Agricultural Economy of Antebellum Life | NCpedia Agricultural Economy of Antebellum Life Copyright notice This article is from Tar Heel Junior Historian , published for the Tar Heel Junior Historian Association by the North Carolina Museum of History. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other uses directly to the museum editorial staff . Average: 3.9 (15 votes) Agricultural Economy of Antebellum Life by Charles LeCount Reprinted with permission from the Tar Heel Junior Historian. Fall 1996. Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, NC Museum of History One hundred fifty years ago, nearly all North Carolinians made their living by farming. And even the majority of those who did not actually farm were still tied to the state’s agricultural economy: merchants who bought and sold farm produce, craftsmen who made and repaired tools and equipment, and mill workers who processed crops into goods that could be sold or traded, among others. Some of these people also farmed part of the time. During the antebellum period , basically two types of landed, or landowning, people were found in North Carolina.

A minority of them were wealthy planters. The larger group was often called yeoman farmers , or sometimes common whites. Planters Planters specialized in raising cash crops like tobacco and cotton. In order to make money from these crops, planters had to raise them in large amounts with cheap labor and then transport them inexpensively to market. Planters generally owned enslaved Africans and later African Americans, on whom they relied to provide cheap labor. They ideally situated their plantations near the coast and along navigable rivers or, later, close to railroads to ensure inexpensive, reliable transportation. An example of one small planter, who kept a journal, was William Wallace White . White owned a 614-acre plantation called Holly Hill in Warren County , and in 1860 he owned approximately fifteen slaves. On his plantation, these enslaved persons produced tobacco, wheat, oats, corn, and potatoes; raised hogs; and kept a dairy herd of eleven cows. White’s plantation also had an extensive garden for his family, as well as gardens for his slaves. His slaves usually worked all day and often into the evenings, six days a week.

But, according to his journal, in August 1857, as his crops were laying in, he gave his enslaved workers a daylong “holiday”—he decided to throw them a barbecue. White also lightened their workloads around Christmas, and, judging from his journal, little work of consequence was done in January. Yeoman Farmers Most white North Carolinians, however, were not planters. They owned their own small farms and frequently did not own any slaves. These farmers practiced a “safety first” form of subsistence agriculture by growing a wide range of crops in small amounts so that the needs of their families were met first. Emsley Burgess of Randolph County was an example of a yeoman farmer. Burgess, who kept a journal, lived in a log cabin with his wife and eight children. A Quaker who owned no slaves, he relied on the labor of his children and relatives, a few neighbors, and some hired help—often poor whites looking for work—to maintain his small farm. He was often busy. The forty-three-year-old Burgess recounted a day’s accomplishments one October: “...

put up husks at the barn sowed some wheat gathered corn over the creek sowed wheat hauled a load of corn.” Still, he could take days off and often enjoyed summer evenings visiting neighbors and relatives and eating watermelon. Burgess grew corn, wheat, rice, potatoes, and oats, and kept a large garden where he grew peas, onions, beets, lettuce, radishes, watermelons, beans, and cucumbers, among other vegetables. Burgess also had patches of cotton and flax to satisfy some of his family’s textile needs. To make money for buying household items he could not raise or produce himself, Burgess made barrels and metal cans to sell and repaired stovepipes, gutters, and household items. Scientific Farming Despite their economic and social differences, White and Burgess and the people who labored with and for them shared a common calendar of work. Both planters and farmers organized their lives according to daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly routines based on the seasonal rhythms and demands of growing crops and raising animals for food and money. To accomplish these routines, planters and farmers usually relied heavily upon tradition—an accumulated knowledge of experience that was passed on from one generation to the next.

Both Burgess and White relied on tradition in their agricultural practices when they planted their crops in individually made hills instead of furrows, or rows, for example, and when they allowed their hogs and cattle to range freely through the woods. But during the antebellum period, some people began to deviate from these traditional methods and look toward science to assist them in producing higher yields and greater profits. By the 1850s, some were looking toward new information that was becoming available through agricultural societies, books, and newspapers. White’s interest in “scientific farming” is reflected in his use of guano as a fertilizer. Some yeoman farmers like Burgess were adopting “progressive” agricultural techniques on a more modest scale. Burgess apparently rotated his crops and planted clover and timothy (a type of hay) in fields that had previously grown wheat or corn to save and replenish the nutrients in his soil. He also spread leaves and manure onto his fields and plowed them into the soil. Plenty of Work to Do Antebellum planters and farmers faced a labor-intensive, never-ending cycle of planting, cultivating, harvesting, and processing crops. They seldom had the assistance of mechanical labor-saving devices.

All work had to be accomplished by hand with only the aid of draft animals like horses, mules, or oxen. Even the removal of insect pests had to be done by hand. Burgess wrote on April 9, 1847: “I cleaned the appletrees of catterpillars.” White’s enslaved workers also spent many late summer and early fall days “worming,” or picking worms, in his tobacco fields by hand. Seemingly simple tasks took a great deal of time and effort, so planters and farmers seldom had little or no work to do. When an important task had to be accomplished, work continued until it was completed. At tobacco harvest time, White’s slaves spent long days in backbreaking labor cutting, sticking, and housing the crop. White often noted that they did not cease work until after ten o’clock in the evening. Bad weather sometimes postponed outdoor work, but other tasks always awaited. February 26, 1847, dawned cold and cloudy, but farmer Burgess had his two hired boys haul wood until noon, when he directed them to construct a shelter for the woodpile. When rain began, he sent them indoors to shuck corn for the rest of the day.

His two hired boys husked and shelled corn until ten o’clock on one April night in 1846. Though yeoman farm women sometimes worked in the fields and at chores alongside men, they usually tended to their own tasks and responsibilities. Every day, for example, these women built and maintained fires for cooking, heating, and lighting, and hauled water from a spring, a stream, or a well to the house for cooking, drinking, and washing. They cared for children and prepared and served meals. At least weekly, they had laundry to wash and iron and bread to bake. In addition, women regularly fed livestock, milked cows, and churned butter. On a seasonal basis, they made soap and candles, maintained gardens, and preserved foods for use later in the year. Women were also responsible for certain aspects of textile production such as spinning, dyeing, sewing, and sometimes weaving. Enslaved women had to perform not only the domestic chores of their own households but frequently those of their masters, too. Furthermore, they typically worked in the fields alongside men. White frequently mentions having “all hands” working in the fields. Children were of course expected to contribute to work around their parents’ farm or owner’s plantation.

As soon as possible, they worked at nearly all the same tasks as adults. For some planters, the monetary rewards were great. But for farmers like Burgess, the rewards were considerably more modest. Burgess by his own admission was not a successful farmer. “I cannot help feeling rather discouraged and under the weather fer the hand of misfortune has seamed to laid heavy on me,” he wrote after the death of one of his horses in April 1847. Still, possibly recalling the pleasures of visiting friends and relatives, the fellowship of his Quaker meeting, and the taste of his watermelons, he concluded that all was not bad, for there “has been some sunny spots too in the path.” At the time this article was written, Charles LeCount was the curator of agriculture and industry at the North Carolina Museum of History. Educator Resources: Grade 8: Slavery, Naval Stores and Rice Plantations in Colonial North Carolina. North Carolina Civic Education Consortium.

civics.sites.unc.edu/files/2012/04/SlaveryNavalStoresRicePlantations.pdf References and additional resources: Economy - The Antebellum Era The Antebellum Era Bibliography Antebellum Economy The economy of the Antebellum era was separated according to North and South. The economy of the North was characterized by industrialization, while the South was characterized by the "Cotton Kingdom". Slaves picking cotton in Georgia (Credit to Jupiterimages) The Northern Economy During this time period, the Northern economy was becoming more and more industrialized starting at the turn of the century. From 1800 to 1860 the United States grew substantially in size and population. During industrialization, much of the population moved with their families from rural areas into the city. They found jobs working in factories, usually with harsh conditions and little pay. Woman Working At a Weaving Machine (Credit to Historymatters.com) With difficulties in Europe, many immigrants moved to the U.S. and settled in Eastern cities. In Ireland, people were suffering severely from the potato famine, and in Germany, riots and political upheaval were causing suffering as well.

These events caused countless citizens to move to the U.S. in hope of a better future. These immigrants were strongly hated because they competed with U.S. citizens for jobs in the cities. Factories would hire immigrants over Americans because they were willing to work for cheaper. Because Americans disliked the immigrants so much, the Irish, especially, were separated from other citizens where they lived. They set up their own sections in cities that were really just slums and ghettos. While the Irish tended to stay in Eastern cities, the Germans often moved farther West in hopes of buying their own land and starting their own businesses. During the Antebellum era, many mechanisms were invented that further propelled Northern industry. In 1801, Eli Whitney introduced the idea of interchangeable parts to Congress. He introduced it with a demonstration of guns that could be taked apart and put back together using other guns' pieces and vice versa. Other inventions had a lot to do with transportation and moving merchandise across the country. Innovations such as the steam engine and steamboats in the late 1700s helped to evolve the economy of the United States. Along with these vital inventions, the railroad was extremely important as well.

They began to be commonly used in the 1820s and competed directly with the use of steamboats and canals. Eli Whitney: Interchangeable Parts (Credit to Glogster.com) The Southern Economy The Southern economy of the Antebellum era is directly tied to cotton production. Their industry, known as the "Cotton Kingdom" or "King Cotton", was dependent on the use of slave labor, which was later a major cause of the Civil War. With the invention of the cotton gin (Eli Whitney), the production of cotton surpassed that of tobacco, the main crop of the 1700s. Whitney Cotton Gin, Courtroom Model, 1800 (credit to Americanenterprise.edu) By the end of the Antebellum period, the South produced 75 percent of the world's cotton supply. Because of the South's large cotton supply and production, Britain was able to create the world's first factories where they created cotton cloth from the cotton they bought from the South. A major issue of the King Cotton economy was over slavery, otherwise called the "Peculiar Institution".

Slave trade was a very prominent activity in the South and most plantation owner's investment and fortune was in their slaves. As the era went on, people, particularly in the North, became more and more averse to slavery. These people were called abolitionists and often fought for the abolition of other institutions as well, not just slavery. By the end of the Antebellum period, slavery was the "hot topic" and was, most historians believe, the cause of the Civil War. Create a free website Antebellum Louisiana | Entries | KnowLA, Encyclopedia of Louisiana Entries » Antebellum Louisiana Adrien Persac was a min-nineteenth-century French-born artist who is noted for his watercolors of New Orleans buildings. Learn more » The antebellum period of American history covers the first part of the nineteenth century, leading up to the Civil War. The antebellum period in Louisiana begins on April 30, 1812, when it entered the Union as the eighteenth state, and ends on March 21, 1861, when it joined the Confederacy .

During its first years of statehood, political and cultural conflict continued to revolve around tension between Louisianans of Anglo-American descent and those of French or Spanish descent, frequently called Creoles . The state also was home to a significant population of Acadian refugees known as Cajuns . The imprint of Creoles and Cajuns affected the state’s legal system (a combination of French civil law and English common law), its religion (the greatest percentage of Catholics in the South), and its culture, whether through its Mardi Gras celebration, foods such as gumbo , boudin, jambalaya, and étouffée, or unique musical traditions that would ultimately become elements of jazz and zydeco . In 1812, the new state’s population stood at approximately 80,000, including 35,000 slaves. In June, William C. C. Claiborne , whom Thomas Jefferson had appointed as territorial governor nine years earlier, won election to lead the state as governor. While Louisianans cheered their release from congressional control, statehood did not immediately result in peace and prosperity.

The War of 1812 The War of 1812 and especially the specter of British invasion towered over Claiborne's term. In November 1814, General Andrew Jackson arrived in New Orleans to defend the Gulf Coast against a presumed British invasion. A series of altercations culminated in the January 8, 1815, Battle of New Orleans in which a Jackson-led force of federal troops, state militiamen, Baratarian pirates, and free people of color/gens de couleur libres thrashed the British regulars. Thanks to this victory, Jackson immediately became a state as well as a national hero, with New Orleans renaming its main square after the general in 1851 and erecting an equestrian statue of him there five years later. Prior to the Battle of New Orleans, Jackson had feared that Louisiana’s population lacked loyalty to the United States. That apprehension proved unjustified. The Constitution of 1812 set the ground rules for the state’s first political battles.

It stipulated that voters had to meet a tax-paying qualification (which generally equated to land ownership) and that state officers needed to meet even higher property qualifications (to be governor one had to own at least $5,000 in property). Additionally, the voters did not directly select many officers. Legislators chose the governor from the top two popular vote recipients, and the governor, in turn, selected most other officers, including the attorney general, state treasurer, and state judges. Early political battles centered on a candidate’s ethnicity rather than his stances on the issues. In the first years of statehood, the gubernatorial office rotated between Anglo-Americans and Creoles, with Jacques Villeré and Thomas Bolling Robertson succeeding Claiborne. Partisan Politics In the 1820s and 1830s, Louisiana politics moved from an emphasis on personality and ethnicity to a system primarily based on partisanship. When Andrew Jackson emerged as the leader of a national Democratic Party, many Louisianans dutifully lined up behind their hero. Jackson’s Democratic Party appealed to small farmers through its emphasis on white men’s democracy and its advocacy of small government.

The Democratic Party swept most of the South, but, ironically, in Louisiana, the site of Jackson’s great victory, one of the South’s most vibrant Whig parties emerged. In every presidential election from 1828 through James Buchanan’s victory in 1856, Louisiana cast its electoral vote for the winner. The Whigs’ advocacy of federal aid for internal improvements, a high tariff, and government involvement in commerce had strong appeal in Louisiana. In terms of agriculture, unlike the rest of the South, Louisiana possessed a dual monarchy. In the northern half of the state, as in the rest of the lower South, cotton was king. The parishes along both the Red River and the Mississippi River contained some of the best cotton-growing land in the United States. In contrast, in southern Louisiana, sugar reigned. Generally, harvesting sugarcane involved more risk but offered the potential for more reward than cotton cultivation. While southern Louisiana stood out as the nation’s foremost sugar-producing region, its sugarcane planters needed a Whig-advocated tariff to remain competitive against Caribbean imports. Louisiana elected Whig governors in 1834 (Edward Douglass White ) and 1838 ( Andre Bienvenu Roman ).

After Roman’s term, the Whigs never regained the state’s highest office. Leading up to the Civil War , Democrats Alexandre Mouton , Isaac Johnson , Joseph M. Walker , Paul O. Hebert , Robert C. Wickliffe , and Thomas Overton Moore all occupied the governor’s office. Meanwhile, in the 1850s, US Senators John Slidell and Pierre Soulé emerged as the state’s most powerful Democrats and as key rivals, with Slidell’s wing of the party generally getting the better end of the bargain. Jacksonian Democracy in Louisiana The divergent ideologies of the Democrats and Whigs surfaced when the state adopted new constitutions in 1845 and 1852. The constitutions reflected state and national trends often known as Jacksonian Democracy. They expanded the electorate as well as the number of elective offices. The 1845 Constitution removed property qualifications for voting and office holding and allowed voters to elect the secretary of state, attorney general, and state treasurer, as well as to choose the governor directly. In 1845, Democrats eliminated state-chartered banks and state aid to corporations, but in 1852, Whigs reinstituted these provisions.

The constitutions also demonstrated the rivalry between New Orleans and the rest of the state. New Orleans had been Louisiana’s capital from its founding, with exception of a single session in 1830 when the legislature met in Donaldsonville. The 1845 Constitution stipulated that the capital be removed from New Orleans, and the following year, the legislature relocated to Baton Rouge. Both constitutions altered the legislative apportionment methods in order to limit New Orleans’s overwhelming advantages in terms of voters and white population, ultimately basing parish representation on total population, including slaves. The resentment of New Orleans stemmed from its size, which made it stand out in comparison to Louisiana and the rest of the South. The city dwarfed other Louisiana and southern cities. By 1860, New Orleans possessed a population of 168,000, while Baton Rouge stood as the second largest city with 5,000 inhabitants. Also, the city attracted immigrants at a rate unequaled in the South. In 1860, the census listed 66,359 Orleans Parish residents as having a foreign birthplace (a number greater than lived in any other southern state).

Because of the presence of these primarily Irish and German immigrants, New Orleans in the 1850s had one of the most powerful Know-Nothing parties in the South. This organization, founded in opposition to immigration, ruled the city through intimidation and violence. Additionally, as the key port on the Mississippi River and the financial center of the Mississippi Valley, New Orleans attracted northern and international bankers and other businessmen, including factors—planters’ agents who marketed crops and purchased goods for their rural clients. It also served as home to De Bow’s Review, the most influential agricultural and commercial journal in the South. Unfortunately, due to a combination of poor sanitation and periodic outbreaks of yellow fever and cholera, New Orleans had the highest death rate in the nation. Plantation System and Slavery With much of its wealth resting on the production and marketing of staple crops, the state relied on slave labor to support the plantation system. In each census during the antebellum period, slaves made up at least 45 percent of Louisiana’s total population, and more than 60 percent of the population outside of New Orleans.

Slave concentrations were highest along the Mississippi River, with slaves comprising more than 90 percent of the population in Concordia and Tensas parishes. While not home to a large slave population, New Orleans did contain the South’s largest interstate slave market, where slaves from the upper South were sold to the cotton fields of the Deep South. This slave labor allowed some plantation owners to accumulate vast sums of wealth best viewed today in elegant plantation homes such as Nottoway , Oak Alley , and Shadows on the Teche . Plantation owners also dominated the state legislature, the governor’s office, and the state’s secession convention. Most Louisianans could only dream of such affluence, as the average white man farmed his own small plot of land with the help of his family. These farmers aimed to feed their families first, but might grow a bale or two of cotton as well. Despite the importance of cotton and sugar, Louisianans actually planted more acreage in corn than in any other crop. Corn, along with pork, served as the key foods in the typical Louisiana diet, though in south Louisiana, seafood and rice-based dishes appeared as well. Most farmers lived an isolated life owing to the state’s primitive transportation network.

Louisianans relied on water transportation, with plantation homes facing rivers and steamboats traveling up and down its waterways. The Red River , however, was only occasionally navigable upriver from Alexandria, and the Atchafalaya Basin held a much lower volume of water than it does today. Starting in the 1830s, railroads began to improve transportation, but a lack of both planning and capital, especially after the nationwide Panic of 1837, made their growth sporadic. In 1835, one of the first railroad ventures connected New Orleans and the resort of Carrollton. The New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad would become the famous St. Charles Avenue Streetcar line still in existence today. Social Life in Antebellum Louisiana Louisianans’ social life depended upon their wealth and where they lived. Unsurprisingly, New Orleans residents had the most options. The city offered nationally renowned operas and theaters, opulent hotels, fancy balls, and excellent restaurants. At the other end of the spectrum were gambling dens and houses of prostitution. Outside New Orleans, social activities centered on political gatherings, court days, and religious services.

Although the southern portion of the state had a Catholic majority, Protestants predominated in northern Louisiana and eventually in the state as a whole. By 1860, the state had 199 Methodist and 161 Baptist churches, compared with 99 Catholic churches. Nevertheless, Catholic churches possessed more wealth than all of their Protestant counterparts combined. Religion impacted all Louisianans, whether free or slave. African Americans synthesized their traditions with Christianity to form Voudou . Additionally, slaves used the Christian religion as a way to cope with bondage, identifying with the enslaved Israelites and seeking their own Moses. Regardless of what their owners thought, slaves did not accept their status. While the antebellum period never saw a slave revolt rivaling the 1811 slave rebellion , fears among white Louisianans of rebellion never disappeared. Just about every edition of every newspaper included numerous advertisements seeking the return of escaped slaves. Although Louisiana slaves did not leave many extensive records, some narratives, most famously that of Solomon Northup, detail their efforts to endure slavery. Northup, a freeman kidnapped into slavery, describes slaves’ lives, and his account demonstrates the extensive array of tasks slaves performed in antebellum Louisiana.

Not all of Louisiana’s African Americans were enslaved. A significant number of free people of color lived in the state. French and Spanish slave society had a greater toleration of interracial liaisons than Americans and a greater likelihood of freeing the children of these relationships. Also, following the Haitian Revolution, more free blacks came to Louisiana. Most of them lived in New Orleans, but a significant colony lived in the Cane River region. The number of free people of color in Louisiana peaked at 25,500 in 1840. Because of mounting obstacles placed in the way of emancipation and an increasingly hostile attitude toward their presence, by 1860 their total had decreased to 18,647. In contrast, by 1860, Louisiana’s overall population had grown to 708,002, of whom 331,726 were slaves. Secession Despite its unique aspects, Louisiana’s cotton- and slave-based economy made it act in concert with the other slave states as the Civil War approached. The state’s political leaders preached that the Republican Party threatened the southern way of life.

In 1860, Louisiana cast its electoral votes for John Breckinridge, and in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s election, Governor Thomas Overton Moore called for the election of a secession convention. While the state’s voters were almost evenly divided between immediate secessionists and cooperationists (those who wanted the South to act in concert), by the time the secession convention met in January 1861, cooperation was a dead letter, as five southern states had already seceded. On January 26, 1861, the delegates voted to secede by a 113 to 17 margin, and on March 21, 1861, Louisiana joined the Confederate States of America. Written By John M. Sacher , University of Central Florida Published » July 28, 2011 | Last Updated » January 21, 2015 Cite This Entry Chicago Manual of Style Sacher, John M. "Antebellum Louisiana." In KnowLA Encyclopedia of Louisiana, edited by David Johnson. Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, 2010–. Article published July 28, 2011.

MLA Style Sacher, John M. "Antebellum Louisiana." KnowLA Encyclopedia of Louisiana. Ed. David Johnson. Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, 28 Jul 2011. Web. 18 Jan. 2017. Suggested Reading Would you like to learn more about this topic from books and other reading materials? Follett, Richard. The Sugar Masters: Planters and Slaves in Louisiana’s Cane World, 1820–1860. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005. Johnson, Walter. Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999. Malone, Ann Patton. Sweet Chariot: Slave Family and Household Structure in Nineteenth-Century Louisiana. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992. Mills, Gary B. The Forgotten People: Cane River’s Creoles of Color. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977. Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years a Slave.

Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Reinders, Robert C. End of an Era: New Orleans, 1850–1860. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Co., 1998. Sacher, John M. A Perfect War of Politics: Parties, Politicians and Jacksonian Democracy in Louisiana, 1824-1861. Baton Rouge: Louisiana University Press, 2003. Taylor, Joe Gray. Negro Slavery in Louisiana. Baton Rouge: Louisiana Historical Association, 1963. Tregle, Joseph G., Jr. Louisiana in the Age of Jackson: A Clash of Cultures and Personalities. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999. Antebellum slavery Resource Bank Contents By 1830 slavery was primarily located in the South, where it existed in many different forms. African Americans were enslaved on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, inside homes, out in the fields, and in industry and transportation. Though slavery had such a wide variety of faces, the underlying concepts were always the same.

Slaves were considered property, and they were property because they were black. Their status as property was enforced by violence -- actual or threatened. People, black and white, lived together within these parameters, and their lives together took many forms. Enslaved African Americans could never forget their status as property, no matter how well their owners treated them. But it would be too simplistic to say that all masters and slaves hated each other. Human beings who live and work together are bound to form relationships of some kind, and some masters and slaves genuinely cared for each other. But the caring was tempered and limited by the power imbalance under which it grew. Within the narrow confines of slavery, human relationships ran the gamut from compassionate to contemptuous. But the masters and slaves never approached equality. The standard image of Southern slavery is that of a large plantation with hundreds of slaves. In fact, such situations were rare. Fully 3/4 of Southern whites did not even own slaves; of those who did, 88% owned twenty or fewer. Whites who did not own slaves were primarily yeoman farmers. Practically speaking, the institution of slavery did not help these people.

And yet most non-slaveholding white Southerners identified with and defended the institution of slavery. Though many resented the wealth and power of the large slaveholders, they aspired to own slaves themselves and to join the priviledged ranks. In addition, slavery gave the farmers a group of people to feel superior to. They may have been poor, but they were not slaves, and they were not black. They gained a sense of power simply by being white. In the lower South the majority of slaves lived and worked on cotton plantations. Most of these plantations had fifty or fewer slaves, although the largest plantations have several hundred. Cotton was by far the leading cash crop, but slaves also raised rice, corn, sugarcane, and tobacco. Many plantations raised several different kinds of crops. Besides planting and harvesting, there were numerous other types of labor required on plantations and farms. Enslaved people had to clear new land, dig ditches, cut and haul wood, slaughter livestock, and make repairs to buildings and tools. In many instances, they worked as mechanics, blacksmiths, drivers, carpenters, and in other skilled trades.

Black women carried the additional burden of caring for their families by cooking and taking care of the children, as well as spinning, weaving, and sewing. Some slaves worked as domestics, providing services for the master's or overseer's families. These people were designated as "house servants," and though their work appeared to be easier than that of the "field slaves," in some ways it was not. They were constantly under the scrutiny of their masters and mistresses, and could be called on for service at any time. They had far less privacy than those who worked the fields. Because they lived and worked in such close proximity, house servants and their owners tended to form more complex relationships. Black and white children were especially in a position to form bonds with each other. In most situations, young children of both races played together on farms and plantations. Black children might also become attached to white caretakers, such as the mistress, and white children to their black nannies. Because they were so young, they would have no understanding of the system they were born into. But as they grew older they would learn to adjust to it in whatever ways they could. The diets of enslaved people were inadequate or barely adequate to meet the demands of their heavy workload.

They lived in crude quarters that left them vulnerable to bad weather and disease. Their clothing and bedding were minimal as well. Slaves who worked as domestics sometimes fared better, getting the castoff clothing of their masters or having easier access to food stores. The heat and humidity of the South created health problems for everyone living there. However, the health of plantation slaves was far worse than that of whites. Unsanitary conditions, inadequate nutrition and unrelenting hard labor made slaves highly susceptible to disease. Illnesses were generally not treated adequately, and slaves were often forced to work even when sick. The rice plantations were the most deadly. Black people had to stand in water for hours at a time in the sweltering sun. Malaria was rampant. Child mortality was extremely high on these plantations, generally around 66% -- on one rice plantation it was as high as 90%. One of the worst conditions that enslaved people had to live under was the constant threat of sale. Even if their master was "benevolent," slaves knew that a financial loss or another personal crisis could lead them to the auction block. Also, slaves were sometimes sold as a form of punishment.

And although popular sentiment (as well as the economic self-interest on the part of the owners) encouraged keeping mothers and children and sometimes fathers together, these norms were not always followed. Immediate families were often separated. If they were kept together, they were almost always sold away from their extended families. Grandparents, sisters, brothers, and cousins could all find themselves forcibly scattered, never to see each other again. Even if they or their loved ones were never sold, slaves had to live with the constant threat that they could be. African American women had to endure the threat and the practice of sexual exploitation. There were no safeguards to protect them from being sexually stalked, harassed, or raped, or to be used as long-term concubines by masters and overseers. The abuse was widespread, as the men with authority took advantage of their situation. Even if a woman seemed agreeable to the situation, in reality she had no choice. Slave men, for their part, were often powerless to protect the women they loved. The drivers, overseers, and masters were responsible for plantation discipline. Slaves were punished for not working fast enough, for being late getting to the fields, for defying authority, for running away, and for a number of other reasons.

The punishments took many forms, including whippings, torture, mutilation, imprisonment, and being sold away from the plantation. Slaves were even sometimes murdered. Some masters were more "benevolent" than others, and punished less often or severely. But with rare exceptions, the authoritarian relationship remained firm even in those circumstances. In addition to the authority practiced on individual plantations, slaves throughout the South had to live under a set of laws called the Slave Codes. The codes varied slightly from state to state, but the basic idea was the same: the slaves were considered property, not people, and were treated as such. Slaves could not testify in court against a white, make contracts, leave the plantation without permission, strike a white (even in self-defense), buy and sell goods, own firearms, gather without a white present, possess any anti-slavery literature, or visit the homes of whites or free blacks. The killing of a slave was almost never regarded as murder, and the rape of slave women was treated as a form of trespassing. Whenever there was a slave insurrection, or even the rumor of one, the laws became even tighter. At all times, patrols were set up to enforce the codes.

These patrols were similar to militias and were made up of white men who were obligated to serve for a set period. The patrols apprehended slaves outside of plantations, and they raided homes and any type of gathering, searching for anything that might lead to insurrection. During times of insurrection -- either real or rumored -- enraged whites formed vigilance committees that terrorized, tortured, and killed blacks. While most slaves were concentrated on the plantations, there were many slaves living in urban areas or working in rural industry. Although over 90% of American slaves lived in rural areas, slaves made up at least 20% of the populations of most Southern cities. In Charleston, South Carolina, slaves and free blacks outnumbered whites. Many slaves living in cities worked as domestics, but others worked as blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, bakers, or other tradespeople. Often, slaves were hired out by their masters, for a day or up to several years. Sometimes slaves were allowed to hire themselves out. Urban slaves had more freedom of movement than plantation slaves and generally had greater opportunities for learning. They also had increased contact with free black people, who often expanded their ways of thinking about slavery.

Slaves resisted their treatment in innumerable ways. They slowed down their work pace, disabled machinery, feigned sickness, destroyed crops. They argued and fought with their masters and overseers. Many stole livestock, other food, or valuables. Some learned to read and write, a practice forbidden by law. Some burned forests and buildings. Others killed their masters outright -- some by using weapons, others by putting poison in their food. Some slaves comitted suicide or mutilated themselves to ruin their property value. Subtly or overtly, enslaved African Americans found ways to sabotage the system in which they lived. Thousands of slaves ran away. Some left the plantation for days or weeks at a time and lived in hiding. Others formed maroon communities in mountains, forests or swamps. Many escaped to the North. There were also numerous instances of slave revolts throughout the history of the institution. (For one white interpretation of slave resistance, see Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race) Even when slaves acted in a subservient manner, they were often practicing a type of resistance. By fooling the master or overseer with their behavior, they resisted additional ill treatment. Enslaved African Americans also resisted by forming community within the plantation setting.

This was a tremendous undertaking for people whose lives were ruled by domination and forced labor. Slaves married, had children, and worked hard to keep their families together. In their quarters they were able to let down the masks they had to wear for whites. There, black men, women, and children developed an underground culture through which they affirmed their humanity. They gathered in the evenings to tell stories, sing, and make secret plans. House servants would come down from the "big house" and give news of the master and mistress, or keep people laughing with their imitations of the whites. It was in their quarters that many enslaved people developed and passed down skills which allowed them to supplement their poor diet and inadequate medical care with hunting, fishing, gathering wild food, and herbal medicines. There, the adults taught their children how to hide their feelings to escape punishment and to be skeptical of anything a white person said. Many slave parents told their children that blacks were superior to white people, who were lazy and incapable of running things properly. Many slaves turned to religion for inspiration and solace. Some practiced African religions, including Islam, others practiced Christianity. Many practiced a brand of Christianity which included strong African elements. Most rejected the Christianity of their masters, which justified slavery.

The slaves held their own meetings in secret, where they spoke of the New Testament promises of the day of reckoning and of justice and a better life after death, as well as the Old Testament story of Moses leading his people out of slavery in Egypt. The religion of enslaved African Americans helped them resist the degredation of bondage. Antebellum Period Facts, information and articles about the Antebellum Period, before the Civil War Antebellum Period summary: The Antebellum Period in American history is generally considered to be the period before the civil war and after the War of 1812, although some historians expand it to all the years from the adoption of the Constitution in 1789 to the beginning of the Civil War. It was characterized by the rise of abolition and the gradual polarization of the country between abolitionists and supporters of slavery. During this same time, the country’s economy began shifting in the north to manufacturing as the Industrial Revolution began, while in the south, a cotton boom made plantations the center of the economy. The annexation of new territory and western expansion saw the reinforcement of American individualism and of Manifest Destiny, the idea that Americans and the institutions of the U.S.

are morally superior and Americans are morally obligated to spread these institutions. The Cotton Economy In The South In the South, cotton plantations were very profitable, at least until overplanting leached most of the nutrients from the soil. Advances in processing the fiber, from Eli Whitney’s cotton gin to the development of power looms and the sewing machine, increased demand for cotton to export from the South to England and the mills of New England. Plantation owners were able to obtain large tracts of land for little money, particularly after the Indian Removal Act was passed in 1830. These plantations depended on a large force of slave labor to cultivate and harvest the crop—most white farmers in the 19th century wanted and were able to obtain their own farms as the U.S. expanded south and west, and slaves not only provided a labor source that couldn’t resign or demand higher wages, their progeny insured that labor source would continue for generations. The demand for slave labor and the U.S. ban on importing more slaves from Africa drove up prices for slaves, making it profitable for smaller farmers in older settled areas such as Virginia to sell their slaves further south and west.

Most farmers in the South had small- to medium-sized farms with few slaves, but the large plantation owner’s wealth, often reflected in the number of slaves they owned, afforded them considerable prestige and political power. As the quality of land decreased from over-cultivation, slave owners increasingly found that the majority of their wealth existed in the form of their slaves; they began looking to new lands in Texas and further west, as well as in the Caribbean and Central America, as places where they might expand their holdings and continue their way of life. Early Industrialization and the Rise in Manufacturing in the North The early industrial revolution began with textile industry in New England, which was revolutionized by Samuel Slater. Slater was a former apprentice in one of Britain’s largest textile factories who emigrated to Rhode Island after learning that American states were paying bounties to people who could help replicate British textile machines, such as the spinning jenny, although the British government forbade the export of the machines or emigration of people with knowledge of them. In 1787, the horse-powered Beverly Cotton Manufactory had begun operating in Beverly, Massachusetts; in 1793, Slater opened the first fully mechanized mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

His system of independent mills and mill towns spread through the Blackstone Valley into Massachusetts. In the 1820s, Slater’s system was supplanted by the more-efficient Waltham or Lowell system. The Waltham system included power looms in the mill, rather than Slater’s practice of having weaving done at local farms. The Waltham system also included specialized, trained employees to run the looms—mainly young women—giving rise to the concept of wage labor, which gradually began overtaking previous forms of labor, such as apprenticeship and indentured servitude, family labor, and slavery in industrialized areas. A population shift from farms to cities had already begun, but the promise of better income in factory jobs accelerated that movement. Manufacturing advances were not limited to the textile industry alone. Similar advances occurred in other industries, including the manufacture of equipment, machinery, furniture, paints, paper, and glass. Every part of American industry and production was affected. Penny Press and Affordable Newspapers Among the areas benefitting from advances in technology was the printing business, in particular, the printing of newspapers.

Most newspapers in the early 19th century cost six cents a copy and were affordable only to the upper classes, though a barter system often allowed readers to trade rags, whiskey or other goods for a subscription. Presses were still hand-powered and essentially unchanged from Gutenberg’s design until 1810, when German printer Friedrich Koenig patented the steam-powered press. In 1843, American Richard M. Hoe made a further improvement with the rotary printing press, which arranged the material to be printed on a cylinder rather than a flat plate, allowing a much larger volumes of material to be printed—millions of copies in a day rather than thousands—at a lower cost. These advances led to a rise in the number of newspapers published, with more available at prices affordable to the working class—by 1860, about 3,000 newspapers were published in the U.S. with a circulation of roughly 1.5 million, in comparison with about 500 newspapers with a circulation of about 3,000 in 1820. Papers were often read aloud in homes, bringing news of the government, politics, and local events.

Significant speeches were sometimes printed in their entirety, giving politicians and social activists a much wider audience. Stories from one newspaper might be reprinted in others, sometimes with local commentary or editorial rebuttals added. The advent of the telegraph meant news from distant places could be disseminated much more rapidly. Newspapers also relied on news—factual or not—provided in the form of letters to the editor, which were usually unsigned or made use of a pseudonym such as Plato or A True American. In the 1830s, the “penny papers” led a revolution in journalism. They sold for a penny each, making news and even literacy itself more accessible to the working class. Many stories in the penny papers were sensationalist and embellished (to say the least). Modern tabloids can trace their origins to the penny press—but so can modern mainstream newspapers. As the papers grew in circulation, they increased in size from one sheet to two or more. To fill those pages, editors added reporters with specific beats. Although sensational stories sold a lot of papers, so did opinion pieces. The increase in newspapers opened a new public forum—and means of entertainment—that was accessible to all.

Canals, Turnpikes, and Early Railroads Following the Revolutionary War, business and political leaders recognized the need to further unify the country with roads. Local governments and private turnpike and railroad companies began building roads and canals. The War of 1812 and the rise of internal trade—between southern plantations and northern textile manufacturers—proved that the problem of internal transportation was far from solved and a federal system was needed, but various proposals to fund and build a national transportation system were deemed unconstitutional. The conservative Democratic Party in particular opposed federal funding of internal improvements. Instead, private companies proposed roads and canals, then enticed investors to provide fund building. In 1817, construction began on the Erie Canal to link Lake Erie and the Hudson River, inspiring a canal-building boom that lasted into the 1840s when railroads supplanted canals. Turnpike companies also experienced a boom—by 1830, more than 10,000 miles of turnpikes were operating in the east. Commissioners were authorized to collect tolls and were responsible for maintaining the stretch of road under their care.

The canal system shortened trade routes into many parts of the interior, and port cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia saw some of their business shifting to ports along canal routes. To compete, they began investing in railroads to reach the interior of the country, starting a railroad boom in the 1830s that would last until the Civil War and begin anew following the war. Railroads grew so quickly in the 1830s that they surpassed the mileage of the canals. Many were short-run railroads built to connect ports with points inland, which were then connected to each other by rail. Railroads were faster, more direct, and more reliable than turnpikes or the canal system. By 1856, the eastern coast was connected by railroad to the western side of the Mississippi, Chicago, and the Great Lakes. As with canals and roads, railroads were built with private funds generated “subscriptions”— the sale of stocks or bonds. The Second Awakening The Second Awakening was a religious revival that affected the entire country from about 1790 to the 1840s. It inspired the beginnings of the abolitionist movement in upstate New York.

The basic theology popularized by the movement stated that individuals had a direct relationship with God that was unmediated by a church officials and that human dignity required freedom of will. Church membership increased, particularly among Methodists and Baptists following revivals and tent meetings, which had their greatest attendance on the frontier. Many challenged traditional beliefs and founded new denominations, including the Mormons, the Shakers, the Seventh Day Adventists, and the Unitarian Universalists. This rise in spirituality intensified evangelism in America, giving rise to a shift in morality and the advent of growing abolitionist and temperance movements. Pre-Civil War Slave Rebellions Slaves in the U.S. resisted their bondage through many passive forms of resistance, such as damaging equipment, working slowly, or keeping their culture and religious beliefs alive, although that often required secrecy. They also carried out open rebellions, risking everything for freedom. Several plots and rebellions occurred in antebellum America, notably Gabriel’s Rebellion in 1800 in Richmond, Virginia; an uprising in Louisiana in 1811; and Denmark Vesey’s conspiracy, which was uncovered in 1822 in Charleston, South Carolina. One of the bloodiest rebellions in U.S.

history occurred in August 1831 when Nat Turner organized a slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia. About 60 whites were killed and, after the rebellion was put down, the state executed 56 slaves accused of being part of it. Militias and mobs formed in the paranoid chaos that followed and anywhere from 100 to 200 innocent slaves were killed in the aftermath. In response to these rebellions, slave codes and laws that limited slaves’ movements and their freedom to gather in groups tightened considerably. In spite of this, plots and actual rebellions in slave-holding states continued into and through the Civil War. In October 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown led a group of followers in a raid to capture the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in hopes of arming a general slave uprising. The raid failed and Brown and most of his band were executed, but when Northern abolitionists made him into a martyr, it fed Southern fears that the North wanted to wage a war of extermination on Southern whites. John Brown’s Raid is considered one of the significant milestones on the road to the American Civil War.

Before The Civil War: Nullification Crisis Objections in South Carolina to federal tariffs led to the Nullification Crisis in 1833. Having blamed the tariffs for part of the economic downturn in the 1820s, South Carolina passed a Nullification Ordinance in late 1832 that declared federal tariffs unconstitutional and unenforceable in South Carolina, and made military preparations to resist federal enforcement. Although President Andrew Jackson obtained Congressional authorization to use military force against South Carolina in late February 1833, but military confrontation was averted when Congress passing a revised tariff that met South Carolinian’s demands and the state repealed its ordinance. When South Carolina next attempted to leave the Union following the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 it did not go it alone, immediately sending ambassadors to the legislatures of other slave states to ask them to also leave the Union and join the Palmetto State in forming a new Southern Confederacy. The ultimate result was four years of civil war that destroyed the Confederacy, ended slavery and established the supremacy of the federal government.

The Pre-Civil War Rise of Abolitionist Movement Although the arguments raised by the Missouri Compromise had died down in the 1820s, several events in the late 1820s and early 1830s, including the Turner Rebellion and Nullification Crisis, revived the debate and gave rise to the Abolition Movement. Because of the Second Awakening, some began to see slavery as a sin, with emancipation as the only way to atone for this sin. The Quakers, who believed that all people were equal in the eyes of God, had been speaking out against slavery since the 1600s, forming the first abolitionist group in the 1790s. In 1833, William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan founded the American Anti-Slavery Society. Although highly controversial with huge, often physically threatening public opposition, by 1840 the society had about 2,000 local auxiliaries with membership estimated to be between 150,000 to 200,000, including freed blacks like Frederick Douglass.

Members met, passed resolutions, and publically argued against slavery both in speeches and in abolitionist newspapers. Their tone became increasingly confrontational, condemning slave owners as sinners and advising Americans to ignore the part of the U. S. Constitution that required runaways to be returned to their owners. Many abolitionists helped form the Underground Railroad, leading slaves northward to freedom. Eventually, the society became part of a broader movement toward social reform, and many of its members joined in the movements supporting universal suffrage and feminism. The association of women’s suffrage with the abolition movement caused many Southerners, including many Southern women, to oppose the suffrage movement in the 20th century, which nearly resulted in the defeat of the 19th Amendment. By the 1850s, the Abolitionist Movement had gained enough traction to make Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin a bestseller, and it, in turn, led to increased membership in abolition societies. The novel’s social impact played an important role in politics, contributing to the formation of the Republican party and the election of President Abraham Lincoln—which in turn led to Southern secession and Civil War.

Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion Journalist John O’Sullivan coined the term “Manifest Destiny” in 1845, embracing the belief that Americans and the institutions of the U.S. are morally superior and therefore Americans are morally obligated to spread those institutions. The concept already existed and had to some degree ever since the 13 colonies won their freedom from Great Britain; O’Sullivan gave it a name. Belief in these principles led many well-meaning whites to try to replace the traditional cultures of nomadic native American tribes with a lifestyle more in keeping with Euro-American farming communities. In other instances, it simply was used to justify the ever-increasing demand for more land in the west. In 1844, James K. Polk of Tennessee was elected president on a platform of westward expansion. He faced off with the British over control of the Oregon Territory and oversaw a successful war with Mexico, 1846–1848. The Mexican War and settling the Oregon question meant that the United States now stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Western expansion soon took a major leap forward with the California Gold Rush, as thousands from the eastern states, as well as from foreign nations, headed for the territories of California and Nevada, hoping to strike it rich. Effects of the Antebellum Period The technological advances and religious and social movements of the Antebellum Period had a profound effect on the course of American history, including westward expansion to the Pacific, a population shift from farms to industrial centers, sectional divisions that ended in civil war, the abolition of slavery and the growth of feminist and temperance movements. King Cotton - AP U.S. History Topic Outlines - Study Notes Next Outline Cotton is King In the late eighteenth century, a recent Yale graduate named Eli Whitney had aspirations of practicing law. However, like many modern college graduates, Whitney had a debt to repay for his education. To that end, Whitney left his home in Massachusetts to take a tutoring position on a Georgia plantation. Whitney found himself in the midst of an active agricultural economy. Tobacco, rice, and sugar were vital crops, and cotton cultivation was showing great promise. A stable slave culture was in place in the south, providing labor for southern plantations.

However, the time-consuming process for harvesting cotton limited the prosperity of plantation owners. Whitney’s employer, Catherine Greene, asked the educated Whitney if he could devise a solution. He set aside his aspirations to practice law and began tinkering with plans for a hand-crank machine that would separate the sticky cotton from its seeds. Whitney successfully created such a machine in 1793, along with a larger version that could be powered by horses or water. With the development of the cotton “gin” (short for engine), cotton rapidly surpassed tobacco, rice, and sugar as the number one southern crop. Cotton production increased 800% over the next ten years with assistance from Whitney’s invention. The cotton gin brought Southerners unprecedented prosperity. With the ability to process cotton at a faster rate, southern plantation owners needed to increase their labor force. The already large slave system in the south became larger as slaves were smuggled into the country (slave importation had been deemed illegal from 1808 on). Slave women were encouraged, and in some cases enticed with promises of freedom, to have children and build up the slave owner’s labor force, all to increase the cotton harvest.

Already prosperous southern plantation owners grew even wealthier with the bounties brought by Whitney’s cotton gin. Ironically, Whitney had hoped his invention would reduce the need for slave labor, but its effect was just the opposite. This thriving cotton industry led to the rise of large-scale commercial agriculture. Not only did increased cotton milling result in an increased numbers of slaves, but planters also worked to augment their land ownership to make more money. Some land was taken from the Indians, who were being removed from the southeast during this period. Also, large plantation owners were buying out smaller plantations to increase their land holdings, and those planters who were bought out moved westward. The motto of Southerners became “Cotton is King,” and they were happy to serve a ruler who provided such prosperity. Southerners were not the only ones benefiting from the cotton boom. Eighty percent of the south’s cotton went to England by way of northern shippers. These shippers were able to buy cotton wholesale and sell it at a premium, since England’s most important manufactured good was cotton cloth.

One-fifth of the population in England earned a living from the manufacture of this cloth, and 75 percent of the cotton used in England’s production came from the United States. Since England was so dependent on the south’s cotton and the north’s transportation of it, both the north and the south were able to benefit heavily from this export. The many people who gained wealth from cotton were willing to disregard the indications that a one-crop economy could not be sustained. Planters ignored the fact that King Cotton was hard on the soil, especially with the frenzied harvesting that was taking place during this era. There were other drawbacks to the cotton industry, as well. The cotton gin made production potential greater, but it also made the labor source more unstable. The slaves required to operate the cotton gins could get sick or injured in great numbers, rendering plantation owners unable to harvest the crops growing on their land. The cotton-based economy also promoted a decidedly unequal socio-economic structure. An excess of poor whites and slaves lived in the south, while a few wealthy plantation owners monopolized the industry. At a time when democracy was being celebrated, the majority of the south was under the control of a minority of prosperous plantation owners.

Southern Culture By the mid nineteenth century, the south had developed into an aristocracy, with wealthy plantation owners at the top of the social ladder. In 1850, only a small minority—approximately 1,750 families—owned more than 100 slaves each. This small group of people carried significant political and social power. Southern aristocrats used their wealth to send their children to the finest schools, which were often in the north or overseas. Many of their young men returned home feeling called to public service, and the south produced a high proportion of statesmen. Southern women ran the households, including managing female slaves who cooked, cleaned, and performed nearly all the household chores. Although there were abolitionist rumblings among white men at this time, virtually none of their wives supported the abolition effort. While democracy was the goal throughout the entire United States, the aristocracy of the south weakened the foundation of a democratic society. Since wealth bought southern aristocrats the opportunities for education at private institutions, efforts for state-supported public education were hindered. The gap between the rich and the poor continued to widen. Even as the rich were controlling the south, it was the smaller plantation owner who truly represented the southern lifestyle.

Only one-fourth of white Southerners owned slaves, and of that number, many had small cotton farms and most owned fewer than ten slaves each. In fact, over six million residents in the south owned no slaves at all. In addition to the large and small plantation owners, residents in the south included poor white families. These families were often called “white trash” by other Southerners, who believed they were lazy. Rather, most poor whites were unable to work efficiently due to malnutrition and parasitic illness caused by a poor understanding of safe and healthy food preparation. Poor whites were classified by location. The term “lowland whites” identified mechanics, tradesmen, and small cotton farmers who lived among the southern population. Hoping to someday achieve the American Dream of prosperity, they staunchly supported the slave system. Many lowland whites worked their entire lives with the hope of one day owning at least one slave—someone to whom they could feel superior. Due to their interaction with the public, lowland whites were more civilized than their mountain brethren. Mountain whites also suffered from poverty and malnutrition, but their location in the semi-isolated backcountry and Appalachian Mountains from western Virginia to northern Georgia and Alabama meant they often went unnoticed by other Southerners.

Their isolation required the mountain whites to be subsistence farmers, raising their own corn and hogs for survival. Another class of people competed with the underprivileged whites on the social ladder—the free blacks. By 1860, approximately 250,000 free black men and women lived in the south. Many had been freed during the Revolution, while others were emancipated mulattoes, the offspring of white planters and their black slave mistresses. Although they had their freedom, most states had laws limiting blacks’ rights. In some cases, free blacks were captured by unscrupulous slave traders and resold into slavery, so emancipation was no guarantee of a prosperous life. Another 250,000 free blacks lived in the north, where they were also denied basic rights, including the right to vote and, in some cases, the right to a public education. Irish immigrants often threatened or caused harm to free blacks out of resentment, since the two groups often competed for the same menial jobs. The bottom rung of the southern aristocracy was not surprisingly held by slaves. By 1860, nearly four million slaves inhabited the southern region of the United States.

Although slave importation had been deemed illegal from 1808 on, many slave traders continued to smuggle slaves in and were rarely prosecuted for these violations. Abolitionists were gearing up for battles which they hoped would result in freedom for all slaves, but at the same time arguments were being made for maintaining the slave system. Supporters of slavery argued that the U.S. slave system provided slaves with a much better lifestyle than they would have in other countries. They pointed to the self-sustaining slave population as evidence, using the argument that slaves were voluntarily cohabitating and reproducing with one another, a luxury not afforded slaves in other countries. Proslavery rhetoric also argued that the typical slave was better off than the typical northern worker and that slavery civilized blacks and allowed them to learn about Christianity. However, the primary argument for slavery was always economical. Slaves were no doubt an economic necessity for both the north and the south. Slave owners lived in fear of a slave revolt, which could destroy their profitability, but they saw the risk as a necessary evil to maintain the prosperity brought by King Cotton. Conditions of Slaves The conditions in which slaves existed in the nineteenth century varied from region to region—and even from house to house.

Wise slave owners recognized the value of slaves as human capital, since by 1860 slaves were worth approximately $1,800 each. As such, while most slaves travailed in the fields cultivating crops, dangerous work, such as roof repair, was often hired out to more expendable labor sources. Most slaves resided in the Deep South, an area stretching from South Carolina and Georgia to Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. This region became known as the “black belt” for its abundance of slaves. Hard work was a mainstay of the slave lifestyle. Since slaves did not earn wages like other workers, their source of motivation was an overseer—often another slave who had been given increased responsibility—who wielded a whip to flog the unproductive or inefficient laborers. Physically, emotionally, and legally, slaves were reduced to property, given no civil or political rights. Slaves did not even have the right to legally enter into marriage, although many slave owners allowed their slaves to participate in unionizing ceremonies and to live as married couples. Most slaves practiced some form of religion, usually a hybrid faith mixed from Christian and African elements. They often incorporated the African “responsorial” system of punctuating sermons with verbal agreement.

Most slave children in the Deep South lived in two-parent households, where forced separations did not happen very often. Forced separations typically occurred when a slave owner died or encountered financial difficulties. In these situations his slaves were often sent to auction. Most auctions were multi-purpose events, selling humans alongside cattle and horses. No regard was given to keeping families together at these auctions. In fact, it was rare that families who came to auction together stayed together. These terrible auctions, along with the appalling conditions most slaves dealt with daily, fed the growing abolitionist movement. The dispute over slavery would eventually be resolved, but not before the country turned on itself in civil warfare. You just finished King Cotton. Nice work!

Question: What crop was "king" in the antebellum U.S. South?
Answer: Cotton