This document provides an overview of slavery in the antebellum United States. It discusses the rise of cotton and slavery in the South, the development of the plantation system, and the three regions of the South (border, middle, lower) that had varying degrees of commitment to slavery. It also examines the lives of slaves, slave revolts, the growth of the abolitionist movement in the North and South, and the backlash against abolitionism in the South through things like the gag rule. By the 1850s, the issue of slavery was increasingly polarizing the country along sectional lines.

1. AP U.S. History
Chapter 16
Slavery in Antebellum
America
Cotton Gin
1793
Underground Railroad
1808
End of Slave Trade
1800s
1831
Garrison’s
Liberator
Nat Turner’s Revolt
1831
1847
Douglass’
North Star

2. Theme 1:
The rise of “King Cotton” in the
South resulted in an explosion of
slavery and a complex social order
that deeply affected whites as well
as blacks.

3. I. Rise of “King Cotton”
A. Slavery prior to 1793
B. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin
1. Impact: resulted in the
explosion of slavery
2. Cotton
kingdom
developed
into a huge
agricultural
factory

5. Cotton Exports from the U.S.,
1815-1860

6. DISTRIBUTION OF SLAVES, 1860

7. 3. Huge domestic slave trade
emerged

8. -- Importation of
slaves from
Africa had been
abolished in
1808

10. C. Trade
1. Much cotton exported to
Britain who was heavily
dependent on U.S. supply
2. For a time, prosperity of
North and South seemed to
rest on slavery
3. Cotton accounted for 57% of
all U.S. exports by 1860
-- South produced 75% of
the world’s cotton

11. “Peculiar Institution”
A. The planter aristocracy
1. Planters dominated
politically and
economically
2. Carried on early
“Cavalier” tradition of
early Virginia

12. B. Plantation system
1. Enormous investment of
capital in slaves
-- Risks
2. One-crop economy
3. Attracted few European
immigrants

13. II. The Three South's: Slaves of the
Slave System
A. Generalizations
1. Further north, the cooler
climate meant fewer slaves;
less commitment to
maintaining slavery
2. Further south, the warmer
climate meant more slaves;
heavy commitment to
maintaining slavery

14. 3. Mountain whites along
Appalachian Mountain range were
the least committed to slavery
4. Southward flow of slaves
continued from 1790 to 1860
5. The South was NOT a monolithic
political and cultural entity
-- Only interference from outsiders
tended to unify southerners

15. The Three Souths

16. B. Border South: DE, MD, KY, MO
1. Fewer plantations than in
lower south (tobacco)
-- Cotton plantations scarce
2. Unionists overcame
disunionists during the Civil
War
3. Fewest # of slaves in the
South: 17% of population
4. 22% of white families owned
slaves

17. C. Middle South: VA, NC, TN, AK
1. Each state: 1 sect like Border; 1
section like Lower South
2. Unionists prevailed when Lincoln
was elected; Disunionists
prevailed when the war began
3. Slaves = 30% of population
4. 36% of white families owned
slaves

18. D. Lower South: SC, FL, GA, AL,
MS, LA,TX Known as the Black Belt
1. Most slaves concentrated in
“cotton belt” along river valleys
2. Cotton was king; also sugar &
rice
3. Disunionists prevailed after
Lincoln was elected in 1860
4. Slaves = 47% of population
5. 43% of white families owned
slaves

19. G. The White Majority
1. Feared more slave revolts
2. Infuriated by abolitionist
propaganda
3. Belief in racial superiority

20. . The White Majority
A. Only 25% owned slaves by 1860
B. 75% were non-slaveowners
1. Location & type of farming
2. Conditions
3. Why defend slavery?
C. Mountain whites
1. Location & farming
2. Political affiliation

21. Free Blacks:Slaves without
Masters
A. 250,000 in the South in 1860
-- Border South had the most
B. Discrimination in the South
C. 250,000 in the North in 1860
-- Philadelphia
D. Discrimination in the North
-- Often denied education and
suffrage; segregation
existed in some states

22. D. Afro-American slave culture
1. West-African culture
2. Family
3. Oral traditions
4. Religion
5. Music

23. C. Plantation slavery
1. Nearly 4 million slaves by 1860
a. Slave trade abolished in 1808
b. Increase in slave population
due to natural reproduction
2.
Slaves seen as valuable
“property”
a. Slave auctions
b. Floggings and Breakers

24. The Value of the Stock of
Slaves in the U.S., 1805-1860

25. Value of Slaves in 2004
Dollars
Year
1810 - $316,
1820 - $610,
1830 - $577,
1840 - $997
1850 - $1,286,
1860 - $3,059
2004 (adjusted for inflation)
$4,490
$11,100
$12,000
$19,300
$25,300
$55,900

26. 3. Brutal punishments
4. New western areas were the
harshest

27. E. Burdens of the slave system
1. Denial of individual dignity
2. Slaves denied education
3. Slaves at times sabotaged the
master’s plantation
4. Many tried to
escape

28. F. Slave revolts
1. Stono Rebellion, 1739
2. Gabriel Prosser, 1800
3. Denmark Vesey, 1822
4. Nat Turner, 1831

31. Theme 2:
The abolitionist movement in
the North proved unpopular in
both the North and the South.
Eventually the movement
appealed to a growing minority
of northerners who came to see
slavery as a moral evil and
sought to prevent the spread of
slavery into the western
territories.

32. VI. Early Abolitionism
A. First abolition movements:
Quakers in
Pennsylvania
This is the cover page to the
"Constitution and Minutes of
the Pennsylvania Society for
promoting the Abolition of
Slavery and the relief of Free
Negroes unlawfully held in
Bondage" (PAS) when it
reorganized in 1787.

33. Early Emancipation in the North

34. Legal Status of Slavery, 1861

35. B.
American Colonization Society
founded in 1817
1. Sought to recolonize freed
slaves overseas
2. Liberia
3.
Supporters of colonization

36. C. Rise of abolitionism in 1830’s
1. Most important reform
movement of the Second Great
Awakening
-- Reformers saw slavery as a
sin
2. Abolitionists
were inspired
by Britain’s
freeing of its
slaves in 1833

37. Radical abolitionism
1. Sought immediate and
uncompensated abolition of
slavery
2. William Lloyd Garrison
a. The Liberator, 1831
Liberator
b. Views

38. “I am in earnest -- I will not
equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I
will not retreat a single inch -- AND I
WILL BE HEARD.”
-- William Lloyd Garrison, 1831

39. 3. American Anti-Slavery Society
a. Founded by radical
abolitionists
b. Theodore Weld
-- American Slavery As It Is
(1839)
Icon of the American AntiSlavery Society (18321865)

40. c. Wendell Phillips
(“abolition’s golden trumpet”)

41. d. Angelina and Sarah Grimke
i. Only white southern female
abolitionists
ii. Some traditionalists were
opposed to females playing
a public role in the
movement
e. Arthur and Lewis Tappan
-- Funded the American AntiSlavery Society and the
Liberator
f. The movement eventually split
along gender lines

42. 3. David Walker: Appeal to the
Colored Citizens of the World
(1829)
4. Sojourner Truth
5. Elijah Lovejoy
6. Martin Delaney
Wood engraving
of a mob in Alton,
Illinois destroying
the warehouse
containing
Lovejoy’s printing
press

43. 7. Frederick Douglass
a. Greatest of the black
abolitionists
-- North Star
b. Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass (1845)
c. Sought practical
approach compared
radical
abolitionists
d. Looked to politics
to end slavery
to

44. 8. Eventually, most abolitionists
favored war to end slavery

45. The South lashes back
A. Pre-1830s, more abolitionism
in South than North
B. Abolitionism silenced after 1830
C. Causes for southern concern
1. Nat Turner
2. Nullification crisis of 1832
3. Increased abolitionist
literature circulating in the
South

46. D. Abolitionist literature was
banned in the Southern mail
system
E. Defense of slavery
1. Bible & Aristotle
2. Good for “barbaric” Africans
3. Master-slave relationships
resembled family

47. 4. George Fitzhugh
-- Slaves were better-off than
“northern wage slaves”

48. F. Gag resolution, 1836
U.S. Congressman
and former president
John Quincy Adams
led the eight-year
fight to kill the Gag
Resolution

49. Abolitionist impact in the North
A. Abolitionists unpopular in many
parts of the North
1. Reverence for Constitution
2. Ideal of Union
3. Economic dependence on
South
B. Mob outbursts in response to
extreme abolitionists

50. C. Most politicians avoided the issue
of abolitionism. Why?
D. Effect on northern mind by 1850
1. A significant minority saw
slavery as a moral evil and
undemocratic
2. The “Free-Soil” Party emerged
by 1848 based on the antiextension of slavery into the
western territories
-- “ Free-soil” movement
morphed into the Republican
part in the 1850s

51. 3. Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)
-- “personal liberty laws
4. By 1850, southerners
demanded a new stronger
fugitive slave law

52. E. Underground Railroad
1. Chain of anti-slavery homes
used to aid
runaway slaves
2. Harriet Tubman