THE SOUTH AND THE SLAVERY

CONTROVERSY1793-1860

The Slave Narrative of Olaudah Equiano

“King Cotton and the Cotton Kingdom”

Family, Church, and Neighborhood: The White South Southerners remained

localistic and culturally conservative

Prospects for most Southern whites: inherited land and family

Southerners were grounded in authority of patriarchs and integrity of families

Paternalistic Society

Southern Families Family members: representatives of

families, rather than individuals – duty to their family

Reputation and defense of the family name and honor

Family honor more important than wealth Southern code of honor Honor the obligations to which one is

born

Southern Entertainments Rural character of South meant fewer

commercial entertainments English literature preferred

Sir Walter Scott and Chivalry Hunting and fishing Commercial entertainment

Showboats along river towns Horse racing New Orleans

Religious Conservatism Misfortune is divine punishment Southern cultural conservatism was

rooted in: Religion The family A system of fixed family roles

Proslavery Christianity By 1830 South was minority in a

democratic and capitalist nation Northern middle-class: made a

connection between material and moral progress Individual autonomy and universal rights

Radical northern minority advocated abolition of slavery

Southern response: moral and religious defense of slavery Rejects Jefferson’s “self-evident” equality of

man

The Private Lives of Slaves Plantation

slaveholders knew their success depended on slaves’ labor and obedience in exchange for allowing slaves some privilege and autonomy

The Slave Family Most precious slave

privilege: right to make and maintain families

Slave marriages Slave families vulnerable

Slaves used for sex by owners

Slaves were assets that were sometimes liquidated

Slaves modified their relations in anticipation of uncertainties

Extended kinship

White Missions Missions to slaves

Owners responsible for spiritual welfare of slaves

Slave Christians Slaves ignored much of missionary

teachings Slaves embraced Christianity:

transformed it into an independent African American faith

Incorporated social and ritual practices passed down from West Africa

Religion and Revolt Slave revolt rare Running away

common form of rebellion

Christianity convinced slaves that justice would come to them

Denmark Vesey Vesey plot (1822)

Nat Turner Nat Turner’s

Rebellion (1831) Instrument of

God’s wrath Virginia: 60 slaves

killed 55 whites Deeply troubling for

Southern whites

The Politics of Race Traditional view: God gave white males

power over others Whig evangelicals

Marriage changes from rank domination to sentimental partnership

The emergence of a radical minority envisioning a world without power

Attacked slavery and patriarchy as national sin

Free Blacks North: states began to abolish slavery

Revolutionary idealism Slavery was inefficient and unnecessary

Gradual emancipation (Pennsylvania model)

Free black populations grew and moved into the cities

Many took stable, low-paying jobs

Discrimination Discrimination rises

White workers drive blacks out of skilled and semi-skilled jobs

Blacks increasingly politically disenfranchised

Segregated schools Blacks build their own

institutions African Methodist Episcopal

Church (1816) Black Anti-slavery activism

David Walker: Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829)

Harriet Tubman Frederick Douglass

The Beginnings of Antislavery First anti-slavery efforts die out in early

1800s American Colonization Society (1816)

Gradual, compensated emancipation “Repatriation” to Liberia

Slavery abolished many places outside the U.S. Toussaint L’Ouverture and Haiti South American Republics British Caribbean

Abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison

The Liberator (1831) American Anti-Slavery

Society (1833) Abolition a logical

extension of middle class evangelicalism

American Anti-slavery Society demands: Immediate emancipation Full civil and legal rights

for African-Americans