Chapter 1.11

How was the issue of slavery addressed between 1820 and 1850?

Main idea: south vs north, 19th century, abolitionist,

Mid 19th Century

• Slavery divided americans more than anything

  • Worsened as america expanded westward

• Southerners supported their peculiar institution.

  • Southerners referred to slavery as a peculiar institution

  • Northerners opposed it

• 1820-1850: It was hard to find agreements that kept the US united

US Political System + Balance

• Power is divided between the central (federal) gov. In Washington and the individual states

  • stated in the 1787 constitution

• Federal Gov contains the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branch

  • Each branch can check each other

• State govs replicate the federal gov

  • Each state its governor, own legislative body, own supreme court

Admitting New States

• System created in late eighteenth century

• 1st: assume territorial status, elect territorial gov

• Population of 60,000 = eligible to submit its constitution to congress + apply to be a state

  • 1820: 23 states 1850: 30 states

The Constitution implicitly accepted slavery because, for the purposes of counting population (to work out each state’s representation in the House of Representatives), each slave was considered to be three-fifths of a free person.

American Democracy

• 1820s: The most democratic country

  • Although women and blacks couldn’t vote

• 1830s: Two Major Parties

  • Democrats

  • Whigs

    • Came together every 4 years to nominate a presidential candidate and devise a national platform

Democrats Beliefs

• Most issues should be decided at state level, not federal

• Opposed government intervention in economic matters

• Supported the lowering of tariffs

Whigs Beliefs

• Favored government intervention in economic/social matters

• Supported higher tariffs

Limited Government

• Many matters were seen as state concern + state legislatures impact americans more than federal legislatures

• Presidents were more figureheads and distributors of patronage than active policy-makers

  • Patronage: the giving of jobs or privileges to supporters

Sectional Interests

• Early 19th century: new west states vs established east states

  • Similarities

    • Common language, religion, same legal, political and racial assumptions, and celebrates same history

  • The differences brought civil war

North and South Differences

North

• More developed industry, urban

• Relied on mixed farming, factories, and free labor

• More immigrants (1820-1860)

• More responsive to new ideas

• Slavery wasn’t needed in the north

  • Northern weather stopped plantation agriculture

  • 1787: ordinance passed to keep slavery out of nw territory

  • 1808: banned slave trade in USA w/ Africa

South

• 35% of USA’s population, produced only 10% of nations manufactured outputs

• Characterized by crops like cotton and tobacco by slave labor

• Felt used by the north through tariffs

• Felt that their lifestyle was better than the Yankees (northerners)

• Southerners valued their honor/way of life

  • Men were sensitive, wanted to duel/act violent

  • Opposed threats to values and institutions

• Cotton kept slavery alive

Historians once claimed that the Civil War was a conflict between a backward, agrarian, planter-dominated South and a modern, industrialized and egalitarian North.

• Agrarian - relates to land and farming

• Planters - male plantation owners with 20+ slaves

This view is sweeping

• There was a lower and upper south

  • Lower south - alabama, louisiana, georgia, texas, florida, s. Carolina, and mississippi (old south)

Abolitionists

• Early 19th century: supported gradual emancipation

  • Free slaves overtime + give compensation to slave owners

• Encouraged free slaves to return to africa

• 1822: USA bought Liberia as a return base

  • 1860: 10,000 blacks were returned but slave population in US increased by 2 mill

  • Not enough money

  • Most did not want to go back

North Problems

• Had limited appeal

• Anti-slavery meeting were met by mobs

• 1837: Elijah Lovejoy became first murdered abolitionist in Illinois

• Failed to convince the Whigs & Democratic Party

• Set up with the Liberal Party

  • 1840: presidential candidate won 7000 votes

• 1840: major division in the National Anti-Slavery Society

  • They couldn’t agree on their general society

  • However, they kept slavery at the forefront of public attention

South Problems

• No success with southern whites

• 1831: Nat Turner (slave in VA), led a slave revolt that killed 55 whites

  • Turner and other rebellious slaves were killed

• Southerners blamed the abolitionists for the revolt

• Southern writers protected slavery in writing

• Southern authority took action against abolitionist

• Southerners who were suspected of supporting the abolitionist were driven out

Nature of Slavery in S.

• 1860: 4 million slaves to 8 million whites in 15 southern states, mainly lower south

• 1850: 1:3 white southern. families owned slaves

• 1860: 1 family in 4 were slave owners

• 1860: 50% of slave owners owned fewer than five slaves. Over 50% of slaves lived on plantations w/ over 20 slaves.

  • Thus the ‘typical’ slaveholder did not own the ‘typical’ slave.

• Most slaves were held by about 10,000 families.

• Slavery working conditions

  • 55 per cent worked in cotton production, 10 per cent in tobacco, 10 per cent in sugar, rice and hemp, while 15 per cent were domestic servants and 10 per cent lived in towns or worked in industry.

Free Blacks in S.

• 1860: 250,000 free

• Most were mixed race, given freedom by white father

• Had to carry documentation proving freedom at all times

• Had no political rights and a precarious legal status

Free Blacks in N.

• 200,000 lived in the North

• Hard the worst jobs

• Segregation was the norm in most aspects of life

• 3 states allowed blacks to vote in 1860

Future of Slavery

• If cotton prices fell, then slavery would have eventually died of its own accord

• If this is correct, the blood-letting of the Civil War was unnecessary

  • 1860: there was a high demand for cotton, so this was unrealistic

• Slavery was not simply an economic institution

  • also a system of social

    • kept blacks in their place and ensured white supremacy

• Southerners feared that an end to slavery would result in economic collapse, social disintegration and race war

Militant Abolitionism

• Early 1830s: more forceful emancipation, wanted it immediately

• Associated with William Lloyd Garrison

  • Launched a abolitionist journal, The Liberator

  • Convinced that slavery was a sin

  • Demanded immediate abolition

    • Did not have a plan how to

National Anti-Slavery Society

• Created in 1833

• Had 250k members by 1838

  • Members were well-educated + wealthy

  • Women and blacks (free) played crucial roles

• Organized massive petition to congress

  • 1836: congress introduced a ‘gag rule’ to prevent north & south division

    • No discussion about the abolitionist petitions

Religion in America

• Became important in the mid 19th century

• Had powerful effect

• Early 19th century: upsurge in evangelical protestantism, known as the second awakening

  • Evangelical preachers fought against the sins of the world, including slavery

Evangelical: passionate belief in christianity/ desire to share with others

Conclusion

By the mid-nineteenth century there were significant differences between North and South – differences that were growing as the North’s industrial development outstripped that of the South. The North was changing: the South resisted change. By 1850 southerners were conscious of their distinct ‘southerness’. North and South might speak the same language – but by the mid-nineteenth century (as the historian James McPherson (1988) has pointed out) they were increasingly using this language to attack each other. Even the shared commitment to Protestantism had become a divisive rather than a unifying factor, with most of the major denominations splitting into hostile southern and northern branches over the question of slavery