1. Cotton Gin (remember Eli Whitney?)

 In 1793 Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin (short for engine), which separated the seed

from cotton fibers. This was fifty times more efficient than the handpicking method.

Raising cotton became profitable, and slavery, which had been dying out, became more

profitable.

2. King Cotton

 Southern leaders assumed that, in a conflict with the North, cotton would be the decisive

factor.

 One fifth of Britain earned a living from the manufacture of cotton cloth. British textile

mills got 75% of their cotton from the American South.

 The assumption was that, in a war, the North would blockade Southern ports, forcing

Britain into economic catastrophe. Britain would then use its navy to break the blockade,

and the South would triumph.

3. Proportion of Southerners who owned slaves

 Only 25% of Southerners owned any slaves. Families owning 100 or more slaves made

up less than 1% of all slave owners.

 However, the poor, non-slaveholding whites supported slavery because they thought they

could eventually buy a slave or two and move upward in accordance with the American

dream. Also, they took comfort in knowing they outranked someone in Southern society,

and they wanted to retain that racial superiority.

4. Domestic Slave Trade

 Also known as the Second Middle Passage, the domestic slave trade of the U.S. far

surpassed the volume of the trans-Atlantic Middle Passage trade.

 Slaves would travel in coffles, where they would travel two-by-two in chains (ropes for

the women). Journeys could be local, from plantation to planation, or interstate. After

traveling in coffles, slaves would be placed in holding cells, called pens.

5. Racism in the North regarding the 226,000 freedmen

 Free blacks were rather unpopular in the North. Several states forbade them entrance,

denied them the right to vote, and some barred blacks from public schools. The poor Irish

hated the blacks, with whom they competed for menial jobs.

 There were also 261,000 free blacks living in the South. They were subject to various

economic and legal restrictions similar to the later black codes.

6. Charles Deslondes

 Deslondes was considered to be a loyal-slave driver, until he started the largest slave

revolt in American history

 In January 1811, Deslondes led a revolt consisting of around 500 slaves along

Louisiana’s German coast. They shocked white planters as they marched in military

uniforms toward New Orleans.

 Despite the show of force, the rebellion was outgunned and eventually failed. Ninety-five

slaves were executed, Deslondes one of them.

7. Nat Turner’s Rebellion—1831

 Nat Turner, leading a group of sixty slaves who believed he was a divine instrument sent

to free his people, killed almost sixty whites in South Hampton, Virginia. This led to a

sensational manhunt in which 100 blacks were killed.

 As a result, slave states strengthened measures against slaves and became more united in

their support of fugitive slave laws.

8. Frederick Douglass

 A self-educated slave who escaped in 1838, Douglass became the best-known abolitionist

speaker. He edited an antislavery weekly, the North Star. He was also an early advocate

for women’s rights.

 In opposition to Garrison, Douglass worked for political solutions to slavery, supporting

the Liberty, Free Soil, and Republican parties.

9. Proportion of Southerners who owned slaves

 Only 25% of Southerners owned any slaves. Families owning 100 or more slaves made

up less than 1% of all slave owners.

 However, the poor, non-slaveholding whites supported slavery because they thought they

could eventually buy a slave or two and move upward in accordance with the American

dream. Also, they took comfort in knowing they outranked someone in Southern society,

and they wanted to retain that racial superiority.

Evolving Arguments and Defenses of Slavery

10. Slavery as a Necessary Evil

 In the late 1700’s, slavery appeared to be declining. Fewer slaves were being imported to

the US, and the price of slaves was dropping because the crops grown by

slaves—tobacco, rice, and indigo—did not generate enough income to pay for their

upkeep.

 Jefferson and other slaveholders denounced slavery as a source of debt, economic

stagnation, and moral dissipation. A French traveler reported that people throughout the

South “are constantly talking of abolishing slavery, of contriving some other means of

cultivating their estates.”

 But the development of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 made slave-cultivated

cotton a profitable crop. In two years the price of slaves doubled; in a decade the number

of slaves in the South increased by a third.

 However, many Southerners were ambivalent about slavery, referring to it as a necessary

evil; they didn’t like it, but they felt it was economically necessary.

11. Slavery as a Positive Good

 In 1837 Senator John Calhoun gave a speech in which he defended slavery, not as a

necessary evil, but as a positive good. Said Calhoun, “Never before has the black race of

Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so

civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually.” In other

words, slavery uplifted blacks by introducing them to civilization and Christianity.

 In addition, Southerners such as George Fitzhugh argued that slavery was the foundation

of national prosperity, that slaves were actually treated better than were factory workers

in the North, and that slavery was necessary for the continuance of the superior Southern

culture that emphasized manners, graciousness, and honor in comparison to the money-

grubbing society of the North.

Attempts to Expand Slavery past American Borders

12. Ostend Manifesto—1854

 Manifest Destiny and the desire for more slave territory led the South to covet Cuba. It

could potentially be divided into several slave states, restoring the sectional balance in the

Senate.

 Several filibustering expeditions (essentially attacks by pirates) attempted to take Cuba

by force in the early 1850’s.

 In Ostend, Belgium, the American ambassadors to Spain, England, and France drew up a

top-secret dispatch, known as the Ostend Manifesto. This dispatch urged the US to offer

$120 million to Spain for Cuba. If Spain refused and their ownership endangered

American interests, the document stated, the United States would be justified in wresting

the island from the Spanish. The North was predictably angered by the proposal, and

Pierce disavowed the Manifesto.

13. William Walker and Nicaragua—1856

 Having failed in his earlier efforts to seize Baja California and turn it into a slave state,

Walker gained control of Nicaragua with a private army of Southerners. He set himself

up as president and legalized slavery.

 Walker was overthrown by a coalition of Central American nations in 1860.