Plantation agriculture was wasteful largely because

A2. A Former Slave Exposes Slavery

This is Frederick Douglass' abolitionist speech of 1850 in Rochester, New York. Douglass gave this speech to voice his opinion about slavery after being a slave for twenty years and having a first hand experience on how slaves are treated. This speech is important because it gives another view on slavery and especially how they are truly treated not physically, but how they are psychologically affected as well. A limitation to Douglass' speech is that he is clearly an abolitionist and someone who was pro-slavery would have a totally different point of view from him. 

B4. Comparing Slave Labor and Wage Labor

This is a cartoon published in Boston in 1850 comparing slave labor and wage labor. The cartoon is important because it shows how pro-slavery people viewed wage labor as worse than slave labor. They did have a few arguable points, but all in all both were cruel and horrible forms of labor. A limitation to the cartoon is the fact that it has been made by someone who is pro-slavery, obviously abolitionists would have a different opinion of this. 

C1. William Lloyd Garrison Launches The Liberator

This document is a speech by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831 on launching his controversial newspaper The Liberator. His speech is important because it gave hope to other abolitionists and he showed his passion for integrating blacks into the community and his support to end slavery. This speech can help historians analyze the beliefs of abolitionists and that there were some who were extremely passionate. Garrison is clearly biased towards ending slavery, and a pro-slavery man would have an opinion completely different from his. 

C4. Slavery and the Family

This is an 1840 cartoon about slavery. The cartoon shows what was probably the most telling argument on part of the abolitionists; the separation of families. Historians can analyze this as another cruel aspect of slavery and witness the anger from abolitionists. This cartoon is clearly from an abolitionist's point of view, and someone who was pro-slavery would have depicted the complete opposite. 

D2. Abraham Lincoln Appraises Abolitionism 

This is Abraham Lincoln's 1854 speech at Peoria, Illinois in which he appraises abolitionism. Lincoln give this speech and shows an interesting point of view towards slavery, showing that he does not blame the South for adopting slavery. A limitation to his opinion could be that other abolitionists might have been angry at  him for saying the South has almost no fault, while they might think the South should be punished. 

• Southern economy is dominated by the cotton gin
• Price of slaves increases as their value increases as well
• Northern shippers reaped profits from the cotton trade
• Prosperity of both the North & South rested on slavery
• Cotton counted for half the value of all American exports after 1840
• Britain received 75% of their cotton from the South
• Land exhaustion  was a factor of cotton production moving west

• Oligarchy - heavily influenced by planter aristocracy
• 1850 - 1,733 families owned more than 100 slaves each, this group provided the political and social leadership of the South and the nation 
• Life for the aristocracy - Educated their children in the best schools, leisure for study, reflection, and statecraft and feeling obligated to serve the public

• Public education was hampered; rich planters sent their children to private institutions 
• Medievalism: jousting tournaments 
• Southern women: commanded the household staff, mostly female slaves. Virtually no slave-holding women were abolitionists 

• Excessive cultivation ("land butchery")
• Smaller land owners sols land to more prosperous neighbors
• Financial instability; many were in debt, slaves were costly

• Southerners resented watching the North grow fat at their expense
• Cotton repelled large-scale European immigration 

• Only 1/4 of white southerners owned slaves or belonged to a slave owning family
• Small slave owners were typically small farmers who would normally work with their slaves
• 3/4 of white southerners owned NO slaves; rednecks were isolated and raised corn and hogs. There were 6.1 million of them in 1860. Nonslaveholding and least prosperous
• Whites without slaves were the stoutest defenders of the slave system
• Mountain whites: In the Appalachians. West VA to northern GA & Alabama, independent farmers who hated planters and slavery

• About 250,000 free blacks by 1860
• Many were mulattoes
• Some had purchased their freedom
• Many owned property, especially in New Orleans
• Some even owned slaves
• "Third Race;" prohibited from working certain occupations, forbidden to testify against whites in court, vulnerable to being highjacked back into slavery, were resented and detested by defenders of slavery  

• Northern blacks were hated by Irish immigranys
• Fear of slavery spreads to new territories
• Frederick Douglass was mobbed and beaten several times by people in the North

• Slaves were a major investment
• Primary source of wealth
• 1860, 4 million flaves
• African slave trade ended in 1808; smuggling began and was punishable by death
• Natural reproduction; women who bore 13+ children were prized
• Deep South states owned about 1/2 of all slaves (South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, & Louisiana)
• Slave auctions were brutal, families were separated
• Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin

• Slaveowners romanticized about their happy lives
• Conditions for slaves varied on the master
• Floggings were common, however, the typical planted had too much invested in their slave to beat too severely or too often  
• Most lived in the Deep South working in large plantations
• Managed to sustain family life; most were raised with both parents
• Distinctive African American culture; religious cultures were a mix of Christian & African elements emphasized captivity of the Israelites

The Power of Slaves

• Slaves often slowed the pace of their labor to the barest minimum that would spare them the lash, creating the myth of blCk "laziness"
• Stole food from the "big house"
• Sabotaged equipment
• Rarely poisoned their marter's food
• Escapes

Slave Rebellions

• 1820- Gabriel in Richmond, V
  • Informers told of plot
  • Leaders were hanged
• 1822- Denmark Vesey in Charlseton, SC
  • Freed blacks and slaves
  • 30 hanged
• 1831- Nat Turner in Hampton County, VA
  • Visionary preacher 
  • Led upsizing that slaughtered 60 Virginians 
  • Received death penalty

• First sprang up during the Revolution through Quakers
• American Colonization Society founded in 1817
  • The goal was to send former skaves back to Africa 
  • Republic of Liberia is founded in 1822, capital is named Monrovia 
  • 15,000 free blacks were transported
  • Problem; by now they were native-born African Americans 
  • Supported by Lincoln 

Abolition in the 1830s

• 1833- Great Britaincfreed their slaves in the West Indies
• During the Second Great Awakening slavery was viewed as a sin
• Theodore Dwight Weld
  • Organized an 18 day debate on slavefy at Lane Theological Seminary in 1834
  • He and his fellow "Lane Rebels" fanned out across the Old Northwest preaching the anti slavefy gospel

Radical Abolitionism

• William Lloyd Garrison 
  • Best known for The Liberator
  • Proclaimed that under no circumstances would he tolerate slavery 
  • His newspaper published in Boston triggered a 30 year war of words
  • Proposed that the North secede from the "wicked" south
  • Burned a copy oft he constitution believing it was a pro slavery document

Abolitionists

• Wendell Phillips 
• David Walker
  • Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World
• Sojurner Truth

Frederick Douglass

• Greatest of the black abolitionists 
• Escaped from slavery in 1838
• Lectured widely
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
• Looked to politics to help end slavery 
  • Backed: Liberty Party
  • Free Soil Party
  • Republican Party

The South Lashes Back

• 1820s- most anti slavefy societies were located in the South
• 1830s- white southern abolitionism silenced/VA- last major debate over slavery
• Slave codes were strengthened 
• Moved to prohibit emancipation of any kind, voluntary or compensated
• Nat Turner's Rebellion caused massive fear in the South
• Nullification Crisis of 1832

Southern Responses

• "Positive good"
• Slavery was supported in the Bible & Aristotle
• It was good for Africans, they were now civilized
• Christianity was taught
• Contrasted the  slaves and wage slaves
  • Blacks worked in the fresh air
  • Taken care of when they were old

Problems Rwsult

• Problems in Congress
  • Piles of petitions poured into Congrss from antislavery reformers
  • Southerners wanted a gag resolution a
• 1835- Mob looted the post office in Charleston
• Washington ordered that all postmasters destroy all abolitionists material & arrest those who didn't comply

Abolitionist Impact in the North

• North had become an economic stake in slavery

Attacks on Abolitionists

• Lewis Tappan
• William Lloyd Garison; dragged through the streets with a rope tied around his neck 
• Elijah Lovejoy