Chapter 11: The Peculiar Institution Flashcards
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
How did cotton “rise” during the 19th century? How did slavery factor in to this?
19th century: cotton replace sugar world’s major crops
- produced by slave labor
Brazil, Spain, French Colonies: survived instutition
British Empire: (1883) abolished
US: center New World Slavery
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
Why was cotton important in the market revolution?
Industrial revoltion: centered factories → cotton raw material
- important international market
- 3/4th from sourthern US
Cotton sales = money abroad = pay manufactured goods
Civil War: cotton 1/2 exprots
slaves valued exceeded values rest nations wealth
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
What was the Second Middle Passage, and what is its significance?
1820 - 1860: Second Middle Passage
- Replaced the Middle Passage*
- 2 million slaves
Main commercial districts (south): offices slave trade
- auctions
- advertisements in newspapers
- southern banks financed slave
- railroad commerse
- taxes slave sales
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
How did the Second Middle Passage benefit the North? How did it influence New York?
shared profits:
Money in cotton trade:
- finance industrial development
- internal improvement in North
Northern:
- Ships: cotton to NY and Europe
- Bankers: finance cotton plantations
- Companies: insured slave property
New York:
Rise commercial prominence:
depend establishment shipping lines
- gathered South’s cotton
- transports Europe on
Erie Canal
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
How did the Lower South compare to the Upper South?
Lower South:
- 7 states
South Carolina - Texas
1860-1861:
during secession crisis
first leave Union
Upper South:
- 8 slave states
Slave & planter population less than total of Lower States
Major centers of industry:
- Baltimore
- Richmond
- St. Louis
Economy:
More diverse Lower
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
How did slavery impact the development of the south during the Market Revolution?
Slavery: South very different economic path than North
- limited growth of industry
- discourage immigration
- inhibited technological process
- Not same urban growth (as rest country)
Only significant city: New Orleans
* world's leading exporter of slave-grown crops
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
How did slavery effect the economic growth of the south?
1860: South produced less 10% manufactured goods
Northern View: slavery obstacle progress
New Orleans:
slavery and economic growth hand-in-hand
Southern economies:
- stagnant
- very profitable most owners
Profits in South: obstacle for abolition
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
What social, political, and economical distiction between planters and “plain folk” during the 1800s?
Poorer whites: resented power & privileges great planters
politicians:
self-proclaimed spokesmen of the common man against “slavocracy”
Bonds between planters and South’s “plain folk”
- racism
- kinship
- common participation in democratic political culture
- sectionalism
- belief economic and personal freedom rested slavery
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
How did slave ownership and status play into Southern society?
Slave ownership: route to wealth, status, and influence
- majority slaves
- most fertile land
- highest income
- dominated state and local offices
- leadership both parties
Slavery → profit-making scheme
- watch prices for products
- invested enterprises
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
What were the “plationation mistresses” in the South?
planter’s wives
Idealized southern lore:
- femininity,
- beauty,
- dependence on men
Works:
- care sick slaves
- directed domestic slaves
- supervised entire plantations
Husbands sexualy exploited slaves: caused wives resent slaves
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
What was parenalism?
(from latin word “father”)
Planter’s values glorified:
not competitive capitalist marketplace
Did:
- harierchical
- agrarian society
- personal responsibility for physical and moral well-being for dependents (women, slaves, children)
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
Why did the paternalist ethos become prevelant with the rise of the Middle Passage? How did it justify slavery?
- Paternalism:*
- present 18th century
- 1808: most ingrained after closed African slave trade
narrowed cultural gap between master and slave
West Indies & Great Britain: absentee planters
South: year-round contact
Masked & justified slavery
slaveowners perspective:
> kind, responsible masters
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
What was the proslavery argument in the South before the Civil War (7)?
[1] Racism
[2] biblical passages
- slaves should obey masters
[3] essential to human progress
- unable cultivate art, sciences
[4] “modern” in tune with the times
- Other types of unfree labor in world
[5] Essential economy
- cotton
- interest international affairs
- used power in government to promote foreign policy interest in slavery
[6] Granted equality for whites
prevented growth of a class doomed to unskilled labor
[7] Claimed committed to ideal of freedom
- slavery among blacks = “perfect equality” among whites
- liberted whites from menial jobs (as in the North)
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
How did systems of slavery develop and deteriorate during the 19th century in the western hemisphere?
Observed: results of emancipation swept hemisphere in first 4 decades
- slavery abolished most Spanish and British empire
- effected debate over slavery in US
Pro-slavery: British emancipation failure
Abolitionists:
- rising standards of living of freed slaves
- spread eduction among them
Mid-19th century slavery remained:
- Cuba
- Puerto Rico
- Brazil
- US
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
How did South Carolina respond to proslavary arguments about “freedom” in the 1830s?
White Southerners declared themselves:
> True heirs of the American Revoltion
- “same spirit freedom and independence
- *
1830s: Proslave writers questioned ideals of liberty, equality, democracy
South Carolina:
Majority whites owned slaves
- home aggressively defense slavery
- repudiated idea freedom universal element
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
What legal rights did slaves have during the 1800s in the South (before CV)?
Legal rights: (not well enforced)
-
illegal kill slave
- except self-defense
-
Serious crimes → court
- white judges and juries
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
What legal restrictions did slaves have during the 1800s in the South (before CV)?
- testify in court against white
- own firearms
- hold meetings (unless white person present)
- leave farms or plantation without premission
- (1830s) illegal learn read or write
* Not rigorously enforced:*- taught slave children read
- gatherings without supervisions
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
What was the Louisiana Law regarding slaves?
> No aspects of slaves’ lives outside sphere of owners interference
System: enforce master’s control over persons labor of slaves
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
Explain the events of the 1855 Missouri court case about Celia the slave that killed her master?
Who: Celia
What: killed master while resisting sexual assault
State Law: “any woman” in situation acting self-defense
Result: Celia not a “woman” eyes of the law
- master complete power
- she sentenced to death
Celia pregant:
delayed execution until child born
not deney owner’s heir property rights
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
How did pre-CV slave conditions in the south compare with Brazil and the West Indies?
- better diets
- lower rates infant mortality
- longer life expectancies
Factors contributed improving material conditions:
-
Location
- outside geographical area tropical diseases
malaria, yellow fever, typhoid fever flourish
* health better than Caribbean
-
Costs
- cost increase after Middle Passage closed 1808
- economicly advantages keep them alive
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
Who were the free blacks in American before the Civil War(2)?
[1] Who: descendants of slaves freed
- freed aftermath of Revolution
- gradual emancipation laws in North
OR
[2] Who: slaves freed
- voluntary liberation
- purchase freedom
- ran away
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
What restrictions did free blacks have before the Civil War?
- no voice selecting office
- not allowed testify in court against white
- not allowed be juries
- carry certificate of freedom
1850: most southern sates prohibited free blacks entered
- few states tried ban all together
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
Describe pre-CV war black communities in New Orleans and Charleston?
Prosperous free black communities
Who:
- mixed-race descendants
What:
- had education
- skilled craftsmen
- churches
Upper South:
large majority free blacks
- wages on farms
Chapter 11: The Pecular Institution
Describe the system of labor for slaves (pre-CV) and the distiction between small and large plationatios?
Slavery = system of labor
- interruptions for meals
- work occupies most time
Large plantations: (125 slaves)
- Diversified communities*
- various tasks (butler, waitresses, nurse, dairymaid, gardener)
- Majority: Worked in Fields
Small Plantations:
owners worked with slaves
