APUSH Chapter 11
Poor whites
30-50% of all southern white people were landless, some were tenant farmers with no hope of improving their condition. Many poor white people would search for work during harvest time or other temporary jobs but these were also limited because of the existence of slavery. Tenant farmers worked under share-tenancy arrangements that kept them in permanent debt to the landowner. Relationships between poor whites and black slaves were complex; many poor whites worked side by side with slaves and some would develop friendships with them, even helping slaves to escape, aiding in revolts, or supplying them with liquor or other things that slave owners prohibited. However, the majority of poor whites insisted on their racial superiority.
Field work
75% of slaves were field workers. They would work from sunup to sundown in the summer and winter, and usually worked 18-hour days during harvest. Slaves usually worked in gangs of 20-25 with a black driver in addition to a white overseer. Cotton growing was especially hard work: plowing and planting, chopping weeds with a heavy hoe, picking the ripe cotton from the stiff and scratchy bolls at a rate of 150 pounds a day. Slaves took pride in their strength because a strong, hardworking slave was worth $1,000. Slaves aged really fast with the poor diet and heavy labor required for fieldwork. Once they were too old to work slaves would take care of children or carry out other tasks in the black community.
Alabama fever
After the War of 1812, southerners and their slaves flocked to western Georgia (what is now Alabama and Mississippi or the Old Southwest). African American slaves involuntarily cleared forests, drained swamps, broke ground, built houses and barns, and planted the first crops. This migration caused the population in Mississippi to double and the population of Alabama to grow sixteen fold from 1810 to 1820.
Black codes
By 1835, every southern legislature had tightened its laws concerning control of slaves. For example, they tried to blunt the effect of abolitionist literature by passing laws forbidding slaves to learn how to read. In only three border states - Kentucky, Tennessee, and Maryland - did slave literacy remain legal.
Gag rule
In 1836, Southerners introduced this in Washington to prevent congressional consideration of abolitionist petition. Attempts were made to stifle all open debate about slavery within the cell; dissenters were pressured to remain silent or to leave. A few, such as Jean G. Burney and Sarah and Angelina Grimké of South Carolina, left for the north to act on their anti-slavery convictions, but most to chose silence. Among those under the greatest pressure to conform where Christian ministers, many of whom profess to believe that preaching obedience to slaves is a vital part of making slavery a humane system. a regulation or directive that prohibits public discussion of a particular matter
Proslavery arguments
In the flesh of freedom following the American Revolution, a number of slave owners in the upper south free their slaves, and Thomas Jefferson, ever the optimist, clean that "a total emancipation with the consent of the Masters" could not be too far in the future. Nevertheless, southern legislatures were unwilling to write steps towards emancipation into law, preferring to depend on the charity of individuals slave owners. Once the cotton boom began in the 1790s this charity was rarely exercised and Jefferson's vision of peaceful emancipation faded. On the contrary, Southerners increasingly sought to justify slavery. Southern apologist had several conventional lines of defense; they found justifications for slavery in the Bible and in the histories of Greece and Rome, both slave owning societies. The strongest defense was a legal one: the Constitution allowed slavery. The Missouri crisis of 18 19-20 alarmed most Southerners, who are shocked by the evidence of widespread anti-slavery feeling in the north
"Big house"
Most slaves spent their lives as field hands, working in gangs with other slaves under a white overseer, who was usually quick to use his whip to keep up the work pace, But there were other occupations. Here, there were jobs for women as cooks, maids, seamstresses, laundresses, weavers, and nurses. Black men became coachmen, valets, and gardeners, or skilled craftsmen -- carpenters, mechanics, and blacksmiths. At first glance, working here might seem to have been preferable to working in the fields. They had more food, they were clothed better, and they had more access to information
the Old Southwest
Name given to the areas that would become Alabama and Mississippi
Yeoman
Originally a British term for a farmer who works his own land. Is often applied to independent farmers of the south. most of whom lived on family sized farms Although, they sometimes owned a few sleeves, in general they and their families worked their land by themselves. Typical of this man's community was northwestern Georgia, once home to the creeks and Cherokees, but now populated by communities of small farmers who grew enough vegetables to feed their families, including corn, which they either eat themselves or fed to hogs. These farmers raised enough, and every year to bring in a little cash At least 60% owned their own farms, but somewhere wealthier than others. Thomas Jefferson celebrated these type of man -- economically independent yet intimately tied to a larger but still very local group
African Methodist Episcopal Church
Reverend Richard Allen joined African American. ministers from other cities to form the African Methodist Episcopal denominatio. also known as the AME. at this point, ministers and priests were preaching to slaves. believed in and were teaching of faith, love, and deliverance
Eli Whitney
Short-staple cotton had long been recognized as a crop ideally suited to southern soils and growing conditions. But it had one major drawback; the seeds were so difficult to remove from the lint that it took an entire day to hand-clean a single pound of cotton. The invention in 1793 that made cotton growing profitable was the result of collaboration between this young Northerner and Catherine Greene. A young northerner graduated from Yale College. Revolutionary War General Nathaniel Greene hired this man to tutor his children. He built a prototype cotton engine, dubbed "gin" for short, a simple device consisting of a hand-cranked cylinder with teeth that tore the lint away from the seeds.
Slave labor system
Slavery was a lifelong labor system, and the constant and inescapable issue between master and slave was how much work the slave would or could be forced to do. Southern slave owners claimed that by housing, feeding, and clothing slaves from birth until death that they were being more humane than the northern factory owners. A child who was born as a slave was destined to die as a slave. Most slaves spent their lives working in the fields and were whipped to keep up their pace of work. There was an informal apprentice system for children to learn tasks that could be done at the big house or children would be expected to watch the younger children while their parents worked. At the age of twelve slaves were put to work in the fields or at their designated occupation.
"sold down the river"
Slaves were purchased by slave traders from owners in the Upper South, slaves were gathered together in notorious "slave pens" like the ones in Richmond and Charleston and then moved south by train or boat. In the interior, they were carried as cargo on steamboats on the Mississippi river, hence this phrase
Horseshoe Bend
The Creeks fought on the side of the British during the War of 1812. Andrew Jackson led the attack on March 27th, 1814. Most of the Red Sticks that tried to escape from the battle were killed by Jackson's second in command, Brigadier General John Coffee. Menawa and around 200 of his men were able to escape the field and sought refuge with the Seminoles in Florida.
Black Baptist
The Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening introduced slaves to Christianity and the religion took root in many black and white Southerners. They often would attend mixed congregations with white people. The first African American Baptist churches were founded in Philadelphia in 1794.
Abolitionist
a person in favor of abolishing the institution of slavery growing abolitionist sentiment of the 1830s raised the worry that southern opportunities for expansion would be cut off. Example of an abolitionist was William Lloyd Garrison
Manumission
freeing a slave. manumission was extremely rare. in the south, slavery was lifelong and hereditary. it was branded as being more beneficial because they clothed and housed and fed them, but there was really no way out of slavery if you were born into it. in the north, slaves were employed throughout their working years
Plantation mistress
had more restrictions on their lives than on the women of the North. spent most of their lives tending family members (including slaves) in illness and in childbirth, supervising their slaves' performance of such daily tasks as cooking, housecleaning, weaving, and sewing women also would spend hours or even days preparing for crowds of guests that she was expected to welcome as a gracious hostess. A wife who challenged her husband or sought more independence from him threatened the entire paternalistic system of control
Planters
in 1830, only 36% of southern whites owned slaves. small slave owners. had a few slaves, worked either side by side them or at another job while they tended the farm. an "economically vulnerable" owner. the old planter elite. 2.5% who owned ≥ 50 slaves. almost all wealth was inherited
Violence of slavery
it was the believe that coercion and violence were the only ways to keep slaves disciplined. whipped, beaten, etc. owners who killed their slaves were only occasionally brought to trial, and no legal action was taken against murder, excessive punishment, or rape. extreme sexual abuse of the female slaves. a violation of the paternalistic code. slave women had many children with the owner, who refused to acknowledge it. owners could do whatever they wanted on their plantation & that was passed down to their son
William Lloyd Garrison
militant abolitionist. began publishing the Liberator in 1831, the soon-to-be leading antislavery publication. he was a voice for as an abolitionist, suffragist, and social reformer
International Slave Trade
national opinion was varied about the international slave trade. increased slave imports after the invention of the cotton gin. was eventually deemed abhorrent January 1, 1808 a bill to abolish the slave trade became law
Slave community
over half of all slaves lived on plantations w/ 20 or more other slaves. urban slaves were able to make secret relationships with others. slaves created a culture of their own during this time of oppression that has endured for centuries. family and church were of utmost importance (see below for more on African American religion)
Hinton Helper
published an attack on slavery in a book called The Impending Crisis. His protest indicated the growing tensions between the haves and the have-nots in the South. His book was published in New York and he was forced to move once his views became known
Coffles
slaves chained together in groups of 50 or more. often found on southern roads.was one visible sign of how slavery was bad even though people were trying to. portray it as a "beneficial institution." slaves often led to market this way
Colonial crops
the greatest export crops from the colonial period were tobacco, rice, and indigo. Slave owners made fortunes off of the African American slaves' labor, and this was the basis of southern society and culture. Cotton became the dominant crop in the South as it expanded to include Delaware, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia as well as the Old Southwest.
Nabobs
the word came from "a Hindi word for Europeans who had amassed fabulous wealth in India." rich planters of the Natchez community. in 1850, Natchez was the richest county in the nation. had a smugly elite lifestyle due to the wealth and excess of the people there
"slave pens"
two slave families, each usually consisting of eight to ten, would live in a one room cabin that was fifteen feet by fifteen feet. There were a couple of closets smaller and closer than state-rooms of a ship, divided off from the main room and each other by rough wooden partitions, in which the slaves could sleep.
Denmark Vesey
well-traveled former seaman living in Charleston. worked as a carpenter, was literate and free. lay preacher @ African Methodist Episcopal Church. Gullah Jack, the "conjure-man," was his conspirator. together they planned to evade the city patrol and steal weapons and horses from the city while house slaves would capture their owners. wanted, ultimately, to seize Charleston and sail the slaves to Haiti. they recruited @ least 80 slaves, but the plan was told by two house servants. 2 days before it was supposed to happen 35 slaves were rounded up and hanged, including Vesey
"flush times"
"feverish speculative frenzies." when large surges of people moves westward to plant. these occurred during 1816-20, 1832-38, and the 1850s
Slave revolts
The Ultimate resistance, however, was this. Southern history was dotted with stories of former slave conspiracies and rumors of current plots. Every white southerner knew about the last-minute failure of Gabriel Prosser's insurrection in Richmond in 1800 and the chance discovery of Denmark Vesey's plot in Charleston in 1822. In 1831, Nat Turner actually started a rebellion in which a number of white people were killed, southern fears were greatly magnified. Gabriel Prosser, illiterate blacksmith, had gathered more than 1000 slaves for in the salt on Richmond. Although the attempt was aborted at the last minute and Prosser and 35 others were caught in hand, white people were especially frightened to learn that Prosser had organized under Brian banner proclaiming "desk or liberty quote and had hoped for help from independent black people of Haiti. The notion of an international force of revolutionary sleeves demanding their freedom was a fundamental challenge to slave owners' assumptions about their own liberty and power. Vesey and Gullah Jack Drew up a plan to invade the Lexus city patrol and steel weapons from the Charleston arsenal and horses from livery stables. Then, wall-mounted and aren't slaves be back white counterattacks in the streets of Charleston, how slaves would capture their owners and murder any who tried to escape. Vesey's aim was to seize Charleston and ultimately to sail to the free black Caribbean nation of Haiti. Gabriel's rebellion, the Denmark Vesey plot, and Nat Turner's removal with the most prominent examples of organize sleeved resistance, but they were far from the only one
Industialization
The connection between southern slavery and northern industry was direct. most mercantile services associated with the cotton trade (insurance, for example) were in northern hands and, significantly, so was shipping. This economic structure was not new. In colonial times, New England ships dominated the African slave trade. Some New England families -- like the Browns of Providence who made fortunes in the slave trade -- invested some of their profits in the new technology of textile manufacturing in the 1790s. Other merchants -- such as the Boston Associates who financed the cotton textile mills at Lowell -- made their money from cotton shipping and brokerage. Thus as cotton boomed, it provided capital for the new factories of the North. Northerners who were caught up in this and urbanization which was rapid, failed to recognize their economic connection to the South and increasingly regarded it as a backward region. The South also lagged behind the North in this and in canals and railroads
Paternalistic Ideology
They infuse the life of large plantations that permitted the planter elite to rationalize their use of slaves in the submissiveness they demanded of wives. According to this, each plantation was a family composed of both black and white. The master, as head of the plantation, was head of the family, and the mistress was his "helpmate." The master was obligated to provide for all of his family, both black and white, and to treat them with humanity. In return, slaves were to work properly and do as they were told, as children would. Most elite slave owners spoke of their position of privilege as a duty and a burden. (their wives were even more outspoken about the burdensome aspects of supervising slave labor, which they bore more directly than their husbands). John C. Calhoun spoke for many slave owners when he described the plantation as " A little community" in which the master directed all operation so that the abilities and needs of every member, black and white, were "perfectly harmonized." Convinced of their own benevolence, slave owners expected not only obedience book gratitude from all members of their great "families"
Short staple cotton
This had long been recognized as a crop ideally suited to southern soils and growing conditions. However, it had one major drawback: the seeds were so difficult to remove from the lint that it took an entire day to hand-clean a single pound of cotton
Sea-Island cotton
Thomas Chaplin grew it. A long staple variety. Potatoes, and corn and raised beef and mutton. also known as extra long staple cotton as it generally has a staple of at least 1 ⅜. Either from Barbados, Saint Helena, or the other Sea Islands of South Carolina
Gabriel Prosser
a literate blacksmith, who gathered more than a thousand slaves for an assault on Richmond. This effort was abandoned at the last minute, but he and thirty-five others were caught and hanged. Organized under a banner proclaiming "Death or Liberty" and he had hoped for aid from the independent black people of Haiti.
Slave religion
Within their own communities, African American values and attitudes, and especially their own forms of Christianity, played a vital part in shaping a culture of evidence and resistance. It was remarkable the ways in which African Americans reshaped Christianity to serve their needs. Slaves brought religions from Africa but we're not allowed to practice them, for white people feared religion would create a bond among slaves that might lead to rebellion. African religions managed to survive in the slave community and forms that white people considered "superstition" or "folk belief," such as the medicinal use of roots by conjurers. Religious ceremonies survive two, in a late night gatherings deep in the woods where the sound of drumming, singing, and dancing could not reach white ears. In the 19th century, these African traditions allowed African-Americans to reshape white Christianity into their own distinctive s in the 19th century, these African traditions allowed African-Americans to reshape white Christianity into their own distinctive faith. Most masters of the 18th century made little effort to Christianize their sleeves, afraid they might take the promises of universal brotherhood any quality too literally. The Great Awakening, which swept the south after the 1760s, introduced many slaves to Christianity, often in mixed congregations with white people. The transformation was completed by the Second Great Awakening, which took root among black and white southerners in the 1790s. The number of African-American converts, preachers, and lay teachers grew rapidly, and a distinctive form of Christianity took shape Free African-Americans founded their own independent churches and denominations