Table of Contents

"If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841

"Cotton is King!":

Southern economy was poor when Washington became president.
Statesmen were talking openly of freeing their slaves and predicting that slavery would die.
1793 brought the cotton gin (Eli Whitney), causing cotton to become the dominant southern crop.
Economic spiral: more slaves and land were bought to grow more cotton, which afforded planters more slaves and more land.
The North reaped the profits by shipping it to england, buying needed manufactured goods, and re-selling them in the U.S.
1840 - Cotton was half American exports, and half the world's supply came from U.S.
1850's - Britain's most important manufacture was cotton cloth.
Speculation (if North/South war): North stops shipping, British factories close, starving mobs force Britain to end the Northern blockade, the South wins.

The Planter "Aristocracy":

Less than 2000 families controlled the politics of the South before the Civil War. It was an Oligarchy.
The south produced more statesmen than the North because the rich had enough money to support themselves with time to study, practice state craft, and reflect.
Though the aristocratic dominance wasn't detested in the South, it wasn't democratic.
Rich and poor were separated and public education was hurt (rich sent kids to private institutions).
Southern aristocrats supported the medievalism that was dying in Europe.
Mark Twain said author Sir Walter Scott helped start the Civil War because he was supporting a decaying social structure.
Southern women became heads of their households, treating their slaves from affectionate to wretched. None who owned slaves were abolitionists.
The slaves were viewed by the women as pets, either well-trained or badly-behaved.

Slaves of the Slave System:

"King Cotton" ruined the land through "land butchery" (excessive cultivation). This caused population to travel West and Northwest.
Small farmers sold their land to large planters, and the South became monopolistic.
Many slave owners went bankrupt because they invested more in land and slaves than they could handle.
Slaves were worth around $1200 each in total investment, and they might purposely injure themselves or run away.
The South repelled foreign immigration, which accounted for a large part of the North's power (4.4% pop. south was foreign, 18.7% pop. north was foreign).

The White Majority:

Only 1/4 of the families in the south owned slaves.
The families who only owned a few worked side by side with their slaves.
The Cotton Kingdom was far away from those who owned no slaves, and they considered the slave owners the "snobocracy."
These people socialized at religious camp meetings, but did little else.
Though not directly supporting it, they became the most ardent defenders of the slave system.
It was a dream they all hoped to obtain. They thought they could transform their poor existences into riches once they could afford some land and some slaves. That was the "American Dream."
They were also happy that they out-ranked the slaves in status.
The western southerners hated the planters and their blacks. They thought the North/South tension would erupt into "a rich man's war but a poor man's fight." How true of all wars.
They were attached to the Union party of Abraham Lincoln.

Free Blacks: Slaves Without Masters:

There were 250,000 free blacks in the south by 1860.
New Orleans was home to many land owning blacks, where a community prospered.
There were many limitations:

They were prohibited from working in certain occupations
They were forbidden to testify against whites in court
They were captured and brought back into slavery with paultry legal protection
They were detested by supporters of the slave system

Another 250,000 lived in the north.
They had few rights as well:

Most couldn't vote
Many couldn't go to school, and where they could, they were hated for it
Hated by the Irish immigrants (work competition)
Prejudice was a huge factor in the lives of the blacks

Northern agitation over the spread of slavery into the northern territories grew out of prejudice.
Resent for the Blacks was felt stronger in the north than in the south.
The south liked the black as an individual (babies were fed by their black nannies) but it used the race for its economic benefit.
The north fought for the freedom of the blacks as a race, but despised the individual.

Plantation Slavery:

1860 ~ 4 million black slaves, quadrupled since 1800.
1808 - Legal importation ended, and smuggling became popular.
Majority of slave population came from natural reproduction.
$2 billion invested into slaves by 1860, so planters considered slaves investments.
Like money in the north, slaves were the primary form of wealth in the south.
People would rather work the Irish to death than the slaves, because the slaves were so expensive (worth $1,800 by 1860).
Irish performed tasks that were "death on niggers and mules."
South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana each had a majority or near majority of slaves in the population.
Some females were promised their freedom for breeding more than ten kids, which became slaves themselves.
Rape by the masters was common, which caused a large mulatto population to become enslaved.
On the auction platforms, families were purposely torn apart, which was one of the greatest atrocities of the slave trade. Uncle Tom's Cabin was based on this horror.

Life Under the Lash:

No matter what illusions were common, slavery meant hard work, ignorance, and oppression.
The slaves had no civil or political rights except for protection from arbitrary murder and unusually cruel punishment, and the taking of a child under 10 from his or her mother (in some states).
They were forbidden to testify in court.
Their messages were not legally recognized.
If slaves were "bull-headed," they were sent to "breakers," who beat them into submission.
Seldom were the slaves beaten bloody, because the planter had too much to lose if he lost a slave.
1860 - Most slaves were in the "black belt," which stretched from South Carolina to Georgia and into Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
On these frontiers, life for the slaves was more difficult than in other areas of the south.
Along the lower Mississippi River, slaves accounted for 75% of the population.
Though treatment was harsh, a new, African-American slave culture developed. This showed that situations were stable enough for this to happen.
Marriages were often fickle, with vows including "until death or distance do you part."
Slaves avoided marriage between first cousins, but the slaveowning families in the south did not (Incestuous Bastards).
Religion was thought to teach the slaves that they were not free because God wanted them to serve their masters, but they picked up on the Israelite captivity more readily than anything saying they were supposed to be slaves.
Preaching picked up the responses Africans shout in their native singing and dancing, replaced with reinforcing the minister's points and "amen."

The Burdens of Bondage:

Slaves were deprived of their dignity and their responsibility (they couldn't make choices).
They were denied an education.
9/10 adult slaves were illiterate at the beginning of the Civil War.
Slow-downs, previously attributed to "laziness," are now known to have been organiszed labor slow-downs, just enough to avoid punishment.
Food and other goods were stolen from the master's house, and expensive wquipment was sabotaged.
Occasionally, the master's food was poisoned.
Runaways were frequent, usually so find a separated family member.
Rebellions:

1800 - A slave named Gabriel led one in Richmond, but informers turned him in, so the leaders were hung.
1822 - Denmark Vessey (free) led one in Charlestown. He was betrayed as well, so he and 30 followers were publicly hung.
1831 - Nat Turner was a preacher who led a rebellion in Virginia which slaughtered 60 people, mostly women and children (his reasoning behind this is NOT included in the book. Look elsewhere, it brings up some strong points).

Slaveowners had to degrade themselves to maintain their investments. They had to be in the ditch to hold their slaves there.

Early Abolitionism

Quakers got the abolitionist movement rolling.
First, the movement was to export the slaves back to Africa (American Colonization Society to export slaves - 1817; Republic of Liberia esstablished for former slaves - 1822).
This didn't work out because most blacks had become Americanized, and didn't wish to go back to their former societies.
Lincoln lied low to gain political popularity, and supported exportation until the Civil War.
1833 - The British freed the slaves in the West Indies, which gave the abolitionish hope.
Abolitionists used the Second Great Awakening to nail slavery as a sin.
Theodore Dwight Weld appealed to uneducated farmers with his simple style of speech.
Weld was expelled with many students for holding a slavery debate in school, so they spread out across the north and preached against slavery.
He was one of the most successful abolitionist speakers.

Radical Abolitionism

1831 - William Lloyd Garrison sparked tons of abolitionist movement with his paper, The Liberator.
1833 - The American Anti-Slavery Society was founded.
Wendell Phillips was prominent among the society. He ate no cane sugar and wore no cotton (slave productions).
David Walker was a black who saw the end of white supremacy as being a bloody one.
Sojourner Truth was a free black who fought for emancipation and women's rights.
Martin Delaney was a black leader who strongly supported the exportation of blacks to Africa.
Frederick Douglass escaped from bondage in 1838 and was recognized in 1841. Despite beatings and threats, he spoke against slavery when he had the chance to.
Garrison publicly burned a copy of the constitution, losing support for his objectives because people thought he was revealing problems, but doing nothing to fix them.
Douglass, in contrast, looked to politics to fix the problem.
All, even Douglass (who preferred mild approaches), supported the war for black emancipation.
It raised the question: When is something so bad that blood has to be shed to stop it?

The South Lashed Back:

1820's - Anti-slavery societies were more numerous in the south than in the north.
After 1830 this changed because anti-slavery acts were ended by law.
Virginia legislature defeated abolitionist proposals in 1831 and 1832.
States tightened their slave codes and prohibited emancipation in all forms.
Nat Turner's rebellion caused a hysteria.
Garrison's paper, The Liberator, turned up at the same time, so Georgia offered $5,000 for his arrest and conviction.
Now, even discussion of the slavery issue in the soult was refused with jailings, lynchings, and whippings.
States started propaganda about slavery being a positive good for Africans, and it was "supported" by the bible. The introduction of Christian Civilization supposedly was saving them.
The blacks in the south were made to look like they were better off there than in the north by contrasting working in the fresh air and the sun rather than in factories. Southern slaves were cared for in their age, while northern blacks were "set adrift."
These arguments separated the south and the north ever farther.
The south grew intolerant of question dealing with the slaves.
The hushing of discussion endangered free speech in the whole country.
The gag resolution required that all anit-slavery appeals not be debated.
John Quincy Adams fought the resolution for 8 years and won.
A mob in Charleston, South Carolina burned abolitionist propaganda in a post office, and soon after (1835), the U.S. government ordered all abolitionist material destroyed by postmasters, and the arrest of those who did not comply.

The Abolitionist Impact in the North:

Extreme abolitionist acts were unpopular in the north.
$300 million was owed to northern bankers (and others), so they did not want war.
New England textile mills used cotton, and they would go out of business. This would bring unemployment.
1835 - Garrison was dragged through the streets with a rope tied around his waist, but he escaped with his life (very lucky).
Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy was killed in 1837 for continued printing of abolitionist material, becoming "the martyr abolitionist."
Lincoln avoided abolitionist action to stay popular in politics.
Over time, things changed. Northerners saw the south as home of the unfree and a hateful institution.
None were erady to abolish it, but they opposed spreading it to the west, and "free soldiers" swelled to support the Civil War.

Chronology:

1793 - Whitney's cotton gin transforms southern economy
1800 - Gabriel slave rebellion in Virginia
1808 - Congress outlaws slave trade
1817 - American Colonization Society formed
1820 - Missourri Compromise
1822 - Vesey slave rebellion in Charleston; Republic of Liberia established in Africa
1829 - Walker publishes Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World
1831 - Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia; Garrison begins publishing The Liberator
1831 - 1832 - Virginia legislature debates slavery and emancipation
1833 - British abolish slavery in the West Indies; American Anti-Slavery Society founded
1834 - Abolitionist students expelled from Lane Theological Seminaty
1835 - U.S. Post Office orders destruction of abolitionist mail; "Broadcloth Mob" attacks Garrison
1836 - House of Representatives passes "Gag Resolution"
1837 - Mob kills abolitionist Lovejoy in Alton, Illinois
1839 - Weld publishes American Slavery As It Is
1840 - Liberty party organized
1845 - Douglass publishes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
1848 - Free Soil party organized

COMPLETE