APUSH Period 4 Chapter 11 The Peculiar Institution- The Old South (How did slavery shape social and economic relations in the Old South?)

Who was Fredrick Douglas?

He was a major figure in the crusade for abolition, the drama of emancipation, and the effort during Reconstruction to give meaning to black freed

Describe the perspective of Georges Fitzhugh.

- He wrote, "universal liberty" was an experiment carried on "for a little while" in "a corner of Europe" and the northern United States. Taking the world and its history as a whole, slavery, "without regard to race and color," was "the general, . . . normal, natural" basis of "civilized society." Slave-owners and slaves shared a "community of interest" unknown in "free society." Since they lacked economic cares, he contended, "the Negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some degree, the freest people in the world." White workers in both the North and South, according to him, would fare better having individual owners, rather than living as "slaves" of the economic marketplace.

Describe Deep South

- Large population of slaves/slave-owners - 7 states that stretched from South Carolina west to Texas. - Heavily dependent on cotton. - Deep South states were the first to leave the Union.

How did the South's economic development differ from that of other areas

- Most southern cities were located on the region's periphery and served mainly as centers for gathering and shipping cotton. - Southern banks existed primarily to help finance the plantations. They loaned money for the purchase of land and slaves, not manufacturing development. - Southern railroads mostly consisted of short lines that brought cotton from the interior to coastal ports. - In 1860, the South produced <10% of the nation's manufactured goods.

Describe slave trading

- Slave trading was a visible, established business. - The main business districts of southern cities contained the offices of slave traders, complete w/ signs reading "Negro Sales". Auctions of slaves took place at public slave markets, as in New Orleans, or at courthouses. Southern newspapers carried advertisements for slave sales, southern banks financed slave trading, southern ships and railroads carried slaves from buyers to sellers, and southern states and municipalities earned revenue by taxing the sale of slaves.

How were slaves replaced after prohibition of importation of slaves?

- To replace the slave trade from Africa, which was prohibited by Congress in 1808, a massive trade in slaves developed within the United States. More than 2 million slaves were sold between 1820/1860, a majority to local buyers but many from older states to "importing" states of Lower South.

Describe the abolitionist movements throughout the world at this time?

- n most Latin American nations, the end of slavery followed the pattern like northern United States—gradual emancipation accompanied by some kind of recognition of the owners' legal right to property in slaves. - Abolition was far swifter in the British empire, where Parliament in 1833 mandated almost immediate emancipation, with a 7-year transitional period of "apprenticeship." This system produced so much conflict between former master and former slave that Britain decreed complete freedom in 1838. The law appropriated 20 million pounds to compensate the owners.

Describe the Upper South

- n the eight slave states of the Upper South, slaves and slaveowners made up a smaller percentage of the total population - The Upper South had major centers of industry in Baltimore, Richmond, and St. Louis, and its economies were more diversified

What were the arguments for slavery as essential to part of society?

-Blacks were inferior to whites and unsuited for life in any condition other than slavery - Most slaveholders also found legitimation for slavery in biblical passages such as the injunction that servants should obey their masters. - Ancient republics of Greece/Rome rested on slave labor - Slavery for blacks, they declared, was the surest guarantee of "perfect equality" among whites, liberating them from the "low, menial" jobs like factory labor and domestic service performed by wage laborers in the North. Slavery made possible the considerable degree of economic autonomy enjoyed not only by planters but by non-slaveholding whites.

How did the global industrial revolution increase demand for "white gold?"

Because the early industrial revolution centered on factories using cotton as the raw material to manufacture cloth, cotton had become by far the most important commodity in international trade. And 3/4 of world's cotton supply came from the southern United States. Throughout the world, hundreds of thousands of workers loaded, unloaded, spun, and wove cotton, and many manufacturers and merchants owed their wealth to the cotton trade.

What was an important American export product in 1803?

Cotton sales earned the money from abroad that allowed the United States to pay for imported manufactured goods.

What did many white southerners believe about slaver?

Freedom for whites rested on the power to command the labor of blacks

Although many slave-owners claim to be inspired by "the same spirit of freedom and independence" of the founding fathers, John C. Calhoun claimed that the Declaration of Independence was "the most false and dangerous of all political errors." Explain this statement.

He returned to the older definition of freedom as a privilege rather than a universal entitlement, a "reward to be earned, not a blessing to be gratuitously lavished on all alike."

What statistics support the argument that the planter class was far from typical?

In 1850, a majority of slaveholding families owned five or fewer slaves. Less than 40,000 families possessed the twenty or more slaves that qualified them as planters. Fewer than 2,000 families owned a hundred slaves or more

How did the paternalistic outlook mask and justify the brutal reality of slavery?

It enabled slaveowners to think of themselves as kind, responsible masters even as they bought and sold their human property—a practice at odds with the claim that slaves formed part of the master's "family."

What was the only significant city in the South?

New Orleans (6th largest city). - The world's leading exporter of slave-grown crops. - attracted large numbers of European immigrants. In 1860, 40 percent of its population was foreign-born - Rich French heritage and close connections w/ the Caribbean produced a local culture quite different from that of the rest oftheUnited States, reflected in the city's distinctive music, dance, religion, and cuisine.

In what ways did slavery shape the entire nation economically?

Northern merchants/manufacturers participated in the slave economy and shared in its profits. Money earned in the cotton trade helped to finance industrial development/internal improvements in the North. Northern ships carried cotton to New York/Europe, northern bankers financed cotton plantations, northern companies insured slave property, and northern factories turned cotton into cloth.

Why was 1808 a turning point in the formation of "paternalism?"

Paternalism became more ingrained after the closing of the African slave trade in 1808, which narrowed the cultural gap between master and slave and gave owners an economic interest in the survival of their human property.

In what ways would ownership of slaves lead to wealth, status, and influence?

Planters not only held the majority of slaves, but they controlled the most fertile land, enjoyed the highest incomes, and dominated state and local offices and the leadership of both political parties.

Although some plain folk resented the "slaveocracy" in the old south, common bonds formed between plain folk and the planter class. What factors served to bind these two groups together?

Racism, kinship ties, common participation in a democratic political culture, and regional loyalty in the face of outside criticism all served to cement bonds between planters and the South's "plain folk." In the plantation regions small farmers manned the slave patrols that kept a lookout for runaway slaves and those on the roads without permission. Non-slaveholders frequently rented slaves from planters and regularly elected slaveowners to public offices in the South. Like other white southerners, most small farmers believed their economic and personal freedom rested on slavery.

What was a "plantation mistress?"

Slave owners wives—the "plantation mistresses" idealized in southern lore for femininity, beauty, and dependence on men—were hardly idle. They cared for sick slaves, directed the domestic servants, and supervised the entire plantation when their husbands were away.

What was "paternalism" as it pertained to Southern society?

Slave-holding gentlemen took personal responsibility for the physical and moral well-being of their dependents—women, children, and slaves.

In what ways did slavery shape the entire nation politically?

The Constitution enhanced the power o the South in the House of Representatives and electoral college and required all states to return fugitives from bondage.

What enabled the Cotton Kingdom to grow?

The Cotton Kingdom could not have arisen without the internal slave trade, and the economies of older states like Virginia came increasingly to rely on the sale of slaves.

What did Frederick Douglass about the continued existence of slavery during the Forth of July?

Throughout his career, he insisted that slavery could only be overthrown by continuous resistance. In effect, he argued that in their desire for freedom, the slaves were truer to the nation's underlying principles than the white Americans who annually celebrated the Fourth of July while allowing the continued existence of slavery.

How does this "code of honor" extend to women? What does this say about women's role in society?

White southern women, even more than in the North, were confined within the "domestic circle."

What replaced sugar as the world's major crop produced by slave labor?

cotton replaced sugar as the world's major crop produced by slave labor - South's "white gold."

Why did the slave population grow despite the prohibition of the importation of slavery in 1808?

its high rate of natural increase

What was the "code of honor" in the South?

men were expected to defend, with violence if necessary, their own reputation and that of their families. Although dueling was illegal, many prominent southerners took part in duels to avenge supposed insults

Describe 3 ways the "plain folk" were impacted by slavery in the Old South?

planters monopolized the best land, most small white farmers lived outside the plantation belt in hilly areas unsuitable for cotton production. They worked the land using family labor rather than slaves or hired workers.