Chapter 13- The South

The SOUTH’S ECONOMY

• COTTON WAS KING• Colonial times

(rice, indigo, tobacco)• Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin• Upper South- corn, tobacco, wheat, hemp,

and vegetables (MD, VA, NC)• Deep South- COTTON …rice and sugarcane in

some areas (GA, SC, AL, MS, LA, TX, FL)

Industry in the South• very little industry• barriers to industry

1. Cotton was so profitable2. lack of capital3. small market for manufactured goods4. They didn’t want it

• William Gregg (textile mill) and Anderson (Tredegar Iron Works)

• SPOILER ALERT!!!!...SOUTH’S LACK OF INDUSTRY WOULD HAVE DISASTEROUS EFFECTS IN THE UPCOMING WAR

Transportation in the South

• Natural waterways provided the chief means of transporting goods

• few canals…poor roads• Most cities were along rivers• railroad lines were short and local and did not

connect all parts of a regions• SPOILER ALERT!!!...THE RAILWAY SHORTAGE WOULD

ALSO HAVE A DISASTEROUS EFFECT DURING THE UPCOMING CIVIL WAR

Do you think there is a correlation (relationship) between the fact

that the South shunned industry and its lack of railroads? Explain

your answer.

The SOUTH’S PEOPLE• most white Southerners owned no slaves or

only a few. Only 1/3 of families owned any slaves at all.

• YEOMAN FARMERS- small farmers that no slaves or held a few slaves but worked along side them in the field- largest group of whites- owned their own land (avg. 100 acres)- mostly in the Upper South or hilly

regions of the Deep South

THE SOUTH’S PEOPLE

• TENANT FARMERS (not in your book)- rented and work land on landlord’s estates

• RURAL POOR (“hillbillies”)- lived in crude cabins in wooded areas- small garden, pig or cow, hunted and fished

• The poor people of the rural South were stubbornly independent

• refused to take any “slave” work

• looked down on by other whites they were proud of being self-sufficient

THE SOUTH’S PEOPLE…PLANTATIONS

• A large plantation might cover several thousand acres

• plantation owners measured their wealth by the number of slaves they owned and by the “grandness” of their possessions

• Only about 4% of plantation owners owned more than 20 slaves…most plantation owners had fewer than 10

Plantation Owners Wives

• watched over domestic servants and took care of sick slaves

• supervised the buildings and fruit and vegetable gardens

• Some worked as accountants for the plantation

• Often led lonely lives as their husbands were often away from home

Work on the Plantation

• DOMESTIC SLAVES (worked in the house, cleaning, cooking, laundry, sewing, serving meals)

• SKILLED SLAVES (blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, weavers, etc.)

• FIELD HANDS- most enslaved people worked in the fields…from sunrise to sunset +

• OVERSEER- the plantation manager, supervised the slaves

LIFE UNDER SLAVERY

• slaves had few comforts beyond the bare necessities• slaves faced uncertainty and danger

- sold away or family broken up- slave marriages not legally recognized (“jumping the broom”…til death or separation do us part)

• extended family (relatives and friends) to provide stability

African- American Culture

• fused African and American elements into a new culture

• held onto Africa customs (songs and dance, folk stories, religion, dress)

• Passed these traditions on to their children• Many A-A adopted Christianity as a religion of

hope and resistance• spirituals provided for secret communication

and combined the Christian faith with earthly suffering

African- American Culture

• fused African and American elements into a new culture

• held onto Africa customs (songs and dance, folk stories, religion, dress)

• Passed these traditions on to their children• Many A-A adopted Christianity as a religion of

hope and resistance• spirituals provided for secret communication

and combined the Christian faith with earthly suffering

RESISTANCE TO SLAVERY• Some slaves openly rebelled against their masters• Nat Turner led one such rebellion in Virginia (1831)• Turner and his followers killed 55 whites before their

capture• Even more severe slave codes were passed• Generally, resistance was in the forms of pretending

to be ill, work slow downs, breaking tools, setting fire to buildings

• Resistance helped slaves endure the cruelty of slavery by striking back at their masters in sometimes subtle ways

click on picture for video clip on Nat Turner

ESCAPING SLAVERY

• Some enslaved A-A tried to escape slavery by running away to the North

• Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, two A-A leaders, were both born into slavery and escaped to freedom.

• Escaping from the Deep South states was almost impossible.

• Most slaves who successfully escaped were from the Upper South

Escaping Slavery• The UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, a network of “safe

houses” owned by free blacks and whites who opposed slavery, offered assistance to runaway slaves.

• Some slaves ran away to find relatives or to escape punishment. Rarely did they plan to make a run for the North

• Most were captured and returned to their owners. Discipline was severe…usually in the form of whipping.

Whites justification for slavery

• in the Bible• “natural” superiority of whites• “cradle to the grave” argument

Southern City Life

• South’s largest cities (1860)Baltimore (212,000)New Orleans (168,000)

• With the coming of the railroads, many cities grew as RR crossroads (Atlanta, Chattanooga, Montgomery, Jackson, Columbia)

Southern City Life

• South’s largest cities (1860)Baltimore (212,000)New Orleans (168,000)

• With the coming of the railroads, many cities grew as RR crossroads (Atlanta, Chattanooga, Montgomery, Jackson, Columbia)