SectionalismThe Road to War

Regional DifferencesNorth South West

A brief history of slavery in the US

Slaves captured in Africa….

Middle Passage:15 million taken, 3 million died in journey, major part of triangle trade including sugar, rum and slaves. Profits on slaving voyage averaged 30%.

Legal Development of Slavery

Jamestown: arrived 1619 on Dutch ship, indentured, voted, testified in court

Virginia Court (1640) – captured 3 escaped indentured servants, Dutch and Scot given 1 year additional service. African given life servitude.

1662 VA law states “Any Christian (white) who shall commit fornication with a Negro shall pay double the usual fine.” By 1691, also true in Maryland.

Slavery in the North

• Quakers were first abolitionists• Pennsylvania passed first gradual

emancipation law in 1780.• By 1808, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode

Island, New Jersey and New York followed, slave trade had ended and all Northern states had abolished slavery except Delaware.

Free Blacks in the North• Still restricted by laws, varied from state to

state• Not allowed to vote or hold public office• Usually excluded from white schools,

museums, public restrooms, hotels, theaters, etc

• Not allowed to testify in court against a white person

• Had to compete against European immigrants for jobs, helped create antagonism between immigrants, especially Irish

Slavery in South• Called “peculiar institution”• Solution to labor supply problem needed to

cultivate tobacco, rice, indigo. Later used for sugar cane and cotton.

• Became much more important after invention of cotton gin in 1794

• Two separate areas: Upper (or old) South and Lower (or new) South; most slaves preferred to be in old South than new South

Demographics of Slavery in South• Minority of population• South Carolina and Mississippi only states to

have slaves outnumber free persons• Between ¼ and 1/3 of Southerners owned

slaves• ½ of these held fewer than 5 slaves, 5 % of

whites owned 20 or more; fewer than 1% held more than 100

• Most slaves lived in small groups rather than on plantations. Average number of slaves living together was 10 in 1860.

Defense of Slavery

• Economic system – if value of slaves lost, economy would be ruined. ~ Charles Pinckney

• States’ rights – no gov interference in slavery, education, religion etc. No mention in Constitution. ~John Taylor

• Biblical defense – slavery sanctified in Bible

• Mud-Sill Theory – all great civs have had slavery

• Sociology of South – Negroes destined to be slaves by their very nature: infantile and childlike. “white man’s burden” idea. Need to protect them from extermination by superior whites. ~ George Fitzhugh

Abolitionism

• Quakers: Slave-owning not consistent with Christian doctrine

• American Colonization Society – Movement to send “free blacks” back to Africa (Liberia). Monroe, Clay, Webster, Lincoln supportive

• “Genius of Universal Emancipation” – ntnl gov has sole authority to abolish slavery in terr, no new states, internal slave trade etc

• William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Theodore Dwight Weld, Grimke sisters

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe

Slave Uprisings

• Stono Rebellion: 1739, South Carolina• Gabriel Prosser: 1800, Virginia• Denmark Vesey: 1822, South Carolina• Nat Turner: 1831, Virginia• John Brown’s Raid: 1859, Virginia, WHITE

MALE!!!!

Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

• Mexican Cession – 525,000 square miles for $15 million, plus US takes over $3.25 million in debt from Mex.

• American citizenship and property rights for all Mexican citizens who did not wish to keep their Mexican citizenship.– Open to interpretation of courts, so often not

respected.

To be (slave) or not to be?

VS

The wild, wild west….

Compromises/Acts/Cases to Remember

• Tallmadge Amendment (failed)• Missouri Compromise (Compromise of 1820)

(passed)• Gag rules (1836) (passed)• Wilmot Proviso (1846) (failed)• Compromise of 1850 (passed)• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) (passed)• Dred-Scott v Sanford (1857)• Crittenden Compromise (1860) (failed)

Important Terms to Understand

• Popular sovereignty• Gradual emancipation• Immediate emancipation• Fugitive slave law• Nullification• States’ rights• Secession• Antebellum