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The South and the Slavery Controversy

The South and the Slavery Controversy. 1793-1860. The Slave Narrative of Olaudah Equiano. “King Cotton and the Cotton Kingdom”. Family, Church, and Neighborhood: The White South . Southerners remained localistic and culturally conservative

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The South and the Slavery Controversy

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  1. The South and the Slavery Controversy 1793-1860

  2. The Slave Narrative of OlaudahEquiano

  3. “King Cotton and the Cotton Kingdom”

  4. Family, Church, and Neighborhood: The White South • Southerners remained localistic and culturally conservative • Prospects for most Southern whites: inherited land and family • Southerners were grounded in authority of patriarchs and integrity of families • Paternalistic Society

  5. Southern Families • Family members: representatives of families, rather than individuals – duty to their family • Reputation and defense of the family name and honor • Family honor more important than wealth • Southern code of honor • Honor the obligations to which one is born

  6. Southern Entertainments • Rural character of South meant fewer commercial entertainments • English literature preferred • Sir Walter Scott and Chivalry • Hunting and fishing • Commercial entertainment • Showboats along river towns • Horse racing • New Orleans

  7. Religious Conservatism • Misfortune is divine punishment • Southern cultural conservatism was rooted in: • Religion • The family • A system of fixed family roles

  8. Proslavery Christianity • By 1830 South was minority in a democratic and capitalist nation • Northern middle-class: made a connection between material and moral progress • Individual autonomy and universal rights • Radical northern minority advocated abolition of slavery • Southern response: moral and religious defense of slavery • Rejects Jefferson’s “self-evident” equality of man

  9. The Private Lives of Slaves • Plantation slaveholders knew their success depended on slaves’ labor and obedience in exchange for allowing slaves some privilege and autonomy

  10. The Slave Family • Most precious slave privilege: right to make and maintain families • Slave marriages • Slave families vulnerable • Slaves used for sex by owners • Slaves were assets that were sometimes liquidated • Slaves modified their relations in anticipation of uncertainties • Extended kinship

  11. White Missions • Missions to slaves • Owners responsible for spiritual welfare of slaves

  12. Slave Christians • Slaves ignored much of missionary teachings • Slaves embraced Christianity: • transformed it into an independent African American faith • Incorporated social and ritual practices passed down from West Africa

  13. Religion and Revolt • Slave revolt rare • Running away common form of rebellion • Christianity convinced slaves that justice would come to them • Denmark Vesey • Vesey plot (1822)

  14. Nat Turner • Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831) • Instrument of God’s wrath • Virginia: 60 slaves killed 55 whites • Deeply troubling for Southern whites

  15. The Politics of Race • Traditional view: God gave white males power over others • Whig evangelicals • Marriage changes from rank domination to sentimental partnership • The emergence of a radical minority envisioning a world without power • Attacked slavery and patriarchy as national sin

  16. Free Blacks • North: states began to abolish slavery • Revolutionary idealism • Slavery was inefficient and unnecessary • Gradual emancipation (Pennsylvania model) • Free black populations grew and moved into the cities • Many took stable, low-paying jobs

  17. Discrimination • Discrimination rises • White workers drive blacks out of skilled and semi-skilled jobs • Blacks increasingly politically disenfranchised • Segregated schools • Blacks build their own institutions • African Methodist Episcopal Church (1816) • Black Anti-slavery activism • David Walker: Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829) • Harriet Tubman • Frederick Douglass

  18. The Beginnings of Antislavery • First anti-slavery efforts die out in early 1800s • American Colonization Society (1816) • Gradual, compensated emancipation • “Repatriation” to Liberia • Slavery abolished many places outside the U.S. • Toussaint L’Ouverture and Haiti • South American Republics • British Caribbean

  19. Abolitionists • William Lloyd Garrison • The Liberator (1831) • American Anti-Slavery Society (1833) • Abolition a logical extension of middle class evangelicalism • American Anti-slavery Society demands: • Immediate emancipation • Full civil and legal rights for African-Americans

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