The document discusses the history of slavery and abolitionism in the United States from the late 18th century through the 1850s. It describes the slave-owning plantation aristocracy in the South, the lives of slaves, and the different socioeconomic classes below the aristocracy. It also discusses the emergence of abolitionist societies and movements, both political and radical, and the South's defensive response to the growing abolitionist sentiment in the North. Key figures discussed include Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Theodore Weld.

5. THE PLANTER “ARISTOCRACY”
How did cotton shape southern society (identify & describe the slave-owning class
in the South)?

6. How did the plantation system shape the lives of southern women?

7. SLAVES of the SLAVE SYSTEM
Identify the “cancers” of plantation agriculture for the South.
How did the plantation system affect southern sentiments toward the North?

8. THE WHITE MAJORITY
Only a handful of southern whites made-up the southern aristocracy. Most owned fewer
than 100 slaves. Identify and describe the socio-economic levels below the
aristocracy.

9. FREE BLACKS: SLAVES WITHOUT MASTERS
Describe the free blacks. How did they come to exist? Explain the North’s
feelings toward these free blacks.

10. PLANTATION SLAVERY
In society’s basement in the South of 1860 were nearly 4 million black slaves. Their
numbers had quadrupled since 1800.

11. How did the slaves on the southern plantations actually live “under the lash?”

12. The most coveted tasks for a slave included any type of domestic work, from kitchen work
….

13. … to nanny for the plantation owner’s
children.
These more “domesticated” slaves
tended to enjoy better general
conditions – why?

14. Despite no legal rights, what spared
many slaves from severe beatings?

19. EARLY ABOLITIONISM
The inhumanity of the “peculiar institution” gradually caused antislavery societies to
sprout forth, dating back to the Quakers of the Revolutionary era. Because of the
widespread loathing of blacks, some of the earliest abolitionist efforts focused on
transporting the blacks bodily back to Africa (The American Colonization Society and the
establishment of Liberia)
But most blacks had no wish to be sent to Africa – why?

20. In the 1830’s the abolitionist
movement took on new energy
and momentum, coinciding with
the British outlawing slavery in
the West Indies.
The Second Great Awakening
inflamed the hearts of many
abolitionists against the sin of
slavery.
Theodore Weld was a leading
abolitionist figure.

21. RADICAL ABOLITIONISM
On New Years Day, 1831, a spiritual child
of the Second Great Awakening, William
Lloyd Garrison, published in Boston his
radical paper, The Liberator.
Stern & uncompromising, Garrison called
for the immediate end of slavery, even if it
meant destroying the Union.
Garrison antagonized both North and South.
He often appeared to be more interested in
his own self-righteousness than in the
substance of the slavery evil itself.
Garrison never explained how the creation
of an independent slave republic would bring
an end to the institution of slavery.

22. The greatest of the black abolitionists was Frederick Douglass. Escaping from bondage
in 1838, he became an ardent abolitionist, despite beatings and threats to his life. His
book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,depicted his remarkable origins.
Douglass was as flexibly practical as
Garrison was stubbornly principled. He
increasingly looked to politics to end
slavery.
These political abolitionists backed the
Liberty party in 1840, the Free Soil party
in 1848, and the Republican party in the
1850’s.

24. THE SOUTH LASHES BACK
After about 1830, the voice of white southern abolitionism was silenced. The Virginia
legislature debated and defeated various emancipation proposals in 1831-32.
Thereafter, all the slave states tightened their slave codes and moved to prohibit any
form of emancipation.
Proslavery whites responded by launching a massive defense of slavery as a positive
good. What two arguments did they put forth?

25. Southern whites were quick to contrast the “happy” lot of their “servants” with that of
the over-worked northern wage slaves, including sweated women and stunted children.
These proslavery arguments only widened the chasm between North and South. Southerners were
defensive to criticism and resented the constant “nagging” from abolitionists. Southerners also
deeply resented the flood of northern abolitionist literature, which could cause civil unrest.

26. THE ABOLITIONIST IMPACT in the NORTH
Abolitionists of any kind were for a long time unpopular in many parts of the North.
Northerners had been raised and taught to revere the Constitution, which did not
eliminate slavery. The idea of Union had taken deep root: radical talk of secession
grated harshly on northern ears.
The North also had a heavy economic stake in Dixieland. The Union during these critical
years was partly bound together with cotton threads, tied by lords of the loom in
collaboration with the so-called lords of the lash.
Repeated tirades by the extreme abolitionists provoked many mob outbursts in the
North, yet by the 1850’s the abolitionist outcry had made a deep impression. Few
northerners were prepared to abolish slavery outright, but a growing number, including
Lincoln, opposed extending it to the western territories (“free -soilers”).