Download Chapters 14 and 15

Chapters 14 and 15
Slavery: Perceptions and
Reality &
The Civil War
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Slavery existed in America for a little
over 200 years
• Indentured servants •
were both black and
white and many died before their time was up;
they were cheaper than buying a slave
Slavery – African slaves seemed more
resistant to diseases like malaria; used on
tobacco farms where they were governed by
slave codes for control
Slave Codes
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Masters had ownership for life
Offspring belonged to the master
All slaves were property, not human
beings with human rights
Slaveholders often resorted to violence
to keep slaves working
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Slavery was strongest in the Chesapeake area
(tobacco), then South Carolina (rice & indigo)
More than 50% worked on large plantations
There were slaves in the North but not as
many; they worked on small family farms with
rocky soil
Controlling slaves in cities was difficult
Eventually, the North outlawed slavery
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Example: Vermont and then others
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Even though the North outlawed slavery,
they didn’t think blacks should have
equal rights or share in the same
privileges as whites
The North, at this time, didn’t impose
abolition on the South
However, the importation of slaves was
outlawed after 1808
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Actually, as tobacco drained the soil of
its nutrients, slavery almost died out at
the end of the 18th century
2 factors helped keep slavery in tact:
• British industrial revolution that specialized in
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textiles; they needed the South’s cotton
Eli Whitney’s cotton gin that separated the
seed from the fiber without releasing the oil,
and made the process easier and quicker
King Cotton
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With the use of the cotton gin, the
production of cotton expanded
There were more farms and plantations
with slaves producing cotton
King Cotton - a labor intensive crop
Great Britain was the chief buyer of U.S.
cotton
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By 1860, the South produced 4.5 million
bales of cotton per year
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That was valued at $250 million
Cotton was the chief export of the South and of
the United States
This growing wealth of the South and the U.S.
was acquired through the tough, back-breaking
work of the slaves
Slavery to many Americans was economically
useful and saw it as a “necessary evil”
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Other Americans saw it only as evil and
began the Abolition Movement
One of the most famous abolitionists
was William Lloyd Garrison who founded
the Liberator newspaper devoted to the
eradication of American slavery
His paper was banned in the South, and
there was a price on his head
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Some southern intellectuals constructed
a defense of slavery saying it was a
“positive good” rather than a necessary
evil
• Thomas Roderick Dew, a professor of
economics at Wm. & Mary, said slavery was a
better way of organizing and controlling labor
and it was a blessing
• George Fitzhugh, a sociologist, said slaves
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lived a better life than did northern wage
earners or European peasants; he also said
that someone has to do the work and at least
slave owners took care of their slaves;
paternalism
Others pointed to the Bible as a defense of
slavery saying the Hebrews had slaves
Greece and Rome had slaves
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Slaveholders saw themselves as
humanitarians
Non-slave holding whites felt slavery had
good and bad points
• Good:
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it was a useful way to control blacks
and a good way to impose discipline
Bad: it made a small number of wealthy
planters very powerful
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The majority of white Americans didn’t
like slavery but could live with it for a
while longer
Slave Life
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Worked on plantations or smaller farms
as field hands
Worked in the house for the master’s
family
Some worked as blacksmiths or learned
some other skill
If in a city, they might work on the docks
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They were property to be bought, sold,
or traded
Discipline was usually brutal, even for
the pregnant; there were whippings,
broken feet, or sexual exploitation
Most owners wouldn’t incapacitate them;
they wanted them to continue working
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Plantation labor was organized in 2
ways:
• The gang system • The task system -
consisting of field hands
domestic workers
They would work from sun up to sundown - 16
hour days
Slave Culture
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Family was all-important
The law gave neither recognition nor
protection to slave families
They followed gender roles
• Women: took care of house, hearth, and
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children
Men: did outdoor work
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Masters could sell a slave at will,
breaking a family apart
One report said 600,000 slave husbands
and wives were separated by sale from
1820-1860
Slaves practiced their native religions
Some mixed Christianity with their native
religions
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There were lively religious ceremonies
They believed in an afterlife that would
be much better than their present lives
They believed God would punish their
masters
Spirituals developed as did other work
songs
Resistance
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Broke tools and machinery, so they
could take a break
Pretended to be sick or injured
Stole goods
Killed livestock from their masters and
ate the meat
Pretended to be slow & ignorant
Ran away
Frederick Douglass
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Born on a plantation in Maryland
Was sold to a Baltimore family at age 12
Was taught to read and write by his
mistress
Worked on the docks
Befriended free black sailors who helped
him escape to New York
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He joined the Abolitionist Movement
He spoke out and wrote articles
Slave Rebellions
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During 200 years of slavery in the U.S.,
there were only 3 major slave rebellions
1800 - Gabriel Prosser
• Planned a revolt near Richmond, Virginia
• The plot was discovered beforehand
• Prosser and dozens of co-conspiriters were
killed
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1822 - Denmark Vessey of Charleston,
South Carolina
• Planned a rebellion
• Plot was discovered ahead of time
• Vessey and his followers were killed
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1831 - Nat Turner of Virginia
• Felt God told him to lead his fellow black men
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out of slavery
His insurrection resulted in the deaths of 60
white Virginians
The uprising was crushed
Nat Turner was killed
Issues that led to Civil War
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Kansas-Nebraska Act
• A railroad was planned to cross the country
• Senator Stephen A. Douglas wanted it to go
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through Chicago, but that meant that the
tracks would have to go through unorganized
northern Louisiana Purchase
Douglas pushed to get it organized as a
territory
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It would have to come in to the Union as
a free state because it was north of the
southern border of Missouri
Southern states would not vote for it
Douglas proposed the official status of
free or slave be decided by the people
who settled there
His Kansas-Nebraska Act passed
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Party Splits
• Discussions over slavery became heated
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splitting parties in two between northern and
southern members
Whigs broke in two and joined the Southern
Democrats or the new Know Nothing Party
• Whigs were gone
• Know Nothings were anti-immigration & anticatholic
• We now had 2 parties
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-- the Democrats and
the Know Nothings
The Know Nothings fell apart and were
replaced by the Republicans
The Democrats appealed to Southerners
The Republicans appealed to Northerners
and were anti-slavery
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Kansas became disputed territory between the
North and the South
New England Abolitionists felt if Kansas was
left to decide its own fate, it would make
slavery illegal
Just to help out, abolitionist Eli Thayer formed
the New England Emigrant Aid Society
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It financed anti-slavery New Englander who wished to
move to Kansas
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Within 2 years 2,000 people moved
there, stacking the deck
Few Southerners were willing to move
west and the North had more people
anyway
The South feared Kansas would not
enter as a slave state
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Violence erupted
• Pro-slave groups from western Missouri
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attacked those who wanted Kansas to be a
free state
These “Border Ruffians” crossed over into
Kansas to vote illegally in elections and to
harass northern settlers
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Kansas experienced murders, beatings,
and robberies
• 21 May 1856 – Border Ruffians rode into
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Lawrence, Kansas and set it on fire
24 May 1856 -- An act of revenge took place
when fanatic abolitionist John Brown attacked
a settlement on Pottawatomie Creek and
ordered 5 pro-slavery ( he thought) Kansans
executed with a scythe
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Violence also spilled over into the
Senate
• Senator Sumner delivered an anti-slavery
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speech and said nasty things about Andrew
Butler of South Carolina
Later Butler’s nephew, Preston Brooks,
attacked Sumner with a cane
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In the election of 1856 Democrat James
Buchanan won and immediately had to deal
with the Dred Scott decision of the Supreme
Court
Dred Scott was a slave who had lived in a free
territory and sued for his freedom when he
lived in Missouri, a slave state
In Missouri slaves were property, not people
He remained a slave
John Brown
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John Brown and 22 of his followers were
hoping to encourage a slave rebellion by
attacking the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry
on 16 October 1859Col. Robert E. Lee
and the U.S. Marines captured Brown
who was tried, convicted, and hanged in
December, 1859
Some saw Brown as a martyr
Election of 1860
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Before the election, Southerners
declared that if the anti-slavery
Republicans won the presidency, the
southern states would secede from the
Union
There were 2 Democratic candidates for
President - 1 for the North and 1 for the
South
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The Republicans had Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln won 40% of the popular vote and
the majority of the electoral votes
He was seen as a sectional candidate
and did not win a single southern state
Lincoln had vowed to stop the expansion
of slavery
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20 December 1860 - South Carolina
seceded
January 1861 - 6 other southern states
seceded
Pp. 430, 431
Map, p.438
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The North wanted to work out a
compromise with the South, but Lincoln
would except no compromise
Southern states formed the Confederacy
with Jefferson Davis as its President
2 U.S. garrisons were in the South
Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor in South
Carolina was running out of food
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The South wouldn’t let supplies in unless
it surrendered
Supplies were sent from the North
Ft. Sumter wouldn’t surrender and the
South attacked beginning the Civil War
The Civil War
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For years the South had wanted to keep
slavery, keep their economy and their
society the same, and keep their states’
rights.
When the war began, CHANGE was the
result
• Their lives were turned upside down
• Most of the fighting and destruction took place
in the South
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Everyone thought it would be a short
war, but it lasted 4 years
Battle of Manassas/ Bull Run
• 1st major battle
• 21 July 1861
• Both armies were ill-trained
• The South won
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Northern actions after Bull Run
• Build-up of troops
• Blockade of Southern ports
• Ulysses S. Grant won at Shiloh in Tennessee
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with tremendous casualties on both sides
Southerners enacted a draft
Fought mainly on their own soil
Jefferson Davis wanted the fight to move
North
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It did at the Battle of Antietam
• 17 September 1862
• Sharpsburg, Maryland
• Bloodiest single day’s fighting – 24,000
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casualties
McClellan turned Lee back
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After the Battle of Antietam and a
northern victory, Lincoln said that on 1
January 1863 he would emancipate all
slaves in the states of rebellion
It was passed in Congress as the 13th
Amendment and called the
Emancipation Proclamation
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It inspired 150,000 former slaves to fight
for the North, the Union
There were protests in the North against
a draft and against Lincoln (this had to
do with substitutes)
Some saw Lincoln as a dictator
Picture, p. 443
Map, p. 445
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There were 2 crucial military defeats for
the South in 1863:
• Fall of Vicksburg – gave the Union control of
the Mississippi River
• Battle of Gettysburg – southern defeat on 3
July 1863; 3-day bloody battle where Lee lost
28,000 soldiers & Union lost 23,000
The South never made another push north
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In 1864 Grant was fighting Lee in
Virginia
General Wm. Tecumseh Sherman was
making his “March to the Sea” in
Georgia where he destroyed everything
in his path
• It was to show the South that the Confederacy
couldn’t protect them
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Sherman took Atlanta on 2 September
1864
He took Savannah on 21 December
1864
Sherman then moved on to the
Carolinas and took Raleigh-Durham, N.
C. on 14 April and Bentonville, N.C. on
19 May 1865
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As he went along, slaves joined the fight
for the northern side
Grant forced Lee to surrender Virginia on
9 April 1865
• Troops laid down their arms
• Troops were released
• Jefferson Davis was captured
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Lincoln had been re-elected in 1864, but
didn’t live to see total peace
He was shot at Ford’s Theatre in
Washington, D.C. on 14 April 1865 by
John Wilkes Booth
He died on 15 April 1865
P. 448
Costs
Over 1 million were killed or wounded
 Farms and cities were destroyed as
were roads, railroads, and bridges
 Financial cost was over $20 billion
Now the question was:
What kind of life was waiting for the
newly freed slaves?
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