Unit 6 Social Studies (Sectionalism and Slavery)

• Sectionalism


  Conflict between the North and South
• Enslavement


  The North vs South
• The expenses of African Americans in the mid-1800s depended on where they lived
• Slave codes


  Laws that defined enslaved people as property, allowing enslavers to do almost anything with them
• Enslaved children would be enslaved for life
• Most slaves worked on farms and plantations across the South, but there were also about 140,000 enslaved people living in towns and cities by 1860
• Urban slaves still had to live under the watchful eyes of their enslavers, but some were allowed to "live out" on their own
• About half of all free African Americans lived in the South, most working as laborers, craftspeople, or household servants in towns/cities
• African Americans in the North lived with more freedom but still experienced discrimination, unequal treatment, and segregation
• African Americans responded to discrimination by organizing to help themselves, starting their own schools, churches, and self-help organizations
• About one-third of White Southerners enslaved Black people, with 88% enslaving fewer than twenty people
• The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 made cotton a hugely profitable cash crop in the South, relying heavily on enslavement
• The rising value of enslaved people made enslavers less willing to listen to talk of ending enslavement
• Quiet resistance


  Acts of rebellion like pulling down fences, breaking tools, damaging crops, pretending to be ignorant/clumsy/sick/mentally ill
• Open resistance


  Refusing to work, rejecting orders, striking back violently
• Escaping enslavement


  • Walking to freedom in the North
  • Traveling north by boat or train
  • Mailing themselves to freedom in boxes
  • Using the Underground Railroad
• Harriet Tubman courageously returned to the South approximately 13 times between 1850 and 1860, guiding about 70 men, women, and children to freedom
• Slave revolts, like the ones led by Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner, panicked White Southerners and led to stricter "slave codes"
• Agrarian


  A person who favors an agricultural way of life and government policies that support agricultural interests
• Industrialist


  A person whose wealth comes from the ownership of industry and who favors government policies that support industry
• Industrial Revolution


  The dramatic change in economies and cultures brought about by the use of machines to do work formerly done by hand
• Cotton gin


  A hand-operated machine that separates seeds and other unwanted material from cotton
• Discrimination


  Unfair treatment based on a person's race, gender, religion, place of birth, or other characteristic
• Racism


  The belief that one race is superior to another, combined with economic, political, or social discrimination
• Segregation


  The social separation of groups of people, especially by race
• Oppression


  The state of being subject to prolonged harsh or cruel treatment or control
• Plantation


  A large area of privately owned land where crops were grown through the labor of enslaved people or workers who lived on the land
• Sectionalism


  An exaggerated devotion to the interests of a region over those of a country as a whole
• Underground Railroad


  A secret network of free Black people and White people who helped thousands of enslaved people escape to free states and to Canada
• Nat Turner's Rebellion


  A rebellion of enslaved people led by Nat Turner that took place in Virginia in 1831
• Characteristics


  • Distinguishing features or qualities of a term
• Use term in a sentence


  Demonstrating how to properly use the term in a sentence
• Abstract


  • Conceptual
  • Theoretical
  • Not tangible
• Industrialist


  A person who owns or manages an industrial enterprise