“PECULIAR INSTITUTION”
Slavery and AbolitionChapter 17
When is evil so enormous, that it must be denounced,
even at the risk of participating bloodshed and
butchery?
Characteristics of the Antebellum
South1. Primarily agrarian.2. Economic power shifted from the
“upper South” to the “lower South.”3. “Cotton Is King!”
* 1860 5 mil. bales a yr. (57% of total US exports).
4. Very slow development of industrialization.
5. Rudimentary financial system.6. Inadequate transportation system.
KING COTTON1793: Eli Whitney’s Cotton GinEconomic Impact:• Cotton ½ of all exports after
1840• ½ World’s supply of cotton• 1/5 of British population tied
to cotton industry• 75% of all British cotton came
from American South
PLANTATION AGRICULTURE
•“Land Butchery”•Monopolistic – big got bigger, small got smaller•Financial Instability•Slaves were a heavy investment•One-Crop Economy•Resented North for getting rich at the South’s expense
Southern Population
Southern Society (1850)“Slavocracy”
[planter aristocracy]
The “Plain Folk”[white yeoman farmers]
6,000,000
Black Freemen
Black Slaves3,200,000
250,000
Total US Population 23,000,000[9,250,000 in the South = 40%]
SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE SOUTH
•Who owned slaves? •¼ of white southerners •Planter “Aristocracy”
• 1/3 of Slave owners• Sir Walter Scott – glorified feudal
society• Southern Women
•Smaller Slave owners • 2/3 of slave owners• Less than 10 slaves• Small formers, similar to small farmers
of the north
Slave-Owning Population (1850)
Slave-Owning Families (1850)
SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE SOUTH
3/4 of whites owned no slaves
• Lived isolated lives• “white trash”, “hillbillies, “crackers”, “clay
eaters”• Shiftless, listless, lazy – Actually sick –
malnourished• Biggest defenders of slave system – WHY?
Mountain Whites• Lived far from cotton kingdom• Hated planters and slaves• Civil War “Rich man’s war but a poor man’s
fight”• Unionists
SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE SOUTH
Free Blacks• South:
• 250,000 in 1860• Mulattoes – emancipated children of white
planters• Purchased freedom• New Orleans – many owned property• “Third Race”
• North:• 250,000 • States forbade their entrance• Especially hated by the Irish• Race Prejudice
SLAVE LIFESinging, Dancing, Banjos
WhippingsFamily LifeAuctions
Separation of FamiliesUncle Tom’s Cabin By Harriet Beecher
Stowe
What specific information about slaves and slavery can you see in (or infer from) these photographs?
Early Emancipation in the North
Abolitionist Movement 1816 American Colonization Society created (gradual, voluntary emancipation.
British Colonization Society symbol
Abolitionist Movemente Create a free slave state in Liberia,
WestAfrica.
e No real anti-slavery sentiment in the North in the 1820s & 1830s.
Gradualists Immediatists
Anti-Slavery Alphabet
William Lloyd Garrison (1801-1879)
e Slavery & Masonryundermined republicanvalues.
e Immediate emancipation with NO compensation.
e Slavery was a moral, notan economic issue.
R2-4
The Liberator
Premiere issue January 1, 1831
R2-5
The Tree of Slavery—Loaded with the Sum of All Villanies!
Other White Abolitionists
Lewis Tappan
Arthur Tappan
James Birney
e Liberty Party.e Ran for President
in 1840 & 1844.
Black AbolitionistsDavid Walker(1785-1830)
1829 Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World
Fight for freedom rather than wait to be set free by whites.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)
1845 The Narrative of the Life Of Frederick Douglass1847 “The North Star”
R2-12
Sojourner Truth (1787-1883)
or Isabella Baumfree
1850 The Narrative of Sojourner Truth R2-10
Harriet Tubman(1820-1913)e Helped over 300
slaves to freedom.e $40,000 bounty on
her head.e Served as a Union
spy during the Civil War.
“Moses”
Leading Escaping Slaves Along the Underground
Railroad
The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroade “Conductor” ==== leader of the
escape
e “Passengers” ==== escaping slaves
e “Tracks” ==== routes
e “Trains” ==== farm wagons transporting the escaping slaves
e “Depots” ==== safe houses to rest/sleep