APUSH Chapter 16: The South and the Slavery Controversy
Key Concepts
How the expansion of slavery in the lower South and adjacent western lands, and its gradual disappearance elsewhere, began to create distinctive regional attitudes toward the institution
How many white Americans in the South asserted their regional identity through pride in the institution of slavery and insisted that the fed govt should also defend it
How the US and many state govts continued to restrict African-Americans' citizenship possibilities How enslaved and free African Americans created communities and strategies to protect their dignity and their family structures
How some enslaved and free African Americans launched abolitionist and reform movements aimed at changing their status
How the growth in cotton production and trade promoted the development of national economic ties, shaped the international economy, and fueled the internal slave trade.
How the institution of slavery and the ensuing ideological debates intensified sectionalism
How abolitionists mounted a highly visible campaign against slavery and adopted strategies of resistance
How states' rights, nullification, and racist stereotyping provided the foundation for the southern defense of slavery as a positive good.
Why the South Wanted Slavery
The cotton gin allowed for efficient production of cotton, which soon became the staple crop of the South and made half of the world's cotton slaves were needed to work it, so the South became increasingly reliant on slaves and this single crop for economic stability.
Southern politics were often controlled by aristocratic planter elite that became increasingly monopolistic and often idealized a hierarchical society-further shows how ingrained this idea of a superior class was in society.
Even poor Southern farmers with just a few slaves who had no economic stake in slavery wanted to keep it because 1) it gave them some sense of superiority that contrasted their impoverished reality and 2) they had hope of future prosperity.
Not everyone in the South was pro-slavery; some small independent farmers in the mountain completely resented the planter elite domination over colonial affairsvital in crippling the Confederacy during the Civil War.
However, slave holders tried to justify their behavior by saying that slavery 'civilized' African Americans, even saying that slaves were like family (obviously not true)
North also prospered from slavery b/c the cotton they sold to England allowed them to buy necessary manufactured goods. however, other means of profit through manufacturing and moral reasons led to the North advocating for abolition. Additionally, many German and Irish immigrants in the North despised the competition for labor that slaves created.
Southerners tried to silence Northern opposition with the Gag Resolution (1836) which said anti-slavery petitions would all have to be tabled without debate (eventually overturned 8 years later by JQA).
What Slaves Endured
Breakers: if slaves either refused to do work or made a mistake, they were often sent to these people to be beaten and lashed until they were bloody with scars. The only reason this didn't happen more often was because slaves with too many scars lost value in auctions.
White masters often had children with their slaves, who became known as mulattos. Some became free and went on to own their own property (and sometimes even slaves.
However, mulattoes were in constant fear of being taken by slave traders to be sold, and often resented by Southerners because they were examples of what could happen if slavery was abolished.
Many blacks, who were Christianized during the Second Great Awakening, combined this religion with African elements and used it as a way of expressing their shared experiences and sorrows.
Responsorial preaching: where the congregation would respond affirmatively to a preacher's sermon
Slaves also found ways to resist slavery: working slower, taking goods (that they made) from their master's house, damaging expensive equipment, or outright rebellion
Turner's Rebellion (1831): Nat Turner, a black preacher, led this slave revolt, which resulted in the deaths of 60 whites and frightened Southerners with the possibility of future uprisings leads to more restrictions and harsher slave codes.
Amistad (1839): enslaved Africans on this Spanish ship on their way to Cuba take control and attempt to sail back to Africa but end up at Long Island. They are imprisoned, but Fmr. President John Quincy Adams fights for their freedom and they return to Africa
Abolition
As democratic ideals spread, some Southern leaders like Thomas Jefferson talked about freeing their slaves.
West Africa Squadron: part of Britain's Royal Navy that seized hundreds while en route and freed the would-be slaves (although some were eventually caught again and shipped to Latin America) although the US abolished the importation of slaves in 1808, it became evident that other countries were taking more drastic steps.
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852): written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It described how many enslaved families were horrifically separated at auctions and often traded alongside cattle; this emotional book
American Colonization Society (1817): advocated for separatism between blacks and whites by offering to transport African Americans to Africa ('homeland'), specifically Liberia shows how some abolitionists believed that whites and blacks would never be able to peacefully coexist
American Anti-Slavery Society: founded by William Lloyd Garrison, they advocated for the immediate abolition of slavery Garrison also published
The Liberator (1831): which also called for immediate abolition and stated bluntly and harshly how slavery was a disgrace in American society inspired the abolitionist movement.
Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829): written by black abolitionist David Walker, advocated for violent means in order to end white supremacy foreshadows the Civil War being the only option
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845): written by abolitionist Frederick Douglass, it detailed in difficult life growing up, with his mother being a black slave and his father being white. He went on to use politics as a way to further abolition.