The Peculiar Institution:

The Evolution of

Slavery in the South

Collect at table Sectionalism Framework

WKST (Due Monday) if you have not already

received it

Collect at table Incidents of a Slave Girl

reading guide (First 10 Chapters due 11/26)

Need “Peculiar Institution” lecture notes

Why Peculiar? The economic success of cotton and of the slave

system on which it depended created a distinctive regional

culture quite different that developing in the north.

Southern Violence

This Northern depiction of Southern violence links the brawling

and dueling of Southerners with the brutal labor regime of

slavery. References to the pistol and the lash became important

in abolitionist attacks on Southern culture.

Rising debate in the South regarding abolition after Revolution

1790: 700,000 slaves in America

1793: Cotton gin=KING COTTON

Cotton Profitable

Slavery Economic Importance

1800: Gabriel’s Revolt-spoiled last minute (1,000) Cotton=7.1% of all US exports

1807: Britain outlaw international slave trade

1808: Congress prohibits external slave trade (interstate trade flourishes as plantation system grows)

Before “gin”

10lbs a day,

after 10lbs

30mins.

1810-1830: Small slave- owners and yeoman farmers push into cotton belt from coastal south

1816: African Methodist Episcopal

1816-1820: “Alabama Fever”

1819-1820: Missouri Compromise

1.5 million slaves in America

1822: Vesesy (free/minister) conspiracy uncovered

1831: William Lloyd Garrison prints first edition of The Liberator

1831: Nat Turner Rebellion fuelled emancipation debate in South

Slave Owners “closed ranks”

1831-32: Virginia legislature debates emancipation but measures fail (73- 58 votes)

Abolitionist sentiment weakens in the South even with non-slave holders

Many hoped to own slaves some day

– ½ owners 5 or less

– 75% slaves 10 or more

Racists foundations for slavery were widely accepted

Slavery: civilizing, kind, and bible.

Emancipated blacks presented an unknown danger… what would they do once freed?

Slavery lessened class tensions amongst white Southerners as whites rarely worked for other whites

1833: Britain frees all slaves

1836: Congress passes “gag rule” to prevent discussion of anti

slavery petitions

1837: Panic hits lowering cotton prices

1840: Cotton is 51% of all US exports

1844-45: Methodists and Baptists split over slavery

1845: Fredrick Douglas publishes Narrative of the Life of F.D.

1845: Cassius Clay’s KY abolition press destroyed marking intense suppression of abolitionist thought in South

1850: Cotton prices recover and rise

1854: George Fitzhugh publishes Sociology for the South, a defense of slavery

1854: KS-NB ACT

Hinton Helper publishes The Impending Crisis, an attack on slavery

-Lagged behind: backwards & lethargic

1855: “prime field hand”$1, 500

1857: Panic hits North and West, but South unharmed & Proved to Southerners that Slavery was better than

wage earners

1858: “King Cotton” Speech

1859: John Brown raids Harper’s Ferry (willing to fight and die for the cause)

1860: South Carolina secedes COTTON=57% of all US exports

3.8 million slaves in America

Planters: Whigs/$poor & land rich/ cycle

of profitability/indebtedness

Small slave-owners: Whigs/Led initial

push into deep South

Yeoman farmers: Democrats/largest

single group/no slaves/self-sufficient

Pine Barrens: HiLLbiLLieS!!!! Isolated,

poor,…result of slavery???