Antebellum South - HIST exam 4

• King Cotton


  In the 1830s, cotton was grown in the Deep South. This made farmers more money, so they stopped growing other crops. More cotton farms also meant more slaves.
• The Domestic Slave Trade


  Connected upper and lower South. The North was urban, industrialized, and free of labor. The South was agriculture-based, with slaves. Both ignored slave laws.
• Class Hierarchy of the Antebellum South

  Planters, small slaveholders, Yeomen, People of the Pine Barrens, slaves
• planters and plantation mistresses

  20+ enslaved by family on a large plantation.
• The Small Slaveholders


  Owned 1-20 slaves on a small plantation, the largest group of slaveholders in the South. Wanted to own more land and more slaves.
• Yeomen 


  worked their land without slave labor
• pine barren peoples

  poor white trash, very isolated in the South, struggled with employment, stuck in lower class
• enslaved people

  Worked in cotton or trades. had family ties, community bonds, raised their food, and discovered natural remedies. punished for resistance, task system vs. gang labor.
• politics of slavery

  minimal conflict between slave owners and non-slave owners. southern voters stayed with the democratic party since they liked limited federal government and state rights. elite planters had the most power.
• non-slaveowners support of slavery

  economic interests, social status, and cultural beliefs.
• pro-slavery arguments

  Southerners saw slavery as a good thing, driven by racist beliefs about black people. They argued it was better than what they called "wage slavery" in the North and used religious reasons to justify it.
• Denmark Vessey

  South Carolina 1822, Vessey used his influence among the slave community to plan a revolt. They planned to kill slave-holders in Charleston, liberate slaves, and sail to Haiti for refuge.
• Nat Turner

  Virginia 1831, Turner led fifty followers in a bloody revolt, killing nearly 60 white people. The local authorities stopped the uprising by dawn the next day. They captured or killed most of the rebels and got Turner after 60 days.
• Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad

  After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Tubman risked her life and returned to her birthplace to rescue family and friends. After a decade, Tubman led 70 people to freedom and gave instructions to others to help them escape. Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison called her “Moses” for her work.
• Wanted Ads Characteristics

  Southern slaveowners were paranoid about uprisings so they got dogs and slave catchers. they offered rewards for returned enslaved people.