The “Old South”: An Illusion of Unity

The “Solid South” has always been more fiction than fact—even in the

years just prior to the Civil War.

I. The Unifying Element: Slavery

• Reason for slavery in the Antebellum Deep South

• Slavery in the Upper South

• Population growth lagging behind the North

• Distinctively Southern

II. Geographic Divisions

A. Upper South

• What states are we talking about?

• Agricultural diversity

• Important source of slaves for the Deep South

-- “Sold down the river”

• A lot in common with the Northwest—Where did the future lie for this region?

B. The Cotton Kingdom

• What states are we talking about?

• Climate suitable for plantation agriculture and the growth of predominantly cash crops

• Economies of scale in cotton production

• Cotton was an economical crop to keep gang labor busy

• Cotton belt moved westward over time

B. Cotton Kingdom (cont.)

• Explosion in the production of cotton

• Boom and bust cycles in cotton production

• Deep South agriculture was anything but a single crop system

• Calls for southern industrialization (more true of the Upper South)

• Was slavery profitable?• Deep South remained backward

economically

III. Slaveholding Society: “Hidden Fracture” in the Class

Structure

A. The Planter Class

• Slavery created the illusion of white equality while actually creating severe inequality

• Number of southern planters

• Picture of the typical southern planter

A. The Planter Class (cont.)

• Aspired to a social status similar to European nobility

• The Planter’s Family• Southern “cult of

honor”• The violent side of

southern plantation life

B. Planter/Slave Relations

• A paternalistic relationship• Slaves treated on the whole

better than in other slaveholding societies

• Length of a slave’s day• Problems with disease• Feeding and clothing the slaves• The circumstances for slave

children• Varying relationships with the

master• Disciplining Slave Labor

C. The World of the Non-Planter Whites

• The life of the Non-Planter, slave-owning whites

• Most slave preferred life on the larger plantations

• The life of the non-slaveholding family farmer—the “yeoman” farmer

• The People of the Pine Barrens• Why no opposition to slavery in the south?

IV. Ideological Tension in the Old South

• Defense of slavery before 1830-- “necessary evil”

• A crucial shift: 1831• Defense of slavery after

1831-- “a positive good”-- Cannibals All! Or Slaves Without Masters (1857)

• The inherent problem with “states rights” thinking

V. The World the Slaves Made

A. Slave Resistance

• Open Rebellion--Richmond, Va. (1800): Gabriel Prosser--Charleston, S.C. (1822): Denmark Vesey--Southampton, Va. (1831): Nat Turner

• Run Away• Passive Resistance

-- “Puttin’ one over on Ole Massah”

B. The Free Black Experience

• Number of Free Blacks in U.S. in 1860

• Social and political outcasts wherever they lived

• Semi-slaves in the south• Large number of

mulattoes in southern cities

• Famous Free Black Abolitionists

B. The Free Black Experience (cont.)

• Douglass’ North Star (1847)

• Freedom always at risk• Some slaves and Free

Blacks in the south supported the planter regime

• Dramatic rescues of fugitive slaves-- Rescue of Shadrack (1851)

C. African-American Slave Religion

• Inner resources and dignity to resist slavery

• Cornerstone of emerging African-American culture

• Free Blacks formed the first African-American denominations

--A.M.E. Church (1816)

• Slave Religion

• Popular Themes

D. Slave Family Life

• Strength of slave marriages• Close, affectionate

relationships• Greatest fear = break-up by

sale• Importance of extended

families• Vehicle for the

transmission of the African-American folk tradition