Unit 10 - Slavery

• Antebellum Period


  Period between Revolutionary War & Civil War
• Civil War


  1861: Civil War

  - 11 slave southern states leave

  - By 1865: 13th Amendment = slavery is removed
• Statistics on Slaves & Minority Wealthy Farmers

  3,000 wealthy planter families made up the upper echelon of white society

  - Slave owners were ⅔ of the men with a wealth of >$100,000

  - 5% of white population in the South owned the majority of the slaves & cotton (avg. wealth is 56,000)

  South produced ⅔ of the world's supply of cotton
• David Walker


  David Walker = free black in the North, who writes a pamphlet called "Colored Citizens of the World Unite"

  - Argued for a slave rebellion

  - Jackson banned this being sent through the federal mail

  - Militant abolitionist = believed in violence to end slavery
• Nat Turner


  Nat Turner = black slave & preacher, leads an unsuccessful rebellion against white slave owners

  - Response: overwhelming, wide spread hanging of African Americans (innocent & guilty)
• Gag Rule


  Gag Rule = official rule in House prohibiting the mention of slavery from 1836-1844

  Violation of free speech
• Role of John Calhoun (Overview)


  John Calhoun = defender of the South & right of nullification (including preventing federal laws from interfering with slavery)

  - Tries to prevent Senate from discussing slavery

  - Truly believed abolitionist are trying to destroy the "Southern way of life" + the idea of state rights
• Role of Daniel Webster

  Daniel Webster = indirect role, defending the union

  - Against right of state to nullify federal laws to avoid paying tariffs or interfering with slavery

  - Does not avoid issue of slavery

  - Connects slavery to nullification crisis (tariff argument is also a slavery argument)
• Role of John Quincy Adams


  John Quincy Adams = runs for House in MA, becomes a strong opponent of slavery despite the gag rule

  - Refuses to be silenced & argues against the gag rule (violates 1st Amendment rights in the literal House)

  - Gag rule is conspiracy in congress to crush the right of free people to speak & go against slavery

  - Slavery = sin → South sends him death threats :D
• Role of Andrew Jackson


  Andrew Jackson = film claims Jackson could of done something about the slavery issue while President

  - Shouldn't of stopped abolitionist literature

  - But no President willingly addressed the issue
• Largest Slaves States in the South

  - 1830: VA had largest number of enslaved people

  - 1860: VA still has largest number of enslaved people

  - States >50% enslaved population: MI, SC
• Data & Maps of Slavery Trends

  Percent of population of slaves increased in the South & decreased in the North

  - Northern states had practically no slaves

  - Northern population growth was faster than Southern population growth

  Total population went up faster than slave population → slave % decreases nationally

  - Slave population decreased in the upper South & increased in the deeper South

  - Newer Southern states had a greater increase in slave numbers than older southern states

  Majority of Southern states increased the slave population above 50%

  Many new territories turned into states that allowed slaves
• Largest Producers of Cotton in the US

  - 61% value of all US exports is cotton

  - 1833: GA, SC, MI, AL, LA produced the most cotton

  - 1859: MI, AL, GA, LA, TX produced the most cotton
• Trend in the Economics of Slavery

  - Cotton production spreads to new states

  - Cotton became more essential to the US economy

  - Cotton production expands in the Deep South
• Changes in the lives of whites (1800-1860)

  Fewer white families owned slaves, but overall there are more slaves → the few people who own slaves have more

  - Class differences increase (increased % of poor whites working as laborers, small farmers, or subsistence farmers)

  - However, appeared to be more opportunities for whites as they moved West

  Aristocratic republicanism → capitalist
• Domestic Slave Trade


  Movement of slaves from Chesapeake → Mississippi Valley (= LA, MI, AL, etc) → Texas

  Southwestern access to slaves:

  - Planters in Chesapeake sold their slaves West

  - Brough many slaves while the trade was illegal

  - Illegally smuggling slaves into Spanish FL & Mexican TX after Congress closes the Atlantic Slave Trade
• What did the federal government do to facilitate the expansion of slavery

  1. Buying more land in the South + removing natives

  - Buys LA from French

  - Welcome slave states of MI & AL

  - 1840s: annexed Texas & Mexican lands

  2. Internal improvements (roads, canals, railroads)
• 2nd Middle Passage


  2nd Middle Passage = widespread forced transport of slaves from the Chesapeake → Cotton Belt

  - Cotton Belt conditions are even worse than the Chesapeake (but slaves are not entirely unfamiliar with the conditions)

  - Brings about 1,000,000 slaves over, majority are sold over
• Economic effect of the 2nd Middle Passage on the Upper South

  - Planters sell surplus black labor → earn more $$

  - Movement of slaves is worth half a billion dollars

  - 4 million enslaved people were the most valuable commodity in the US

  - 1 in 4 slaves were mixed race (mostly due to rape)
• Chattel Principle


  Chattel principle = idea that slaves have the legal status of property

  Effect on black families:

  - ⅓ of slave children are separated BUT majority of children lived with 1 or both parents until 14

  - Slave marriages continue but many are broken up
• Lives for Slaves in the Cotton Belt


  - Life is worse than the Upper South

  - Amount of cotton (with a long growing season) is everything
• Gang Labor Systems


  Gang labor systems = white overseers or black drivers (could cause disunion, incentive, loyalty) supervised gangs of 20 or more enslaved laborers to achieve greater productivity

  - Goal: increase output & productivity→ profit
• Complexity of Race Designations

  Black, white, mixed race, free blacks, etc
• Split in traditional plantation elite & new cotton producing capitalists


  - Expansion of Southern slavery increased inequality in Southern wealth & status

  - Old Southern gentry had lived like the English landed gentry, no longer true

  Rice growing vs. tobacco growing regions:

  - Rice planters were at the top of society & lived a life of luxury

  - Tobacco planters had more middling white men
• Social Pyramid in the South

  1. Top: wealthy planter families w/ >20 slaves

  - Then people who owned 6-20 slaves

  - Then people who owned 1-5 slaves

  2. Between (40% of white population): yeomen farmers & cotton-planting tenants w/o slaves

  3. Bottom: slaves themselves
• General Southern Defense of Slavery

  - "Positive good"

  - "Racially inferior"

  - Act of "disinterested (meant selfless at the time) benevolence"

  - Religion
• Why did poor whites defend the slavery system?


  Psychological satisfaction that they were ranked above blacks

  - Race trumps class

  Alfred Iverson (= US senator from GA): a white man "walks erect in the dignity of his color & race, and feels that he is a superior being, with the more exalted powers & privileges than others." ...
• James Henry Hammond's arguments

  Has to be a lower class to do all the menial labor

  - He thinks slaves are racially inferior, docile → allows rest of society to be civilized by doing the menial labor = "Mudsill Theory"

  - He thinks this allows whites to improve their civilization

  Compares slaves to the factory workers of the north & tries to argue that slavery is better

  - Thinks Southern slaves are hired for life, not exploited, cared for, etc etc...

  Thinks the institution of slavery is being attacked → threatens to send southern agitators North like the northern has been agitating against slavery

  - Slaves have no political rights, but poor whites do
• Abraham Lincoln's response to the Mudsill Theory

  Thinks there is social mobility for laborers

  - Work as laborers → eventually hire people

  - People who stay in the same position through life is due to personality

  Most people work for themselves in North & South, control both labor & capital

  Lincoln does not discuss the morality of the Mudsill Theory but argues that free labor incites people to work harder so they can progress

  - More of a defense of capitalism
• William Lloyd Garrison vs. John C. Calhoun: Background

  William Lloyd Garrison:

  - Born in MA

  - Worked as a writer & editor for newspapers

  - Joins the Abolition movement

  
  

  John C. Calhoun:

  - Father is a strict constructionist & slave plantation owner

  - Grew up in SC
• William Lloyd Garrison vs. John C. Calhoun: Opinion on the Constitution

  William Lloyd Garrison:

  - Believes it to be a pro-slavery document

  
  

  John C. Calhoun:

  - Advocate of the Constitution
• William Lloyd Garrison vs. John C. Calhoun: Do people have the rights to slaves & conditions of slaves?

  William Lloyd Garrison:

  - No

  - "Starving and lacerating their bodies"

  
  

  John C. Calhoun:

  - Yes ("positive good")

  - "Civilized & improved"
• William Lloyd Garrison vs. John C. Calhoun: # of races & appeal to a higher authority?

  William Lloyd Garrison:

  - 1

  - God

  
  

  John C. Calhoun:

  - 2 races (Black & white)

  - No
• William Lloyd Garrison vs. John C. Calhoun: Any room for compromise & possibility of disunion?


  William Lloyd Garrison:

  - No

  - Anti-Slavery Society should not align itself w/ any political party

  - Disunion is possible, but if so it's not your fault

  - If slavery is left alone → will destroy the Union

  
  

  John C. Calhoun:

  - Compromises can't be made cause they'll just lead to more compromises

  - Disunion is inevitable, the sooner the better
• Calhoun's moral, political & economic argument

  - Moral: slavery "civilized" black people

  - Political: uphold the Constitution, could cause disunion, slaves are property that bring stability (part of our stable political system → if attack would lead to disunion)

  - Economic: cotton drives economy of the South & thus slavery, and in every society you have capital owners & their laborers
• Garrison's moral & political arguement

  - Overwhelming moral argument

  - Political: speaking out against the Constitution
• Similarities between Garrison & Calhoun

  Both Garrison & Calhoun lecture in the North, where the action is

  - Garrison: North should be acting out against slavery not accepting it (ok with the union falling apart if the disunion breaks down slavery)

  - Calhoun: North should shut down abolitionist, keeps referencing the nullification crisis
• Differences between Garrison & Calhoun

  - Calhoun opposed slavery vs. Garrison supports it

  - Calhoun makes economic & political arguments vs. Garrison is morality

  - Calhoun views himself as a defense of the Constitution (legacy of Jefferson) vs. Garrison thinks it's covered with the blood of slaves

  - Calhoun thinks there are 2 races vs. Garrison thinks there are 1 race
• Frederick Douglass's System of Writing

  Bold, didn't make his speech on the Fourth of July

  - Doesn't want to acknowledge the independence of the US since black people didn't have independence

  - Reflecting on the injustice of celebrating an independence day

  - Wants a separate day of mourning for the people who aren't independent, 4th of July is a betrayal & contradiction

  Speaking directly

  - Passionate & energetic

  Willing to attack key institutions, but respectful of founding fathers & founding documents
• Frederick Douglass arguments against slavery

  Violates the principles of the Declaration of Independence: "life, liberty & pursuit of happiness" is not granted to slaves

  Liked the ideas of the founding fathers → abolitionist are patriots & heroes just like the founders against GB

  - Both fighting for freedom

  Thinks the Constitution is anti-slavery as it doesn't mention slavery & the principles go against slaves

  - Just ignore the Fugitive Slave Clause, allowing the slave trade until 1808, and ⅗ Compromise

  - Scholars think he knew, and this might of just been a strategy

  Foreign slave trade vs. domestic slave trade: foreign slave trade is separated from the domestic slave trade to justify the domestic slave trade, despite both being the same