotton replaces sugar as main cash crop

• ¾ cotton supply comes from US at this point

• eli whitney and the cotton gin

Planters and Yeomen

the main reason that the yeomen and planters sided together is that they were WHITE. They were convinced that their freedom rested on the ability of a thriving slave industry

Planter

• owned 50-200 slaves

• controlled land

• dominated politics

• had the best land

• highest rank

• 20 slaves would classify you as a planter

small farmers

• often very poor

• would hire enslaved people for a day to help bring in crops

• had poor quality land

yeomen

• comfortable living

• owned 1-2 slaves

slave patrols

small farmers manned _____, on lookout for those on the road without permission

slave holders

non slave holders will often elect ____ into higher positions

the plantation mistress

• an ideal version of womanhood

• considered the epitome of southern grace, femininity, beauty, and she was “utterly dependent on men”

• instructed enslaved people

• planned social gatherings

• managed the household

• managed children of the help

Proslavery Argument

• necessary evil

• code of honor

• paternalistic ethos

• biblical argument

Necessary evil

• the most safe and stable basis for institutions of the world is slavery

• they are incapable of living outside of enslavement

• inferior to white people

code of honor

• all classes have to adhere to the code of honor

• personal honor must be defended with violence

• enslaved people are being “protected” by the code since they cant live outside slavery

paternalistic ethos

must protect them if they cannot live outside slavery

biblical argument

• bible says servants must obey their masters

• people are separated by race

Slavery, Civilization, Liberty

• idea of liberty is dangerous bc it threatens the institution of slavery itself

• white freedom couldnt exist without Black enslavement

John C. Calhoun

• hates the idea that all men were created equal

• believed the white man should always come out on top

• claims enslaved ppl are the freest people in the world bc they dont have to decide anything bc everything is already decided for them

Enslaved Individual and the Law

• slaves accused of serious crimes were entitled to a court appearance before all white judges and juries

• they couldnt testify in court against a white person that abused them, sign contracts, own property, dogs, or firearms

• had very few legal rights

• it was illegal for an enslaver to teach enslaved how to read or write

• couldnt voluntarily release an enslaved person if you wanted to

Enslaved Life

• allowed to hunt wild game and raise livestock

• could also grow a small plot of vegetables for themselves

• they werent provided enough to eat so they had to grow their own food

The Free Black Community: Old South

• not allowed to vote

• very few economic opportunities

• some were domestic workers of had a trade

• groups made up of people who had been self emancipated have been purchased or let go

• could own property, marry, but still prohibited from owning dogs, firearms, and liquor

• had no right to protect themselves if a white man would attack them

more enslaved people

lower south had ___

Kentucky

______ had poor land so it will develop a different form of slavery

hemp

cash crop of kentucky

Female enslaved jobs

• worked from morning to evening

• nursemaid, dairy maid, cook, field hand, lady’s maid, 75% of women purchased for a plantation will work on field

• children old enough to carry a sack will help their families on the field

male enslaved jobs

• carpenters, shoe makers, iron works

• 90% of enslaved men are field hands

• some men learn the trade of barbequing so they become a smoke hand

Slavery in the City

• slavery thrived in the southern urban area

• people were cooks, servants, skilled artisans, woodworkers, did domestic labor

• if you have an artisan talent, your enslaver will hire you out to to other people and you would sometimes get to keep some of earnings

Interstate Slave Trade

Kentucky

• would create enslaved people and ship them downriver

• market for large portion of domestic slave trade

• new orleans, savannah, charleston have massive slave auctions

Enslaved Culture

• not allowed to marry because they were considered property, not people

• named children after family members to keep connection even if sold away

• families could be broken up by sale or auction

• women excluded from cult of domesticity

• performed their own marriage ceremonies

Religion, Freedom, and Liberty

• the desire for freedom and liberty were manifested in different forms such as religion and Brer Rabbit

• some worshipped in secret, others even performed ceremonies under watch of white eyes

• continued desire for freedom and liberty

Passive Resistance

• work and move slower

• break tools

• set animals free

• did anything to slow down work and progress

violent resistance

• planned, rare, and extremely dangerous for anyone involved

• arson, poisoning, armed uprising against enslavers or other white people

• violent resistance terrifies enslavers

fugitive slaves and revolts

• much easier for enslaved people to self emancipate if they are closer to the north

• most that escape are men bc women often had children with them

• those that cannot escape from deep south often went to areas like new orleans and blended in with freed people

Underground Railroad

• a loose organization of sympathetic abolitionists who hid formerly enslaved people in their homes and send them on to the next “station” or place that would assist them to safety

• runaway slaves destroyed the planters’ argument that their slaves were content in bondage

• often went to canada bc it refused to return those who had escaped

• Harriet Tubman

  • highest count of passengers that made it out of underground railroad

The Amistad Slave Ship

a group of enslaved Africans led a revolt aboard the Spanish ship La Amistad, taking control of the vessel while it was traveling near Cuba. After being captured off the U.S. coast, the case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the Africans had been illegally enslaved and allowed them to return to Africa

• former president John Quincy Adams vouched for the enslaved

Top 4 Slave Rebellions

• Gabriel’s Rebellion

• Denmark Vesey

• New Orleans Sugar Cane Revolt/1811 German Coast Uprising

• Nat Turner

Gabriel’s Rebellion

was a planned slave uprising in Virginia led by Gabriel Prosser. He organized hundreds of enslaved people to march on Richmond, seize weapons, and demand freedom, inspired in part by revolutionary ideas from Haiti and the United States.

The revolt never happened because heavy rain delayed the plan and two enslaved men reported it to authorities. Gabriel and many others were arrested; about 25 were executed, and the rebellion led to stricter slave laws across the South

New Orleans Sugar Cane Revolt

• largest enslaved uprising in US history

• 500 men and women armed with knives and axes march and gather people as they went

• proclaimed freedom or death

• most were killed

• militia dispersed to settle things

Denmark Vesey

• Vesey was a carpenter in South Carolina

• eventually able to purchase his freedom

• organized a secret plan for enslaved people to rise up, seize weapons, and escape.

• The plot was discovered before it could happen, and Vesey along with many others was arrested and executed. The event led to stricter slave laws and increased fear of rebellion across the South

Nat Turner

• believed he was chosen by God to lead enslaved people to freedom. Turner and his followers killed around 50–60 white people before the rebellion was suppressed by local militias

• captured and executed

• significant bc convinced enslavers to tighten chains of bondage

  • strengthened militia

  • outlawed african americans from becoming preachers

  • outlawed afarican americans from having firearms

  • prohibited enslaved people who are literate from teaching others

Age of Reform

• leftovers from Revolutionary era

• second great awakening

• increased urbanization and industrialization

• technological advances

  • transportation making it easier to travel and make connections

  • printing making it easier to circulate messages

Charles Grandison Finney

• free will

• christian perfectionism

• the ability of humanity to reform itself

• the need to reform society to create the conditions for the millenium

• abolitionist

Utopian communities

• some religious

• most cooperative, shared property

• often adopted untraditional gender, marital roles

• either run in a democratic or authoritarian fashion

• inspired to counteract the social and economic changes that are set in motion by US

• secular communities

• do not want people to own private property

Religious Communities

• shakers

• oneidas

• worldly communities

• the owenites

Shakers

• largest influence on the outside world

• first community in new york in 1877

• known for their simple way of life and furniture

• believe that god had a double personality both male and female

• men and women live separately

• stressed sexual purity

Oneidas

• founded in NY by Join Noyes

• believed they could achieve moral perfection and sinlessness

• no private property or traditional marriage

• complex marriages

• women have right to reject any advances from men

• survives until 1881

• community ran on public surveillance

• only certain people are chosen to have children

Worldly communities

• Brook Farm

• established as a worldly community

• able to keep private property

• enjoy singing dancing, very social

Owenites

• created by Robert Owen

  • british factory owner who promoted humanitarianism

• people should be benefit from their neighbor

• liked education for women and ability to divorce

Temperance Movement

the moral and religious movement regulating American consumption of alcohol

• base of support is women

• 3 waves of temperance

  • during the colonial era

    • focuses on masculine notion of self rule

    • it is man’s job to regulate alcohol

  • the sin of the drink not the sin of the individual

    • just bc you drink doesnt make you a bad person

    • you can be rehabilitated

temperance pledge

statement you sign saying you wont consume alcohol

asylums

• americans created institutional buildings such as jails for criminals, poorhouses, asylums for the insane, and orphanages for children

• women advocated for the establishment of institutions because they wanted better care for the mentally ill

common schools/public education

• sponsored by state tax

• offered public education to white children

• parents had trouble surrendering moral education of children to someone else

• northern states had a lot of money for childrens education

• south did not like idea of public education

• good for women because it gave them employment outside such as teachers

New York Manumission Society

• founded in 1785 by John Jay

• leaders included Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton

• opposed slave trade

• started african free school for freedpeople and enslaved children

• lobbied for abolition in NY

• organized boycotts of merchants tied to the slave trade

• start of abolition

The Selling of Joseph

• first published antislavery work in the colonies

• published by Samuel Sewall

The Rise of Abolitionism

• David Walker’s Appeal

• the Liberator

David Walker’s Appeal

• criticized slavery and racial prejudice

• called for pride in African civilization

• cited the Bible against slavery

The Liberator

• published in Boston by William Lloyd Garrison

• refused to compromise with politicians or gradualists

• called the constitution “a covenant with death, an agreement with hell”

• led to garrison being dragged through Boston’s streets

• calls for immediate action

William Lloyd Garrison

• published one of most prominent abolitionist papers in this time

• radical for most abolitionists

• most wanted to keep calm but he wanted to rock the boat

Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society Executive Committee

• born in 1833

• led by people like Garrison, Theodore Well

  • young minister and follower of Charles Finney

  • argues against slavery

  • states it should be abolished

gag rule

a series of U.S. House resolutions, beginning May 26, 1836, that automatically tabled anti-slavery petitions without reading, printing, or debating them

• made to stop John Quincy Adams from speaking out against slavery

Elijah Lovejoy

• started career as a presbyterian minister in missouri

• had a printing press and published anti-slavery papers

• people destroyed his office and press 4 times

• moved to illinois but people found him and killed him

• death sparked violent abolitionists

  • John Brown

Understanding Abolitionism

• Moral suasion: convince others that slavery is a sin

  • complacency is also sin

• no to colonization: African Americans are part of American society

• frequent calls for universal freedom and equality, which influenced other freedom movements

• divisions

  • women active, made men unhappy

  • african americans active, made white unhappy

  • whether constitution is pro-slavery, anti-slavery, or mute, or simply protects our rights

Women active in the abolition movement

• angelina and sarah grimke

• lucretia mott

• abby kelly

• lydia maria child

• harriet beecher stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe

• wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• sells more than a million copies in the first year

racially integrated

abolitionism is the first ________ movement of the era

black abolitionists

• Frederick Douglas, Henry Highland Garnet

• sought independent role, held separate conventions

• more dedicated to equality before the law

• created “freedom celebrations” to counter July 4

American Colonization Society

• formed in 1816

• leaders feared slave violence like Haiti’s

• concerns about slaves’ and freed slaves’ humanity, doubting their morals and mental capacity

• free black people mostly opposed this concept

• prompted numerous migration plans

influence by previous expulsions

• spain exiling Muslims and Jews in 1492

• england forcing acadians out of canada

• moving native americans off their lands

Liberian Settlement

• 15000 freed and free-born African Americans

• 3200 from the Caribbean

• independence in 1847

• people think this will fix the migration problem bc it gives freed people somewhere to go

• extremely impractical

ACS Founders and Supporters

• John Randolph, John Marshall, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Daniel Webster, Francis Scott Key

• thought this was the only way to get rid of slavery

• southerners believed colonization should focus on freed African Americans and place them somewhere else

  • didnt want enslaved people to be influenced by freedpeople

African American Response to Colonization

• started their own organizations

• found employment

• countered racial dismissals of them by citing accomplished African Americans

  • Benjamin Banneker mathematician, astronomer

  • Phillis Wheatley, author

  • Olaudah Equiano, author

Women’s Rights

• Republican Motherhood and cult of domesticity limited them at first but some women used it to involve themselves in public sphere

• made excuse to be in politics for betterment of society

• women circulated petitions, held mass meetings, marched in parades, fundraised for political causes, delivered public lectures

Female Moral Reform Society

• set out to help sex workers leave that life and protect morality of single women

• impose moral regulations on society

• attack double standard

• helped women

Grimke Sisters

• lived on plantation and had enslaved people

• educated and became angry with injustice of slavery

• taught enslaved how to read a write and held prayer meetings for them

• abandoned their privileges and moved north

• joined convention of american women

• published “letter on the equality of the sexes”

• them speaking out was a slap to the face for society

Seneca Falls Convention

• organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

• first official meeting where womens suffrage is brought up and discussed

• voting is teh only thing that would make women as free as men

• black women were excluded

Lydia Maria Child

• author: poetry, domestic manuals, articles

• feminist, demanded women’s equality within abolitionism

• advocate of native american rights

• schoolteacher

universal suffrage

• black women will participate in political campaigns

• attend political conventions

• use whatever platform they had to speak out for women’s rights and abolition

Mary Ann Cary

• entire family helped provide shelter for fugitive slaves, moving them to canada

• helped found anti-slavery newspaper

• lectured about women’s rights around the country

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

• Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: African American writer and activist

• Known for: Abolitionist speeches, poetry, and reform work

• Causes: End of slavery, civil rights, women’s rights

• Significance: Influential voice for equality in the 1800s

Mary Church Terrell

• Mary Church Terrell: African American activist and educator

• Known for: Civil rights and women’s suffrage advocacy

• Organization: National Association of Colored Women

• Goals: End segregation, improve education, gain voting rights

• Significance: Early leader in the fight for racial and gender equality