The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross”: The Black Atlantic (1500 – 1800) [Complete Film Analysis]
African Americans:
A Concise History, Combined Volume, 5e
Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, Stanley C. Harrold
Chapter 5
African Americans
in the New Nation
1783–1820
This recent photograph portrays one of several buildings used as slave quarters on Hermitage, Savannah, Georgia. Built during the mid-seventeenth century, the small brick building housed two African-American families into the Civil War years.
- This photograph highlights how slavery is remembered and portrayed in the South, where slave quarters, cemeteries, and plantations have become tourist attractions for those interested the history of the period.
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Learning Objectives
5-1 What forces worked for black freedom after the Revolution?
5-2 Why did slavery survive in the new United States?
5-3 What were the characteristics of early free black communities?
5-4 Who were the early black leaders in America and what were their varying ideas, tactics, and solutions for the problems faced by blacks?
5-5 How did the War of 1812 affect African Americans?
5-6 What impact did the Missouri Compromise have on African Americans?
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Forces for Freedom
- In postrevolutionary North, slavery not economically essential
- Immigration bought cheap white laborers
- Natural rights doctrines, evangelical Christianity add support to anti-slavery efforts
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- Slavery widespread but not economically essential in North after the revolution
- White laborers resented slave competition
- Slaveholders have difficulty defending slavery
Forces for Freedom (cont’d)
- Missouri Compromise, 1820
- A congressional attempt to settle the issue of slavery expansion in the United States by permitting Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, admitting Maine as a free state, and banning slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36° 30′ line of latitude
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Forces for Freedom (cont’d)
- Northern Emancipation
- New England states moved quickly to emancipation
- Massachusetts slave Quok Walker refused to stay in servitude; whites acquiesced
- First U.S. census in 1790 finds no slaves in Massachusetts
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- Vermont and Massachusetts, certainly, and New Hampshire, probably, abolished slavery immediately during the 1770s and 1780s
- 1783 Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling says “slavery is . . . as effectively abolished as it can be by the granting of rights and privileges wholly incompatible and repugnant to its existence.”
Forces for Freedom (cont’d)
- Northern Emancipation (cont’d)
Struggle against slavery harder in mid-Atlantic states
Massachusetts had “free and equal” clause in constitution; black men have right to vote
Emancipation slow in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania
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- Connecticut and Rhode Island, the state legislatures, rather than individual African Americans, took the initiative against slavery
- New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania – the investment in slaves was much greater than in New England
- NY, NJ, PA had relatively large slave populations, powerful slaveholders, and white workforces fearful of free black competition
- This map charts the gradual emancipation of northern slaves in the period after the earliest efforts at abolishing slavery in the late eighteenth century.
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- This table illustrates the rapid decline in slavery in the Mid-Atlantic states in the half-century before the Civil War.
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- This timeline highlights the events that led to the abolition of slavery in the North before the Civil War.
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Forces for Freedom (cont’d)
- The Northwest Ordinance of 1787
1787 Ordinance bans slavery from Old Northwest region
Region south of Ohio River open to slavery
Some remained slaves in Old Northwest
Ordinance set precedent for excluding slavery
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- Congress’s decides to limit slavery’s expansion
- During the 1780s, the national government acquires jurisdiction over the region west of the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Mississippi River
- Increasing numbers of white Americans migrated across the Appalachians into this huge region during/after revolution
- Jefferson proposes after 1800 slavery be banned from the entire region stretching from the Appalachians to the Mississippi River
Forces for Freedom (cont’d)
- The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (cont’d)
Northwest Ordinance, 1787
Based on earlier legislation drafted by Thomas Jefferson, it organized the Northwest Territory, providing for orderly land sales, public education, government, the creation of five to seven states out of the territory, and the prohibition of slavery within the territory.
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- Northwest Ordinance applied the essence of Jefferson’s plan to the region north of the Ohio River
Forces for Freedom (cont’d)
- Antislavery Societies in the North and Upper South
Only whites participated in Quaker-dominated organizations
Abolitionists feared immediate emancipation
Elderly slaves would be abandoned
Slaves would require training before freedom
Many slaveholders opposed slavery in abstract, not practice
Antislavery societies in Upper South small, short lived
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- In 1775, Quaker abolitionist Anthony Benezet organized the first antislavery society in the world
- In 1787, it became the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and Benjamin Franklin became its president
- From 1794 to 1832, antislavery societies cooperated within the loose framework of the American Convention for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and Improving the Condition of the African Race
Forces for Freedom (cont’d)
- Antislavery Societies in the North
and Upper South (cont’d)
Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery (Pennsylvania Abolition Society (1787–present)
An antislavery organization centered in Philadelphia and based on an earlier Quaker society; exclusively white, it promoted gradual abolition, black self-improvement, freedom suits, and protection of African Americans against kidnapping
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- By 1800, there were abolition societies in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Virginia.
Forces for Freedom (cont’d)
- Antislavery Societies in the North
and Upper South (cont’d)
American Convention for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and Improving the Condition of the African Race (1794–1838)
A loose coalition of state and local societies, dominated by the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, dedicated to gradual abolition
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- These societies aimed at gradual, compensated emancipation
Forces for Freedom (cont’d)
- Manumission and Self-Purchase
Virginia repealed long-standing ban on manumission
Masters profited by self-purchase agreements
Slaves paid in installments for freedom
Self-purchase often left African Americans in financial trouble
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- After the Revolution, most southern states liberalized their manumission laws so masters could free individual slaves by deed or will
- Motivated by religion or natural rights, hundreds of slaveholders in the Upper South freed slaves individually
Forces for Freedom (cont’d)
- The Emergence of a Free Black Class in the South
Most of Upper South’s black population remained in slavery
In Deep South few masters freed slaves
Free black class identified with former masters
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- The free black population of the Upper South blossomed
- Generally, masters in the Deep South freed only their illegitimate slave children, other favorites, or those unable to work
- The emergence of a free black class in the South, especially in the Deep South, produced social strata more similar to those in Latin America
Forces for Freedom (cont’d)
f
LO 5-1. abolished slavery immediately during the 1770s and 1780s.
A: Pennsylvania and New Jersey
B: Maryland and Delaware
C: Virginia and Maryland
D: Vermont and Massachusetts
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Forces for Freedom (cont’d)
f
LO 5-1. abolished slavery immediately during the 1770s and 1780s.
A: Pennsylvania and New Jersey
B: Maryland and Delaware
C: Virginia and Maryland
D: Vermont and Massachusetts
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Forces for Freedom (cont’d)
LO 5-1. In 1787, Congress adopted the Northwest Ordinance banning slavery in the region north of the Ohio River.
A: True
B: False
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Forces for Freedom (cont’d)
LO 5-1. In 1787, Congress adopted the Northwest Ordinance banning slavery in the region north of the Ohio River.
A: True
B: False
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Forces for Slavery
- Forces for slavery stronger than for freedom
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- Abolition took place in the North, where slavery was weak
- In the South, where it was strong, slavery thrived
Forces for Slavery (cont’d)
- The U.S. Constitution
Constitution major force in favor of continued slavery
Constitution prevented abolishment of slave trade until 1808
Gave masters power to pursue escaped slaves
Slaveholders claim acute labor shortages
Southern slaveholders given more representation
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- By the mid-1780s, wealthy and powerful men perceived that the Confederation Congress was too weak to protect their interests
- Congress’s inability to regulate commerce led to trade disputes among the states
- Congress’s inability to tax prevented it from maintaining an army and navy
- Shay’s Rebellion in 1786 led to Constitutional Convention
- Constitutional Convention made important concessions to southern slaveholders
Forces for Slavery (cont’d)
- The U.S. Constitution (cont’d)
Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
An act of Congress permitting masters to recapture escaped slaves who had reached the free states and, with the authorization of local courts, return with the slave or slaves to their home state
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Forces for Slavery (cont’d)
- The U.S. Constitution (cont’d)
Three-Fifths Clause
A clause in the U.S. Constitution providing that a slave be counted as three-fifths of a free person in determining a state’s representation in Congress and the electoral college and three-fifths of a free person in regard to per capita taxes levied by Congress on the states
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- As a result of this clause, the South gained enormous political advantage
- For many years, this clause contributed to the domination of the U.S. government by slaveholding southerners
Forces for Slavery (cont’d)
- Cotton
Increased cotton cultivation fostered continued enslavement
Cotton gin removes seeds to increase production
Cotton became most lucrative U.S. import
Cotton reinvigorated the slave-labor system
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- Britain led the world in textile manufacturing by late 18th century
- British demand for raw cotton rises as mechanization of textile trade makes spinning cotton cheaper
- Cotton production in the United States rose from 3,000 bales in 1790 to 178,000 bales in 1810
- Southern cotton production also encouraged the development of textile mills in New England, thereby creating a proslavery alliance
Forces for Slavery (cont’d)
- Cotton (cont’d)
Cotton gin
A simple machine invented by Eli Whitney in 1793 to separate cotton seeds from cotton fiber; it greatly speeded this task and encouraged the westward expansion of cotton-growing in the United States
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- Cotton gin increases ability to process cotton, leading to greater demand for raw cotton, slave labor
Harpers Weekly printed this “conjectural work” in 1869. Although the clothing worn by the men and women shown reflects styles of a later era, the machine suggests how slaves used the gin Eli Whitney invented in 1793.
- This engraving illustrates the early use of the cotton gin to increase production in the nineteenth century.
- The background images of white planters examining cotton indicate the close scrutiny of slaves and their work output.
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- This chart illustrates the gradual expansion of plantation slavery in the Deep South in the decades leading up to the Civil War.
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Forces for Slavery (cont’d)
- The Louisiana Purchase and African Americans in the Lower Mississippi Valley
Louisiana Purchase accelerated westward progression of slavery
Demand for sugar, cotton caused harsh slave conditions
Tobacco, indigo earliest plantation crops
Many sold to slave markets in New Orleans
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- People of African descent were a majority of the New Orleans population and they consisted of two distinct groups:
- First were the free people of color who called themselves Creoles, spoke French; usually craftsmen and shopkeepers
- The second black group consisted of slaves, most of whom had come directly from Africa and worked on Louisiana plantations
- In 1770 Louisiana had a slave population of 5,600; by 1820 the slave population numbered 149,654`
Forces for Slavery (cont’d)
- Conservatism and Racism
Increasing proslavery sentiment among white Americans
Response to radicalism of French Revolution
American valued property rights, including human property
Race used to justify slavery
Blacks supposedly unsuited for freedom
Laws implied blacks only place was as slaves
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- A more intense racism among white people was important in strengthening slavery
- In the North and the Chesapeake, whites became less willing to challenge the prerogatives of slaveholders, more willing to accept slavery
- France’s bloody class and religious warfare, disruption of the social order, and redistribution of property led white Americans to value property rights—including rights to human property—and order above equal rights
- New scientific racism supported this outlook: great chain of being from lesser to higher creatures created by God
Forces for Slavery (cont’d)
- Conservatism and Racism (cont’d)
Domestic slave trade
A trade dating from the first decade of the nineteenth century in American-born slaves purchased primarily in the border South and sent overland or by sea to the cotton-growing regions of the Old Southwest
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- During the 1790s, Congress expressed its determination to exclude African Americans from the benefits of citizenship in “a white man’s country”
Forces for Slavery (cont’d)
f
LO 5-2. The Constitution strengthened the political power of slaveholders through .
A: the Second Amendment
B: banning slavery only in the north
C: the Three-Fifths Clause
D: banning the importation of slaves
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Forces for Slavery (cont’d)
f
LO 5-2. The Constitution strengthened the political power of slaveholders through .
A: the Second Amendment
B: banning slavery only in the north
C: the Three-Fifths Clause
D: banning the importation of slaves
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Forces for Slavery (cont’d)
LO 5-2. Four factors that fostered continued enslavement of African Americans included increased cultivation of rice, the Louisiana Purchase, declining revolutionary fervor, and the spread of abolitionist sentiment.
A: True
B: False
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Forces for Slavery (cont’d)
LO 5-2. Four factors that fostered continued enslavement of African Americans included increased cultivation of rice, the Louisiana Purchase, declining revolutionary fervor, and the spread of abolitionist sentiment.
A: True
B: False
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The Emergence of
Free Black Communities
- Earliest black community institutions were mutual aid societies
Provided for members’ medical and burial expenses
Helped support widows and children
- Societies spread to every black urban community
- Societies maintained Christian moral character
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- Competing forces of slavery and racism, freedom, and opportunity shaped the growth of African-American community
- Blacks wanted institutions that would perpetuate African heritage
- They knew they would have inferior status in white organizations, so they needed to form their own
- First mutual aid societies formed in Newport, Rhode Island, 1780, followed by Free African Society in Philadelphia, 1787
The Emergence of
Free Black Communities (cont’d)
- Black Freemasons particularly important
- Prince Hall, most famous Black mason
- Organized first lodge in Boston
- Authorized black lodges in other cities
- Prince Hall Masons
- A black Masonic order formed in 1791 in Boston under the leadership of Prince Hall. He became its first grand master and promoted its expansion to other cities
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- An entrepreneur, abolitionist, and an advocate of black education, Hall is founder of the African Lodge of North America, popularly known as the
Prince Hall Masons
- Masons provide mutual aid also opportunities to socialize, network
This late eighteenth-century portrait of Prince Hall (1735?–1807) dressed as a gentleman places him among Masonic symbols. A former slave, a skilled craftsman and entrepreneur, an abolitionist, and an advocate of black education, Hall is best remembered as the founder of the African Lodge of North America, popularly known as the Prince Hall Masons.
- This engraving of Prince Hall underlines the ability of free African-Americans to rise into the ranks of the middle class in the North after the American Revolution.
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The Emergence of
Free Black Communities (cont’d)
- The Origins of Independent Black Churches
African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church
Founded in Philadelphia in 1816, it was the first and became the largest independent black church
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- African-American churches attend to the spiritual needs of free black people and slaves
- Their pastors also became the primary African-American leaders
Raphaelle Peale, the son of famous Philadelphia portraitist Charles Wilson Peale, completed this oil portrait of the Reverend Absalom Jones (1746–1818) in 1810. Reverend Jones is shown in his ecclesiastical robes holding a Bible in his hand.
- This painting of the Reverend Absalom Jones by Raphael Peal demonstrates the importance of clergy as leaders in the African-American community.
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The Emergence of
Free Black Communities (cont’d)
- The First Black Schools
Blacks found own schools dating to early 1700s
Schools faced great difficulties
Blacks couldn’t afford fees
Some blacks thought education pointless
Whites feared educated blacks would encourage slave revolt
Threats of violence against black schools common
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- North and South: white clergy ran the schools as did Quakers, abolition societies, Anglican missionaries
- Free black people in Baltimore supported schools during the 1790s; similar schools open in Washington D.C. in early 1800s
- Philadelphia’s Mother Bethel church starts first school with black teachers and students
The Emergence of
Free Black Communities (cont’d)
f
LO 5-3. In 1816, Philadelphia became the birthplace of the
.
A: first benevolent aid society
B: the first black schools in America
C: the black Episcopal church
D: African Methodist Episcopal Church
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The Emergence of
Free Black Communities (cont’d)
f
LO 5-3. In 1816, Philadelphia became the birthplace of the
.
A: first benevolent aid society
B: the first black schools in America
C: the black Episcopal church
D: African Methodist Episcopal Church
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The Emergence of
Free Black Communities (cont’d)
LO 5-3. The earliest black community institutions were mutual aid societies, which were similar to insurance companies and benevolent organizations.
A: True
B: False
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The Emergence of
Free Black Communities (cont’d)
LO 5-3. The earliest black community institutions were mutual aid societies, which were similar to insurance companies and benevolent organizations.
A: True
B: False
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Black Leaders and Choices
- Clergy prominent among educated black elite
- Influential ministers include Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, Jupiter Hammon, John Chavis
- Prince Hall, James Forten – African-American entrepreneurs
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- By the 1790s an educated black elite existed in the North and the Chesapeake
- Elites were acculturated, patriotic; had attained some well-being and security, but also knew of failure of American revolutionary principles
- Vying with clergy for influence were African-American entrepreneurs such as Prince Hall
Black Leaders and Choices (cont’d)
- Leaders often differed about what was best for African Americans
- Hammon, Chavis condemned slavery but were not activists
- Allen, Jones, Hall, Forten: blacks mold own destiny
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- Allen, Jones, Hall, and Forten were more optimistic than Hammon and Chavis about blacks’ prospects in America
- Although he was often frustrated, Hall pursued a strategy based on the assumption that white authority would reward black protest and patriotism
MyLab Media
Document: Richard Allen, “Address to the Free People of Colour of these United States,” 1830
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/history/MHL/US/documents/Allen_Free_People_of_Colour_1830.html
James Forten, portrait by an unknown artist.
- A wealthy businessmen and active abolitionist, James Forten gained a great deal of influence in Philadelphia and throughout the north by organizing other free African-Americans and clergy members to lobby for equal rights and women’s suffrage.
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Black Leaders and Choices (cont’d)
- Migration
African Americans could establish societies outside U.S.
Back to Africa: Freetown in Sierra Leone
Coker leads group to new colony of Liberia
Paul Cuffe, black advocate of Africa colonization
Saw it as way to end slave trade
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- In 1787, British philanthropists, including Olaudah Equiano, established Freetown in Sierra Leone
- In 1816, influential whites organized the American Colonization Society
Black Leaders and Choices (cont’d)
- Migration (cont’d)
- American Colonization Society
- An organization founded in Washington, D.C., by prominent slaveholders; it claimed to encourage the ultimate abolition of slavery by sending free African Americans to its West African colony of Liberia
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Black Leaders and Choices (cont’d)
- Slave Uprisings
Some slaves joined revolutionary movements to destroy slavery
Louverture led Haitian uprising, inspired African Americans
In Virginia, Gabriel prepared massive slave insurrection
Gabriel caught before uprising; convicted and hanged
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- Slaves pursue a variety of types of strategies to gain freedom
- Slave revolts in Richmond, VA and New Orleans raise hopes of freedom
- Philosophical principles drive many rebellions: desire to gain natural human rights
- Mass hangings of plotters in VA, New Orleans response to plots
Toussaint Louverture (1744–1803) led the black rebellion in the French colony of St. Domingue on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola that led to the creation of the independent black republic of Haiti in 1804. Louverture became an inspiration for black rebels in the United States.
- This engraving illustrates Toussaint Louverture’s ability to take command of a massive black rebellion, overturn colonial French authority in Haiti and terrify much of the planter class across the Caribbean and American South.
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Black Leaders and Choices (cont’d)
- Slave Uprisings (cont’d)
Deslondes initiated Louisiana Rebellion; plundered, burned plantations
U.S. troops slaughtered rebels
Deslondes found guilty of rebellion and shot
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- Well-armed white men slaughtered 66 rebels, captured 30, convicted 22, and shot them
Black Leaders and Choices (cont’d)
- The White Southern Reaction
Fearing race war, whites make black bondage stronger
Southern states outlaw assemblies; increase patrols
Whites assume local free blacks involved in uprisings
Whites advocate forcing blacks to leave U.S.
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- Beginning with South Carolina in December 1800, southern states also place curfews on slaves and free black people
- Also make manumission more difficult
- White southerners became suspicious of outsiders, assuming slave rebellions were supported by abolitionists
Black Leaders and Choices (cont’d)
f
LO 5-4. In addition to organizing a black fraternal organization, Prince Hall petitioned the Massachusetts legislature to support efforts by black Bostonians to .
A: establish a colony in Africa
B: establish the first black-owned bank
C: create an African American church
D: end slavery in the state
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Black Leaders and Choices (cont’d)
f
LO 5-4. In addition to organizing a black fraternal organization, Prince Hall petitioned the Massachusetts legislature to support efforts by black Bostonians to .
A: establish a colony in Africa
B: establish the first black-owned bank
C: create an African American church
D: end slavery in the state
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Black Leaders and Choices (cont’d)
LO 5-4. In reaction to slave rebellions, beginning in 1800 southern states made manumissions easier in order to lessen tensions.
A: True
B: False
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Black Leaders and Choices (cont’d)
LO 5-4. In reaction to slave rebellions, beginning in 1800 southern states made manumissions easier in order to lessen tensions.
A: True
B: False
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The War of 1812
- Britsh, French struggled for control of Atlantic world
- U.S. didn’t gain Canada, war was a draw
- Blacks feared, not allowed to be militia
- Southern states refused to enlist blacks
- British offered blacks freedom in return for help
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- British military support for American Indian resistance in the Old Northwest draw U.S. into Franco-British war
- Americans desire to annex Canada
- U.S. fails annexation of Canada; Washington D.C. burned by British, supported by African American troops
- Most white southerners joined John Randolph of Virginia in regarding African Americans as “an internal foe.”
- African-American men fought at two of the war’s most important battles: Lake Erie, 1813 and Battle of New Orleans, 1815
The War of 1812 (cont’d)
- Blacks did fight Battle of New Orleans
- General Jackson offered blacks equal pay, benefits
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- Battle of New Orleans fought in January 1815, about a month after a peace treaty had been negotiated but not ratified
- This map illustrates the wide-ranging battles that characterized the War of 1812, and the ability of the British to penetrate deep into American territory.
- African Americans played a role in defending New Orleans.
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The War of 1812 (cont’d)
f
LO 5-5. In the War of 1812, American forces won important victories but failed to conquer Canada, , and allowed the war to end in a draw.
A: lost control of the Great Lakes region
B: suffered the burning of Washington, D.C.
C: lost most naval battles with the British
D: suffered the burning of much of New York City
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The War of 1812 (cont’d)
f
LO 5-5. In the War of 1812, American forces won important victories but failed to conquer Canada, , and allowed the war to end in a draw.
A: lost control of the Great Lakes region
B: suffered the burning of Washington, D.C.
C: lost most naval battles with the British
D: suffered the burning of much of New York City
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The War of 1812 (cont’d)
LO 5-5. The threat the British army posed to Philadelphia and New York led to the first active black involvement in the War of 1812 on the American side.
A: True
B: False
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The War of 1812 (cont’d)
LO 5.5. The threat the British army posed to Philadelphia and New York led to the first active black involvement in the War of 1812 on the American side.
A: True
B: False
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The Missouri Compromise
- After 1815, North, South sectional issues revived
- First political parties, Federalist, Republican
- Increasingly pro-slavery administrations after 1800
- Missouri territory applies for admission as slave state, 1819
- North fears it would expand slavery elsewhere
- Jefferson, southerners fear restrictions
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- The Federalist and the Republican parties failed to confront slavery as a national issue
- The northern wing of the modernizing Federalist Party had abolitionist tendencies
- The victory of the agrarian and state-rights-oriented Republican Party in 1800 fatally weakened the Federalist party
- African Americans appreciate the significance of Missouri crisis
The Missouri Comprise (cont’d)
- Compromise allows Missouri as slave state
- Maine admitted to union a free state
- Slavery banned north of old Louisiana Territory
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- After compromise, a new black and white antislavery militancy soon confronted the white South
African Americans:
A Concise History, Combined Volume, 5e
Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, Stanley C. Harrold
Chapter 6
Life in the
Cotton Kingdom
1793–1861
In this engraving, which dates to about 1858, slaves harvest cotton on a southern plantation. Note the division of labor with women picking and men packing and carrying
- This drawing highlights the way that slavery was depicted in publications during the nineteenth century.
- Most illustrations of slaves showed well-fed slaves working contentedly as a family in near-idyllic circumstances.
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Learning Objectives
6-1 Why was cotton cultivation central to the expansion of slavery?
6-2 How did the cultivation of various crops shape the experience of slavery?
6-3 How did the duties of house slaves and skilled slaves differ from those of urban and agricultural slaves?
6-4 What was the role of punishment in slavery?
6-5 What were the characteristics of the domestic slave trade between 1820 and 1860?
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Learning Objectives (cont’d)
6-6 What were the conditions that shaped family life and the health and welfare of slaves?
6-7 How did African Americans adapt to life under slavery, and what role did religion
play?
6-8 How have historians evaluated slavery and slaves?
The Expansion of Slavery
- Increase in slavery from Atlantic coast to Texas
Invention of cotton gin makes cotton profitable
- Slave population grew fast in newest cotton-producing states
- Virginia had highest slave population throughout period
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- Enslaved black labor cleared forests and drained swamps to make land fit for cultivation
- The expansion of the cotton culture led to the removal of the American Indians
- Removal of Cherokee, Creek, Seminole and other tribes to land in Oklahoma by 1830s-1840s
- This map illustrates the great expansion of plantation slavery, as well as cotton production in the deep South in the decades prior to the Civil War.
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- This table highlights the explosive growth in slave populations in Deep South states after 1820.
- While Upper South states increased the number of slave by about 50 percent, the slave population of Lower South states increased by close to 500 percent.
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- This map tracks the increase in slave populations in the exact areas where cotton planting increased across the Lower South after 1820.
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The Expansion of Slavery (cont’d)
- Ownership of Slaves in the Old South
Half of slaveholders owned less than five slaves
Unlike slaves, slaveholder numbers declined
Some black slaveholders
Purchased relatives to protect from sale or expulsion
Some African Americans purchased slaves for financial reasons
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- Almost half of the South’s slaveholders owned fewer than five slaves, only 12 percent owned more than 20 slaves, and just 1 percent owned more than 50 slaves
- Although the typical slaveholder owned few slaves, the typical slave lived on a sizable plantation
The Expansion of Slavery (cont’d)
f
LO 6-1. The rapid and extensive expansion of slavery from the Atlantic coast to Texas in the early 1800s was caused by
.
A: the end of the Revolutionary war
B: the invention of the cotton gin
C: the ratification of the Constitution
D: the spread of tobacco production
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The Expansion of Slavery (cont’d)
f
LO 6-1. The rapid and extensive expansion of slavery from the Atlantic coast to Texas in the early 1800s was caused by
.
A: the end of the Revolutionary war
B: the invention of the cotton gin
C: the ratification of the Constitution
D: the spread of tobacco production
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The Expansion of Slavery (cont’d)
LO 6-1. Almost half of the South’s slaveholders owned fewer than five slaves.
A: True
B: False
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The Expansion of Slavery (cont’d)
LO 6-1. Almost half of the South’s slaveholders owned fewer than five slaves.
A: True
B: False
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Slave Labor in Agriculture
- 75 percent of South’s slave population were agricultural laborers
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- 55 percent of slaves cultivated cotton, 10 percent grew tobacco, and 10 percent produced sugar, rice, or hemp
- 15 percent domestic servants; 10 percent worked in trades and industries
MyLab Media
Interactive Map: Agriculture, Industry, and Slavery in the Old South, 1850
http://www.mathxl.com/info/MediaPopup.aspx?origin=1&disciplineGroup=5&type=Interactive
M
ap&[email protected]/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/history/MHL/US/interactiveMaps/Agriculture_Industry_and_Slavery_Old_South_1850.html&width=800&height=600&autoh=yes¢erwin=yes
Slave Labor in Agriculture (cont’d)
- Tobacco
Tobacco remained important in south
Difficult crop to produce
Slaves handpicked worms off plants
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- Tobacco remained important in Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and parts of North Carolina and Missouri
Slave Labor in Agriculture (cont’d)
- Rice
Rice production confined to South Carolina, Georgia
Rice requires intensive labor, needs large labor force
Masters carefully monitored slaves’ productivity
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- By 1860, 20 rice plantations had 300 to 500 slaves each, and eight others had between 500 and 1,000 each
- Vast plantations represented sizable capital investments
Slave Labor in Agriculture (cont’d)
- Sugar
Sugar cultivated along Mississippi River, southern Louisiana
Slave life on sugar plantations harsh
Hot, humid conditions strain on slaves’ health
Raising sugarcane, refining sugar require constant labor
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- Slaves cultivated sugar on plantations along the Mississippi River in southern Louisiana
- Commercial production of sugarcane did not begin in Louisiana until the 1790s
- This map depicts the different mix of slave occupations throughout the Old South a decade before the Civil War started.
- Many state economies incorporated a variety of crops and extractive industries like lumber and turpentine production.
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Slave Labor in Agriculture (cont’d)
- Cotton
Cotton planters employed most slaves
By 1860, cotton exports were more than 50 percent of the value of all U.S. exports
By 1860, Mississippi and Alabama were the leading cotton producers
As plantations grew, price of slaves increased
Slaves performed backbreaking labor in anxiety, fear
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- Cotton was by far the South’s and the country’s most important staple crop
- Cotton as a crop did not require cultivation as intensive as that needed for tobacco, rice, or sugar
- By 1860, out of the 2,500,000 slaves employed in agriculture in the United States, 1,815,000 of them produced cotton
- Enslaved men and women who worked in the cotton fields rose before dawn, ate breakfast, and then worked under the control of black slave drivers
- This chart highlights the importance of cotton in the American economy prior to the Civil War.
- Southern leaders emphasized the value of cotton and other commodities produced in the South in the debates over the continuation of slavery.
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Slave Labor in Agriculture (cont’d)
- Cotton and Technology
Nineteenth century technology impacted slaves’ lives
Steamboats in the Mississippi, railroads open old Southwest to cotton
In some instances, technology improved plantation conditions
Technology available to slave women less sophisticated
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- Agricultural technology in the Cotton Kingdom was primitive compared to that in the Old Northwest
- Free northwestern farmers by the 1840s used a variety of machines, drawn by teams of horses and constructed of wood and iron
- In contrast, southern slave workers relied on simple plows and harrows, drawn by a single mule
- Cotton gins became much larger and more efficient than the ones Eli Whitney designed during the 1790s; slaves use them
Slave Labor in Agriculture (cont’d)
- Other Crops
Kentucky center of hemp industry
Hemp required much less labor, fewer slaves
Wheat replaced tobacco as the main cash crop in much of Maryland and Virginia
Hogs and corn are used on plantations
Hemp, livestock, and wheat are sent to market
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- Slaves in the Old South produced hemp, corn, wheat, oats, rye, white potatoes, and sweet potatoes
- Transition to wheat encouraged many planters to substitute free labor for slave labor
Slave Labor in Agriculture (cont’d)
f
LO 6-2. As they had since colonial times, slaves in South Carolina and Georgia low country worked according to task systems in cultivating , which required intensive labor.
A: rice
B: tobacco
C: indigo
D: sugar
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Slave Labor in Agriculture (cont’d)
f
LO 6-2. As they had since colonial times, slaves in South Carolina and Georgia low country worked according to task systems in cultivating , which required intensive labor.
A: rice
B: tobacco
C: indigo
D: sugar
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Slave Labor in Agriculture (cont’d)
LO 6-2. Agricultural laborers constituted 75 percent of the South’s slave population.
A: True
B: False
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Slave Labor in Agriculture (cont’d)
LO 6-2. Agricultural laborers constituted 75 percent of the South’s slave population.
A: True
B: False
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House Servants and Skilled Slaves
- House servants under close white supervision
- Cut off from slave communities
- House slaves worked as cooks, maids, butlers, nurses, gardeners
- Skilled slaves more elite, more freedom
- Some skilled slaves hired out to work for money
- Slave carpenters, blacksmiths, and millwrights built and maintained plantation houses, slave quarters, and machinery
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- About 75 percent of the slave workforce in the nineteenth century consisted of field hands
- Slaves who performed domestic duties, drove carriages, or learned a craft considered themselves privileged
- Black men had a decided advantage over black women—apart from those who were seamstresses—in becoming skilled
House Servants and Skilled Slaves (cont’d)
- Urban and Industrial Slavery
Slave populations in southern cities were large
1840–slaves are majority of Charleston’s 29,000 population
They tended to decline between 1800–1860
Urban slaves could earn money; masters had less control
Urban slaves purchased freedom over term of years
Industrial slavery overlapped with urban slavery
Industrial slaves not purchased but hired from masters
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- Most skilled slaves who hired their time lived in the South’s towns and cities
- Many of them resided in Baltimore and New Orleans– major ports and the Old South’s largest cities
- Slaves who contracted with masters paid a certain amount of money per year and could live on their own, buying their food and clothing
- Urban slaves served as domestics, washwomen, waiters, artisans, stevedores, drayers, hack drivers, and general laborers
House Servants and Skilled Slaves (cont’d)
- Urban and Industrial Slavery (cont’d)
Industrial slaves had more autonomy, opportunity for advancement
Term slavery
A type of slavery prevalent in the Chesapeake from the late 1700s to the Civil War in which slaves were able to purchase their freedom from their masters by earning money over a number of years
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- Although dangerous and tiring work, slaves came to prefer industrial jobs to plantation labor
- Industrial labor, like urban labor, was a path to freedom for some
- As urbanization and industrialization increased in the North and the Upper South, the need for slave labor decreased as did the percentage of slaves in the overall population.
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House Servants and Skilled Slaves (cont’d)
f
LO 6-3. were under more stress than field hands because they were under closer white supervision.
A: Skilled workers such as carpenters
B: Industrial slaves
C: House servants
D: Slave drivers
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House Servants and Skilled Slaves (cont’d)
f
LO 6-3. were under more stress than field hands because they were under closer white supervision.
A: Skilled workers such as carpenters
B: Industrial slaves
C: House servants
D: Slave drivers
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House Servants and Skilled Slaves (cont’d)
LO 6-3. As plantation slavery declined in the Chesapeake, skilled slaves could leave their master’s estate to “hire their time.”
A: True
B: False
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House Servants and Skilled Slaves (cont’d)
LO 6-3. As plantation slavery declined in the Chesapeake, skilled slaves could leave their master’s estate to “hire their time.”
A: True
B: False
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Punishment
- White southerners believed slaves needed threat of beatings
- Fear of whippings drove slaves to mutual protection
- Slave children taught to avoid punishment, resist overseers
- Few slaves escaped whippings
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- Although slave owners used incentives, slave labor by definition is forced labor based on the threat of physical punishment
- Masters denied that brutality of beatings detracted from the essentially benign and paternalistic character of the South’s “peculiar institution”
- Slaves worked slowly—but not too slowly—and feigned illness to maintain their strength
- Slaves broke tools and injured mules, oxen, and horses to tacitly protest their condition
In this 1863 photograph, a former Louisiana slave displays the scars that resulted from repeated whippings. Although this degree of scarring is exceptional, few slaves were able to avoid being whipped at least once in their lives.
By the 1850s, photographs offered new perspectives on the brutality of slavery, reinforcing the abolitionist position in the North and border states.
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Punishment (cont’d)
f
LO 6-4. Slave masters offered a mix of to induce slaves to perform well.
A: bonuses and promises of manumission
B: incentives and threats of beatings
C: bribes
D: punishments
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Punishment (cont’d)
f
LO 6-4. Slave masters offered a mix of to induce slaves to perform well.
A: bonuses and promises of manumission
B: incentives and threats of beatings
C: bribes
D: punishments
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Punishment (cont’d)
LO 6-4. Fear of the lash drove slaves to work and to avoid cooperating with each other in resisting their masters.
A: True
B: False
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Punishment (cont’d)
LO 6-4. Fear of the lash drove slaves to work and to avoid cooperating with each other in resisting their masters.
A: True
B: False
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The Domestic Slave Trade
- Cotton expansion, slavery decline stimulates domestic slave trade
- Slaves sold south to prevent escape
- Slaves escaped to avoid being sold south
- Traders operated slave prisons
- Driven by economic necessity or profit, masters irrevocably separated families
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- As masters in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky trimmed excess slaves from their workforces, they sold men, women, and children to slave traders
- The traders in turn shipped these unfortunate people to the slave markets of New Orleans and other cities for resale
- Traders operated compounds called slave prisons or slave pens in Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; Alexandria and Richmond, Virginia; Lexington, Kentucky; and Charleston, South Carolina
- Traders sometimes tore babies from their mothers’ arms
MyLab Media
Closer Look: Slave Auction in Richmond, Virginia
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/ssa_shared_media_1/history/mhl/us/closer_looks/ushistory_1011/web/ushistory_1011.html
The Domestic Slave Trade (cont’d)
- Coffles
- Files of slaves chained together that was typical of the domestic slave trade
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- Most of the victims of slave trade moved on foot in groups called coffles, chained or roped together
MyLab Media
Document: Slave Tells of His Sale at Auction, 1848
A slave-coffle passing the Capitol
- As the reality of slavery was publicized to a increasingly literate American population through newspapers and magazines, support for the institution declined dramatically in the states outside the South.
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The Domestic Slave Trade (cont’d)
LO 6-5. Most of the domestic slaves traded to cotton-growing states between 1820 and 1860 came from:
A. the states of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky
B. Texas and Louisiana
C. Africa
D. the Caribbean
The Domestic Slave Trade (cont’d)
LO 6-5 Most of the domestic slaves traded to cotton-growing states between 1820 and 1860 came from:
A. the states of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky
B. Texas and Louisiana
C. Africa
D. the Caribbean
The Domestic Slave Trade (cont’d)
LO 6-5. The number of slaves traded domestically between 1820 and 1860 was relatively small, numbering no more than 10,000 a decade.
A: True
B: False
The Domestic Slave Trade (cont’d)
LO 6-5. The number of slaves traded domestically between 1820 and 1860 was relatively small, numbering no more than 10,000 a decade.
A: True
B: False
Slave Families
- Masters benefitted from slave pairings, slave children
Most enslaved men and women could choose mates
- Families core of African American slave communities
Couples usually lived together unless owned by different masters
- More equality in slave marriages than masters
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- Slave families had no legal standing
- Even though no legal sanctions supported slave marriages and the domestic slave trade could sunder them, many such marriages endured
- Enslaved couples usually lived together in cabins on their master’s property, with little privacy
This woodcut of a black father being sold away from his family appeared in The Child’s Anti-Slavery Book in 1860. Family ruptures, like the one shown, were among the more common and tragic aspects to slavery, especially in the Upper South, where masters claimed slavery was “mild.”
- Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act and to slavery in general increased as graphic descriptions of the cruelty of slavery became a staple of American popular literature.
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- This chart indicates the declining number of slaves entering the North versus the South in the three decades after the American War for Independence.
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Slave Families (cont’d)
- Children
Extended black families provided support against masters
Infant mortality rates higher for blacks than whites
Slave children worked early, childhood short
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- Enslaved parents instructed their children in family history, religion, and the skills required to survive in slavery
- Ability to rely on grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and honorary relatives served as a hedge against the family disruption
- Black women working in the fields had insufficient diets, gave birth to babies with lower weight than normal, susceptible to higher infant mortality
Slave Families (cont’d)
- Children (cont’d)
Care of slave children varied with estate size
House servants carried their babies with them while they worked
On farms, enslaved women strapped their babies to their backs or left them at the edge of fields
On plantations, mothers left children with elderly or infirm adult
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- As children grew older, they spent much time in unsupervised play, often with white children
- Early on, parents and others taught youngsters about the realities of plantation life
- Children started working at age six for light chores, ages eight to twelve for adult fieldwork
Black children began doing “light chores” in cotton fields at an early age. These girls are collecting cotton bolls that older workers missed.
- Mortality rates for black children were much higher than for white children
- By their adolescent years, they were working in the fields along with adults all day
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Slave Families (cont’d)
- Sexual Exploitation
- Long-term relationships between masters, enslaved women common
- Relationship between Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemmings most infamous
- Routine rape more common than long-term relationships
Slave women forced to have sex against will
Sexual abuse highlighted black men’s inability to protect women
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- Masters’ sexual exploitation of black women disrupted enslaved families
- Hemmings/Jefferson relationship began in 1787 when Hemings served as caretaker to one of Jefferson’s daughters at his household in Paris—she was 14, he was 44
- White southerners justified sexual abuse of black women in several ways: claim black women were promiscuous, and that it reduced prostitution, promoted purity among white women
Lecture Starter: access via the Internet Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello home (at www.monticello.org) and take a virtual tour through the buildings and slave quarters.
Slave Families (cont’d)
- Diet
Slave diet lacked nutrients, diversity
Slaves subject to chronic illness
Based on corn, bacon, supplemented by slave-raised vegetables, eggs, poultry
African-American cooks developed African-based cuisine
Compared people in other parts of the Atlantic world, slaves in America were not undernourished
Seasoned foods with salt, onions, pepper, and other spices and herbs, fried meat and poultry
Cooking gave black women control, creativity
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- Typical plantation’s weekly ration of one peck of cornmeal (about 14 pounds) and three to four pounds of salt pork or bacon
- Masters and white southerners generally consumed the same sort of food that slaves ate
- Availability in the South of such African foods as okra, yams, collard greens, benne seeds, and peanuts strengthened their culinary ties to Africa
Slave Families (cont’d)
- Clothing
Clothing made by slaves, female slaveholders
Black women individualized their standard-issue clothing
Slaves usually received clothing twice a year
Clothing was usually made of homespun cotton or wool
Children often went naked in warm months
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- Enslaved men and women had less control over what they and their children wore than how they cooked
- Skilled slaves often produced the shoes and clothing worn by plantation workers
- Went barefoot during the warm months and wore cheap shoes in the winter
- Black women particularly sought to individualize clothing–changed the colors with dyes they extracted from roots, berries, walnut shells, oak leaves
Slave Families (cont’d)
- Health
South’s warm climate encouraged mosquito- borne diseases
African Americans more susceptible to often fatal diseases
Used traditional African remedies to treat sick
Black southern U.S. slave population grew by natural reproduction
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- Low birth weight, diet, and clothing all affected the health of slaves
- Much ill health resulted from overwork in the South’s hot, humid summers, exposure to cold during the winter, and poor hygiene
- Black southerners constituted the only New World slave population that grew by natural reproduction
- Enslaved African Americans also used traditional African remedies to treat the sick
Slave Families (cont’d)
f
LO 6-6. Between 1820 and 1860, an estimated of the slaves of the Upper South moved involuntarily into the Southwest.
A: 10 percent
B: 75 percent
C: 2 percent
D: 50 percent
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Slave Families (cont’d)
f
LO 6-6. Between 1820 and 1860, an estimated of the slaves of the Upper South moved involuntarily into the Southwest.
A: 10 percent
B: 75 percent
C: 2 percent
D: 50 percent
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Slave Families (cont’d)
LO 6-6. As masters in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky switched entirely from slave to wage labor, they sold men, women, and children to slave traders.
A: True
B: False
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Slave Families (cont’d)
LO 6-6. As masters in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky switched entirely from slave to wage labor, they sold men, women, and children to slave traders.
A: True
B: False
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The Socialization of Slaves
- Folktales taught slave children survival, mental agility, self-confidence
- Children learned to camouflage awareness of master’s treatment
- Masters missed slaves’ divided consciousness
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- Parents, other relatives, and elderly slaves generally told folktales to teach survival, mental agility, and self-confidence
- When slaves refused to do simple tasks correctly, masters saw it as black stupidity rather than resistance
The Socialization of Slaves (cont’d)
- Religion
Services sponsored by masters preached slave obedience
Some masters denied slaves access to Christianity
Some slaves ignored the religion
Slaves preferred semi-secret black church
Led by self-called, semi-illiterate black preachers
Singing, dancing, conjuring rituals to ward off evil
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- In New Orleans, Baltimore, and a few other locations, there were Roman Catholic slaves
- In Maryland during the 1830s, the Jesuits, an order of Roman Catholic priests and brothers, collectively owned approximately 300 slaves
- Biracial Baptist and Methodist congregations persisted in the South longer than they did in northern cities
- Biracial congregations usually had segregated seating
- Black churches emphasized Moses and deliverance from bondage rather than a consistent theology or Christian meekness
British artist John Antrobus completed this painting in about 1860. It is named Plantation Burial and suggests the importance of religion among enslaved African Americans. John Antrobus, “Negro Burial.” Oil painting. The Historic New Orleans Collection. #1960.46
- Many African Americans sought refuge in religion as slaves
- Black churches often became important social institutions in southern communities in the decades leading up to the Civil War
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The Socialization of Slaves (cont’d)
f
LO 6-7. When slaves refused to do simple tasks correctly, masters saw it as black stupidity rather than .
A: resistance
B: inability to understand master’s language
C: extreme exhaustion
D: lack of familiarity with the culture
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The Socialization of Slaves (cont’d)
f
LO 6-7. When slaves refused to do simple tasks correctly, masters saw it as black stupidity rather than .
A: resistance
B: inability to understand master’s language
C: extreme exhaustion
D: lack of familiarity with the culture
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The Socialization of Slaves (cont’d)
LO 6-7. Biracial Baptist and Methodist congregations persisted in the South longer than they did in northern cities.
A: True
B: False
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The Socialization of Slaves (cont’d)
LO 6-7. Biracial Baptist and Methodist congregations persisted in the South longer than they did in northern cities.
A: True
B: False
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The Character of Slavery and Slaves
- Historians debate character of Old South slave system
- Some see system as paternalistic
- Others deny paternalism, see system based on force
- Theories of genetic predisposition, dependence on masters
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- During 1910s, southern historian Ulrich B. Phillips portrayed slavery as a benign, paternalistic institution in which Christian slaveholders cared for largely content slaves
- More brutal realities prevail in the twenty-first century interpretation: most masters never met slaves face to face, most slaves were whipped, and over half of slaves were separated from families
- Slaves in Latin American countries influenced by Roman law and the Roman Catholic Church enjoyed more protection from abusive masters than did slaves in the United States
The Character of Slavery and Slaves (cont’d)
- Current understanding of character of African American slaves
- Built families, churches, communities within brutal plantation context
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- Since the 1960s, historians have argued that rather than dehumanizing black people, slavery led them to create institutions that allowed them some control over their lives
The Character of Slavery and Slaves (cont’d)
f
LO 6-8. During the 1910s, southern historian Ulrich B. Phillips portrayed slavery as a .
A: brutal form of genocide
B: misguided yet forgivable practice
C: benign, paternalistic institution
D: successful economic model
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The Character of Slavery and Slaves (cont’d)
f
LO 6-8. During the 1910s, southern historian Ulrich B. Phillips portrayed slavery as a .
A: brutal form of genocide
B: misguided yet forgivable practice
C: benign, paternalistic institution
D: successful economic model
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The Character of Slavery and Slaves (cont’d)
LO 6-8. Historians note that slaves in Latin American countries influenced by Roman law and the …
