I. The Agricultural Southern Economy

A. Rise of the Cotton Kingdom
1. Cotton production increased from 4000 bales to 3.8 million bales between 1790-1860
2. Lower (“deep”) South (SC, GA, Fla, AL, Miss, LA) had ideal climate for cotton production
3. Growth in production caused by exploding British and New England Demand while Indian removal policies opened land to cotton farmers
4. Cotton could be grown profitably on any scale without slaves (35-50% of cotton growers did not own slaves)
5. Cotton production required little capital investment

B. Cotton, Corn, and the Rise of Slavery
1. On large plantation, slave labour provided the advantage of being able to harvest cotton quickly
2. When not picking cotton, slaves were engaged in corn production. Corn could be planted earlier of later than cotton and harvested before or after it (flexibility). By 1860, more acreage in the lower South was actually dedicated to corn than cotton production
3. By 1830, cotton/corn farming employed ¾ of all southern slaves
4. Slave population increased from 700,000 in 1790 to 4 million by 1860

C. Upper and Lower South
1. Upper South (VA, ML, NC, Tennessee, Ky) grew tobacco, veggies, hemp and wheat
2. Lower South focused on Cotton, Corn, and Sugar
3. Slavery was more prominent in the Lower South
4. Upper South sold slave to the Lower South
5. While different, upper and lower South were unified by common culture, cash crop economy, the economic and political value of slaves and opposition to Northern abolitionists

D. North and South Diverge
1. The North was quickly urbanizing and industrializing
2. The South accounted for only 10% of the country’s industrial production and most Southerners lived in rural areas
3. Focus on time-tested cash crop agriculture kept Southerners form investing in industry.
4. South lagged behind in education as it offered little or no public education. Also, laws prevented slaves from learning to read.
5. Despite social and economic backwardness, Southerners were entrepreneurial and by 1860, their per capita income was above the national average

II. Social Groups in the White South

A. The Planter Class
1. Large plantation owners (with more than 100 slaves): 1% of Southern whites
2. Plantations were self-sufficient villages, characterized by division of labour
3. Plantation houses were initially modest but many evolved into large mansions during the antebellum period.
4. Most planters’ wealth was invested in slaves ($1700/ field)
5. Unpredictable commodity prices and debt needed to finance planting led planters to be cost-concious and profit-oriented – driven to acquire more land (often by moving further west)
6. Isolation- Distance between plantation and movement to cheaper Western land disrupted friendships/family ties
7. To combat isolation, many planters would spend part of the year in cities and throw large parties on the Plantations
8. Planter’s wives not only organised lavish parties but also supervised house slaves and various other functions on the plantation
9. It was common for plantation owners to father illegitimate children with female slaves.

B. Small Slaveholders
1. Owned fewer than 20 slaves and comprised about 22%of the white population
2. Most were farmers (but 1 in 5 were professionals or artisans)
3. Those who lived in upland areas tended to identify with non-slaveholders, whereas those who lived in lowland areas identified with and aspired to be large planters
4. Many moved west in search of cheaper land

C. Yeomen Farmers
1. Largest group of Southern Whites; owned no slaves but most owned land (50-200 acres)
2. Engaged in subsistence farming but sometimes also in small scale commercial farming
3. Regarded as “poor white trash” by lowland planters but considered respectable in upland areas where they were a majority.
4. Focused on self-sufficiency- whole family was engaged in running the farm
5. Generally didn’t deal with banks and kept commercial transactions on a local level

D. People of the Pine Barrens (hilly pine forests)
1. Comprised 10% of Southern Whites
2. Lived in crude cabins in the inland pine barrens
3. Engaged in subsistence farming (corn, hogs, and cattle)
4. Viewed as lazy and unfocused because they shunned routine and didn’t raise cash crops.
5. Fiercely independent, generally refused to work as hired labourers (left over from white indentured servants who came to America for work)


III. Social relations in the White South

A. Political Conflict and consensus
1. Most planters and city-dwellers tended to identify with Whigs (pro-banking) whereas most Yeomen were staunch Democrats (anti-banking)
2. Since most of the social groups lived in separate geographical areas, conflict between social groups was not apparent
3. Also, because there were no factories, most whites owned land and didn’t work for other whites, class conflict was minimized
4. Though planters were disproportionately represented in government, they needed the support of the other groups and therefore incorporated their views into legislation

B. Arguing over slavery
1. As slave ownership became increasingly concentrated, debate over slavery increased
2. Some supported laws to ensure that all whites would be able to afford slaves
3. A small minority even promoted abolition
4. Most whites supported slavery: planters wanted to keep their money, poorer whites either aspired to own slaves or feared social disruption and competition by a large number of freed slaves

C. Justifying Slavery
1. Faced with increasing criticism from northern abolitionists, Southerners developed a “positive good” argument to defend slavery
2. Argued that Athens and Rome practiced Slavery yet were centres of civilization
3. Argued that slaves had more job and social security than white factory workers in the North who were easily fired and not provided for in old age
4. Argued that Slavery was consistent with the Bible, quoting St. Paul’s order that “slaves obey their masters”; also, that blacks were better off as Christian slaves than “heathens” in Africa.
5. Southern Baptist and Methodist churches broke from their increasingly abolitionist Northern Counterparts

D. Southern Violence and the Code of Honour
1. In addition to violence perpetrated against slave, white Southerners tended to be violent with each other
2. Murder rate in south 10x higher than north
3. Disagreements and insults were often settled with extreme violence
4. Gentlemen adhered to an “honor code” which often led them to settle disputes with other gentlemen by duelling


IV. Antebellum slavery

A. Demographics
1. In the early years of slavery (1600s to 1700s) most slaves were young men shipped in from west Africa
2. There were few women and due to malnutrition/disease, they bore few children
3. After 1750, there was a large increase in native-born slaves
4. Slave importation ended in 1808
5. By 1830, almost all slave had been born in the US and there were as many women as men, allowing them to form families

B. Labour and discipline on the Plantation
1. Work started before dawn and ended well after dusk
2. Women and men often worked together in the fields
3. White overseers and black drivers often used brutality to discipline and expedite labours
4. Some field workers were able to eventually move to skilled or semi-skilled indoor work or become household slaves

C. Slave Family
1. Marriages often encouraged by plantation masters in order to increase birthrates and discourage running away
2. Still, masters and white overseers did not respect slave marriages, sometime demanding sexual favors from the women or selling family members away
3. Some slave would run away in order to reunite with family members who were sold- even to other plantations
4. As a result of obstacles to keeping th nuclear family united as well as West African Tradition, slaves developed extended fictive kinship groups

D. Health
1. Slaves in the US lived longer than slaves in any other part of the Western hemisphere
2. Healthier diets due to Southern US food surpluses (rations of corn meal, pork, and veggies)
3. African americans had higher immunity to malaria and yellow fever but suffered from cholera, dysentery, and diarrhea
4. Natural remedies such as white clay were developed to deal with ailments
5. Infant mortality rate was twice as high as for whites. Between 1850-1860, fewer than 2 out of 3 slave children survived to age 10

E. Non-plantation Slaves
1. Due to lack of white work force in the South, slaves worked as wagon drivers, stevedores, etc on river barges, in mining, lumbering and textile mills
2. These slaves were usually rented from plantation masters and therefore had to be treated reasonably well (to avoid liability)

F. Slave resistance
1. Three major rebellions: Gabriel’s (1800) and Vesey (1822) were unexecuted plots, Nat Turner’s (1831) was the only major rebellion actually carried out
2. Running away- rarely successful (less than a thousand slaves ever managed to make it North)- Underground Railroad [Harriet Tubman] was mostly a legend.
3. More common were temporary escapes into cities where slaves pretended to be free blacks
4. Theft, work slowdown, poisoning, arson, and sabotage were most common forms of furtive resistance

G. Southern Free Blacks
1. Free blacks had more opportunities in Southern Cities than in Northern ones, due to scarcity of white workers
2. Frree blacks were more tolerated in Upper South
3. Southern States forbade free blaks from entering their state and Arkansas even expelled all free blacks in 1859
4. Faced with white discrimination, however, blacks developed a sense of solidarity that transcended socioeconomic lines