Slavery

An Overview

Short-staple cotton, the variety grown in the Southern U.S.

Profitable Cotton Production Requires 5 Things:- a quick method for cleaning - land - warm climate - labor (to plant, weed, harvest, and clean) -transportation

1860 - Cotton Production at the time of Lincoln's Election

Population Density

• The number of people in a given area.

• Expressed as a ratio: # of people / size of area

Most of the time it’s # per square mile or per square kilometer

• Think of it as crowded an area is.

Population density of slaves in 1860

The growth of the "Cotton Kingdom" 1820-1860

Facts:

US Cotton Production in 1800 : 156,000 bales (1 bale = 480 lbs)US Cotton Production in 1860 : over 4,000,000 bales (60% of all US exports)US Slave Population in 1800 : 887,612US Slave Population in 1860 : 3,953,760Price of a healthy male field hand in 1850s: $1800 Estimated value of Slave property in 1860: 

$ 3,000,000,000 (1860 dollars: $1 today = $100 in 1860)

More Facts:

- Only 10% of all Southerners were slaveholders....but 1/3 of all Southern families owned slaves.  In the lower South (Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana) the number was closer to 1/2. - over 50% of all slaveowners owned < 5 slaves- 12% of slaveowners owned  > 20 slaves- 1% of slaveowners owned > 50 slaves- 2% of free blacks owned slaves (mostly to protect family)

.

The Breakdown

75% of all slaves worked as unskilled agricultural laborers (planting, weeding, harvesting).    South Carolina slaves planting sweet potatoes in 1862.

   55% worked cotton10% worked tobacco (Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina)10% worked rice (coastal areas of South Carolina & Georgia), sugar (Louisiana & Florida) or hemp (Missouri) 

More breakdown

15% of slaves worked as domestics (house workers: nannies, cooks, butlers, maids)  10% of slaves were skilled workers (carpenters, seamstresses, blacksmiths, coopers) These slaves were more valuable than field hands as they helped plantations be self-sufficient.  These slaves also would make their own money and buy their freedom. A coachman...someone who

drove a horse-drawn carriage.

More of the BreakdownMost slaves worked on large plantations (20 or more slaves) That means that a majority of slaves were owned by 12% of the population. That also means that a majority of the productive land was owned by 12% of the population. (wealth in the South = land and slaves)

Most of these slaves had little or no contact with their masters.

Cabins where slaves were raised for market – The Hermitage, Savannah, GA

Questions

 Which slaves were best prepared for emancipation? Why? 

A group of refugee slaves near Cumberland Landing,

VA

Racial Interactions on large plantations

The only contact with whites these slaves had was with an overseer, who was mainly a poor white man with little to no land or slaves who worked for the plantation owner; and with slave patrols: poor, armed local whites who would occasionally act as low-level cops making sure slaves weren't roaming around without permission. 

The overseer's job was to get the most work out of the slaves as possible.  He set work hours and administered punishments, and was not well-liked. There were black overseers as well. There were not many and they were

especially hated. 

Racial Interactions on small plantations

• Most slave owners owned 5 or fewer slaves. Slaves on these plantations lived and worked very close to their owners, most often in the field alongside them and had very little contact with other slaves.

• They would often live in a small cabin or lean-to right next to the owner’s house.

The roots of racial misunderstanding

• Most black people in the pre-war South lived on large plantations around other blacks did not interact with “typical” white people on a daily basis.

• Most white people lived on small farms and did not interact with “typical” black people on a daily basis.

• This dynamic stayed in effect long after slavery ended.

Question:

 -What did non-slaveholding whites in slaveholding areas have to gain by supporting slavery?

Punishing slavesSlaves were punished for a variety of reasons. Most punishments were mental/emotional (threats of "selling South," or selling off family or friends, isolation, loss of breaks or free time)  Some punishments were physical (whippings, spike collars, clubbings, brandings, mutilations, shackles, slave-breakers)Physical punishments were rare but brutal.  This was necessary for two reasons: 1.  Physical punishments could permanently damage a valuable commodity. 

2. The threat of physical punishment is far more effective than the punishment itself....”Whip one to control 50.” … the mind is a powerful thing. Death was limited to severe cases (murder, rape, arson, assault upon a white person)  

Where slaves came from:

-Slaves in the Western Hemisphere came mainly from West Africa.  Most of these Africans went to Brazil, and the Caribbean Islands. -Few slaves were brought directly from Africa to the U.S. because they were not particularly wanted. -Most slaves imported to the U.S. came from the Caribbean. -In 1808, the U.S. outlawed the importation of slaves. -Most slaves in the United States in 1860 were born in the United States.

Virginia’s #1 export for the year 1860 was slaves.

Questions:

 -Why were slaves from the Caribbean prized over slaves brought directly from Africa?-Why were American-born slaves preferred over imported slaves? 

Cape Coast Castle in Ghana (West Africa) where thousands of Africans were imprisoned on their way to the

Western hemisphere and slavery.

Fighting the system

The most blatant forms of rebellion were also the most rare:(open revolt, running away) although paranoia was highest about these two.  Many slaves who ran away often returned. More "down-low" versions were the most popular:(intentional work slowdowns, faking illness or injury, faking ignorance, sabotage of equipment). Such forms both fed and fed off of racist assumptions.

People who fought the system

Nat Turner (center)led a rebellion in 1831 where he and his followers killed 60 white men, women and childrenin Southampton County, VA.  He was captured, hanged, beheaded and skinned.  His body was then put on display to serve as a warning to anyone else who might be like-minded.

People who fought the system

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland around 1820.She escaped in 1849 and made13 trips into the South to help slaves escape North. During the Civil War, she worked as a nurse, cook, spy, and as an armed scout for the Union Army. She was the first woman to lead an armed expedition into combat, leading a raid on the Combahee River in South Carolina that freed 700 slaves.

People who fought the system

William Lloyd Garrison foundedThe Liberator in 1831, the mostfamous anti-slavery newspaper.He was also a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society and instrumentalin helping Frederick Douglass' story get told.  In 1844, he publicly burned a copy of the Constitution, calling it "a Covenant with death."  He was so outspoken and radical that the State of Georgia offered $5000 for his arrest.

People who fought the system

Frederick Douglass was born in Maryland in 1818.  He escaped in 1838 and immediately began working as an abolitionist.   William Lloyd Garrison encouraged him to become a lecturer on slavery and in 1845, he published his autobiography.  Douglass' workwas so eloquent and well-written, that many people doubted that he actually wrote it. 

In addition to working against slavery, Douglass also worked for equality in education and for women's rights. During the Civil War, he encouraged the recruitment of black soldiers, and his own son served in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first all-black regular unit in the US Army.  After the war, he became the US Ambassador to Haiti.

People who fought the systemJohn Brown first came on to the National scene in 1856 in Kansas.  In 1859, he led a raid on Harper's Ferry, VA intending to start an armed slave rebellion.  The raid failed, and Brown was captured, tried and hanged.  Before his death, he said: "Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit; so let it be done!"

The Underground Railroad

• A network of safe houses and individuals who helped slaves hide and run away north to freedom.

• The safe houses were referred to as “stations” and people who led slaves to the safe houses were called “conductors.”

• Harriet Tubman was one of the most famous “conductors.” She helped over 70 slaves escape.

Question:• Why didn’t more slaves

rebel or runaway?

The “door of no return”Cape Coast Castle, Ghana (Africa)

An interesting end note: “Hands that once picked cotton, can now pick presidents.”

-Jesse Jackson

1 dot = 2000 bales of cotton produced

in 1860