King Cotton and the Planter Aristocracy

"King Cotton": Economic Effe

1. With the invention of the cotton gin, short-staple cotton eclipsed tobacco, rice,1. Economic
and sugar s
2. Planters flooded the virgin soil of the gulf states 2. As land wo
-- Reaping quick profits, they bought more land/slaves to grow cotton
3. Northern shippers reaped profits as well
-- Loaded cotton at southern ports, transported it to ENG, and bought manufactured
3. Overspecu
goo
-- 1840: Southern cotton accounted for:
-- 1/2 the value of American exports
-- 3/4 of England's supply
-- 1/2 of the world's supply -- 1/5 of England's population's "well-being"
4. One crop
Southern Exploitation:
1. English manufacturing was "bound" to the South
2. Assumed if a civil war broke out:
-- Northern ships would cut off the outward flow of cotton Plantation Sla
-- The English would be forced to break the blockade, and they would triumph 1. Planters re

Planter Aristocracy: 2. Spared sla

-- 1850: Only 1,733 planters owned over 100 slaves
-- Sent children to study at the finest schools 3. Hobbled ec
-- Leisure time for study, reflection, and statecraft; Many felt obligated to serve the publ
-- The dominance of theses select few was "undemocratic"
-- Widened gap between rich and poor 4. Slave Auct
-- Hampered tax-supported public education
-- Some even believed in establish feudalism
Southern Women:
-- Commanded sizable household staff (mostly female) Thirst for Free
-- Very few were sympathetic toward their "slave women" -- Most slaves
-- Almost none believed in abolition, or protested the selling of children and1.husbands
1800: Gab

White Majority: 2. 1822: Den

-- 2/3 of slaveowners owned fewer than 10 slaves & 1/4 of white southerners owned slaves
Social Pyramid: 3. 1831: Nat
1. Planter Aristocracy (minority)
2. Lesser masters, small farmers, majority of slaveholders -- Greatly inc
-- Worked the fields alongside their slaves
3. Whites w/o slaves (majority), backcountry and "mountain" farmers
-- Often raised corn and hogs, cut-off from market economy, mostly self-reliant
-- Less prosperous called: "hillbillies," "crackers," "clay eaters"
4. Free Blacks
5. Slaves (no rights)

Life of Free and Enslaved Blacks

Good Luck Studying

Free Blacks: Early Abolition
South: 1. 1817: Ame
-- Many were mulattos (white father/black mother), and emancipated by father
-- Some purchased freedom with earnings from "overtime" work
-- Many owned property, especially in New Orleans, and even slaves
-- Made up a "third race," lacking many personal freedoms 2. Theodore
-- Prohibited from certain occupations, testifying, and votin
-- Vulnerable to being captured and resold into slavery
North:
-- Forbidden from entry to several states and public schools
-- Competed with Irish immigrants for menial jobs Radical Abol
-- Hated more in the North than the South 1. 1831: Will

-- 1860: 4 million "human chattels" littered the basement of the South 2. 1833: Ame
Life as a Slave:
-- Conditions varied from region to region and master to master 3. 1829: Dav
-- Required hard work in the fields from dawn to dusk 4. Sojourner
-- Concentrated in the Deep South (SC / GA / Al / MS / LA) 5. 1841: Fred
Keeping Slaves in Line:
1. Overseers watched slaves in the fields (on plantations), whip in hand
2. Breakers disciplined "strong willed" slaves, mostly with lavish lashings Southern Opp
3. Planters realized the prosperity riding on the slaves backs was too high to beat
1. 1831-1832
them regu
Slave Culture:
-- Most lived on large plantations with 20 or more slaves
-- Developed stable families under bondage 2. Proslavery
-- Children named after grandparents or surname of their forebear's master
-- Though Christianized, they molded their own distinct religion, using Christian and African
-- Responsorial style of preaching (congregation responds to minister)
Burdens of Bondage: 3. 1836: Gag
1. Slaves slowed the pace to the bare minimum to avoid lashings
-- Stereotype: Black "laziness" 4. 1835: The
2. Filched food from the "big house"
3. Pilfered goods produced or purchased with their labor Northern Impa
4. Sabotaged machinery 1. 1850s: Sou
5. Stopped Work 2. N.E. textile
3. 1834: A m
4. 1835: Garr
5. Elijah Love
-- By the 185

Good Luck Studying

 Southern Slave System
Economic Effect:
1. Economic structure became increasingly monopolistic (cotton)
2. As land wore thin, small farmers sold holdings to their prosperous neighbors
-- Big got bigger and small got smaller
-- Population began to leak to the West and Northwest
3. Overspeculation of land and slaves led many planters to sink into debt
-- Slaves represented a heavy investment for an unpredictable pay-out
-- Costs: upfront costs, food, and shelter / Risks: injury, flee, and disease
4. One crop economy put the South at the mercy of world conditions
-- Watched northerners prosper through a variety of business, industry, and shipping
-- Repelled large-scale European immigration

Plantation Slavery:
1. Planters regarded slaves as investments ($2 billion invested by 1860)
-- Primary form of weath in the South
2. Spared slaves dangerous work [high risk of injury]
-- Instead, prefered to hire Irish laborers, than risk a loss in their "investments"
3. Hobbled economic development of the region
-- Profits from cotton, pulled more and more slaves into the Deep South
-- Women who bore many babies were prized and even offered freedom for an certain amou
4. Slave Auctions
-- Families separated (usually economic reasons), a phychological horror
-- Harriet Beecher Stowe captured the theme's emotional power in Uncle Tom's Cabin

Thirst for Freedom:

-- Most slaves would rather be free and dead than a slave and alive
1. 1800: Gabriel Prossner [VA] led an armed insurrection
-- Foiled by informers / Leaders hanged
2. 1822: Denmark Vesey [SC] (free) led a rebellion in Charleston
-- Betrayed by informers / Publicly hanged along with his followers
3. 1831: Nat Turner [VA] led a bloody uprising, killing 60 whites
-- Eventually settled, with equally bloody consequences
-- Greatly increased southerners fear of rebellious slaves
-- Tightened slave codes in the South

elf-reliant

Abolitionism

Good Luck Studying

Early Abolitionism:
1. 1817: American Colonization Society founded
-- Focused on transporting blacks back to Africa
-- 1822: Established the Republic of Liberia for former slaves
-- Most blacks becamed Americanized, and by 1860 were virtually all American-born
2. Theodore Dwight Weld appealed with special power and directness to rural audiences
-- Inspired by Charles Grandison Finney
-- Aided by Arthur and Lewis Tappan, who paid his way to Lane Theological Seminary
-- 1834: He and his fellow "Lane Rebels" fanned out across the Old NW preaching antislavery
-- 1839: Assemble American Slavery As It Is
Radical Abolitionists:
1. 1831: William Lloyd Garrison published his militant antislavery paper, The Liberator
-- Uncompromisingly, he declared slavery should be stamped out at once
2. 1833: American Anti-Slavery Society founded
-- Wendell Phillips of Boston declared he would eat no sugar and wear no cotton
3. 1829: David Walker advocated a bloody end to whit supremacy
4. Sojourner Truth fought tirelessly for emancipation and women's right in NY
5. 1841: Frederick Douglass gave an eloquant speech at an antislavery meeting in MA
-- Flexibly practical, looked to opolitics to end slavery

Southern Opposition:
1. 1831-1832: VA legislature debated and defeated emancipatiion proposals
-- States tightened slave codes, moving towards prohibiting emancipation
-- GA offered a reward for Garrison's arrest, claiming he was a terrorist
2. Proslavery whites defended slavery as a positive good
-- Claimed it was supported by the Bible and the wisdom of Aristotle
-- Believed they were helping Africans by bringing them to America
-- Claimed that slaves were in better shape than the northern wage slaves
3. 1836: Gag Resolution required all antislavery appeals to be tabled w/o debate
-- John Quincy Adams led an 8 year appeal, until it was repealed
4. 1835: The federal government ordered south postmasters to destroy abolitionist material

Northern Impact:
1. 1850s: Southern planters owed northern bankers about $300 million
2. N.E. textile mills were fueled by slave-raised cotton
3. 1834: A mob broke into Lewis Tappan's house and destroyed the interior
4. 1835: Garrison was dragged through the streets of Boston
5. Elijah Lovejoy [IL] had his printing press destroyed 4 times and killed in 1837 by a mob
-- By the 1850s, abolitionist outcries began to sway many minds in the North

Good Luck Studying

nd shipping

or an certain amount

cle Tom's Cabin

Good Luck Studying

erican-born
ural audiences

al Seminary
eaching antislavery

he Liberator

eting in MA

ionist material

37 by a mob

Good Luck Studying