APUSH Chapter 16

Plantation Slavery

-4 million slaves were in the South in 1860 -Slaves were the primary form of wealth and were cared for as an asset -White masters would force themselves on their black female slaves to produce children -Families were often split up at auctions

The South Lashes Back

-After a Virginian debate in 1831-1832, the slave states tightened their slave codes and moved to prohibit emancipation of any kind -Southern slave owners claimed that slavery was supported by the Bible and Aristotle -Claimed that slavery helped Africans by removing them from the jungles of Africa and Christianizing them -Claimed that slaves had it better than Northern factory workers

Theodore Dwight Weld

-Appealed to rural audiences -Sent to Lane Theological Seminary but was expelled for organizing a debate on slavery -Traveled across the Old Northwest preaching the anti-slavery gospel -Created the propaganda pamphlet "American Slavery as It Is"

Sir Walter Scott

-Favorite author of elite southerners -Helped them idealize a feudal society -Mark Twain said that he contributed to the start of the Civil War

Frederick Douglass

-Former slave -Abolitionist who was several times mobbed and beaten by Northerners -Believed that politics would end slavery

Free Blacks

-Many owned land and some even owned slaves -Free slaves in the North were disliked and forbidden from some jobs -Anti-black feeling was frequently stronger in the North than in the South -Said that the Southerners liked the individual but disliked the race and the Northerners liked the race but disliked the individual

The Planter Aristocracy

-More of an oligarchy than a democracy -Rich plantation men had lots of money and education and felt obligated to serve the state -Widened the gap between the rich and poor -Rich Southern women ran a huge staff of slaves and almost none supported abolition

The Abolitionist Impact in the North

-Northerners despised the talk of succession from Garrisonians -The North had a heavy economic stake in Southern cotton, and Southern plantation owners were deeply indebted to northern creditors -By the 1850s, the North began to see the South as the land of the unfree and the home of a hateful institutional -Many Northerners were wary of abolishing slavery, but did not want it to extend into Western states

The White Majority

-Only about 25% of Southern whites owned slaves or belonged to a slave holding family -Smaller slave owners lived modestly and worked with their slaves in the fields -Non-slave holding whites were subsistence farmers who did not grow cotton -The poorest Southern whites were the most active protectors of the slave system because they needed to preserve their sense of superiority

Life Under the Lash

-Slaves had no civil or political rights, other than minimal protection from arbitrary murder or unusually cruel punishment -Slaves were forbidden from testifying in court and having their marriages legally recognized -Most slave owners would not beat their slaves bloody regularly -Were Christian but worship included African elements

The Burdens of Bondage

-Slaves were forbidden from going to school -Without wage compensation, slaves worked the bare minimum, stole food from the big house, and sabotaged equipment

Early Abolitionism

-Some of the earliest abolitionists focused on transporting blacks back to Africa -Most blacks by 1860 had been born in America and had no desire to be sent back to Africa -Were inspired by the Second Great Awakening

Cotton is King

-The Southern cotton industry was booming at the end of the 18th century -Planters brought more slaves to the land -After 1840, cotton accounted for half the value of all of American exports -Produced more than half the world's supply of cotton -Southern cotton was highly valuable to Britain

Slaves of the Slave System

-The land was beginning to become overworked -Small farmers sold their land to wealthy landowners -Dependence upon one crop was dangerous -The South resented their dependence upon Northern manufacturing -The economic system in the South repelled European immigrants

William Lloyd Garrison

-Wrote "The Liberator" in 1831 -Began a 30 year war of words that lasted until the Civil War -Believed that the "virtuous" North should secede from the "evil" South

American Anti-Slavery Society (1833-1870)

Abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison, who advocated the immediate abolition of slavery. By 1838, the organization had more than 250,000 members across 1,350 chapters

West Africa Squadron (established 1808)

British Royal Navy force formed to enforce the abolition of the salve trade in 1807. It intercepted hundreds of slave ships and freed thousands of Africans

responsorial

Call and response style of preaching that melded Christian and African traditions. Practiced by African slaves in the South

Sojourner Truth

Fought tirelessly for black emancipation and women's rights

Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829)

Incendiary abolitionist tract advocating the violent overthrow of slavery. Published by David Walker, a southern-born free black

Wendell Phillips

Known as "abolition's golden trumpet"

William Wilberforce

Member of British Parliament who freed slaves in the West Indies

Martin Delany

One of the few black leaders to take the mass recolonization of Africa seriously

Mason-Dixon Line

Originally drawn by surveyors to resolve the boundaries between Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Virginia in the 1760s, it came to symbolize the North-South divide over slavery

Gag Resolution

Prohibited debate or action on anti-slaver appeals. Driven through the House by pro-slavery southerners, the Gag Resolution passed every year for 8 years and was eventually overturned with the help of John Quincy Adams

American Colonization Society

Reflecting the focus of early abolitionists on transporting freed blacks back to Africa, the organization established Liberia, a West African settlement intended as a haven for emancipated slaves

black belt

Region of the Deep south with the highest concentration of slaves. The "black belt" emerged in the 19th century as cotton production became profitable and slavery expanded south and west.

breakers

Slave drivers who employed the lash to brutally "break" the souls of strong-willed slaves

Amistad (1839)

Spanish slave ship dramatically seized off the coast of Cuba by enslaved Africans aboard. The ship was driven ashore in Long Island and the slaves were put on trial. Former president John Quincy Adams argued their case before the Supreme Court, securing their eventual release

Nat Turner's Rebellion (1831)

Virginia slave revolt that resulted in the deaths of sixty whites and raised fears among white southerners of further uprisings

Liberia

West African nation founded in 1822 as a haven for freed blacks, fifteen thousand of whom made their way across the Atlantic by the 1860s