Chapter 5 to accompany Mississippi Studies textbook A Place Called Mississippi by Clairmont Press

1. CHAPTER 5
Antebellum Mississippi

2. • On a clean sheet of paper, you will be write a short essay to turn in today.
Make sure you have your name, date, and class period at the top right
corner.
• Main idea behind the question you will address: During the years between
the War of 1812 and the Civil War, sectionalism developed. The ways of life
in North and South were very different, and it caused problems when each
side was more concerned for their own good than the good of the nation.
The Protective Tariff and Slavery were two issues that divided them.
• The question to address in your writing: Think of an issue that divides
people in our nation today, where people are more concerned with
themselves than the good of the nation as a whole. How does it divide
people, and what should be done about it?

3. SECTION 1
Heartland of the Cotton Kingdom

4. KING COTTON
• Two changes made cotton
growing more desirable:
• A new seed smuggled from
Mexico and developed by Dr.
Rush Nutt in Natchez-called
the Mexican-Petit Gulf Seed.
• The Cotton Gin developed by
Eli Whitney to remove seeds
from bolls.
Click on picture to
see more about
Longwood
Plantation
To find out more about Dr.
Nutt and his son Haller
Nutt, who began the
building of Longwood, click
on the cotton picture.

5. THE POPULATION BY 1860
• Large Planters-
• A small minority
• Only 59 had more than 200
slaves
• Aristocrats
• Most were whigs
• Did not originally want war

6. • Small Planters and Farmers
• Some had smaller numbers of
slaves, and some had none
• Looked to expansion of slavery
in territories as opportunities
for them to move up
economically and socially
• Most were Democrats.
Believe it or not, the roof on this house is a bit
more modern, but the dog trot style home was
typical for a small farmer in the mid 1800’s
even up through the 1940’s. What would make
this style home user-friendly in Mississippi?

7. EDUCATION
• Large planters had tutors or
private academies
• Most believed women did not need
formal education, but Sallie
Reneau challenged that by
establishing the first state-
supported college for females in
Columbus, MS.
Mississippi University for Women used to be named
Mississippi State College for Women (MSCW). Male
students have also attended since the 1970’s.http://web3.muw.edu/

8. • Teaching slaves was
prohibited, but they
sometimes learned, anyway.
• 16th section lands were set
aside for public education in
1798. Franklin Academy in
Columbus was the first
public school in state.
Why do you
think that
slave codes
would prohibit
education of
slaves?

9. • Chickasaw School Funds
from tax on these 16th
section lands also funded
education.
• University of Mississippi
(Ole Miss) was established
in 1848 in Oxford.
http://www.olemiss.edu/

10. SECTION 2
Chattel Slavery

11. ORIGINS OF SLAVERY
• Ancient civilizations (Rome, Egypt,
Greece)
• Europeans brought in slaves
• Spanish
• English
• French
• Slavery already existed in MS before it
became a territory or state.
• Less than half of families had slaves.

12. TYPES OF SLAVES
• Field Slaves- largest
groups
• House Slaves-sometimes
given special treatment
• Town Slaves-usually
skilled workers
Click on this picture for
link to source about
slavery

13. SLAVE CODES
• Required written passes to leave the
plantation
• Written permission to buy and sell goods
• Couldn’t teach slaves to read or write
• Patrols set up for runaways
• Slaves could not testify in court against
whites
• Could be punished by owners
This Slavery Code
was from
Washington, D.C.

14. SLAVE
FAMILY
• The family unit within the slave
quarters was the glue that held
together the self-concept and dignity of
the individuals.
• Even though marriages were not
sanctioned legally, there were slave
owners who encouraged it.
• Other times, a slave owner might break
up a family through selling a family
member. Extended family would
become very important.
Learn more about
slave families by
clicking on the
picture.

15. MISSISSIPPI COLONIZATION SOCIETY
• Part of the American
Colonization Society
• Provided a way for free
blacks to go to Liberia in
Africa
• Almost 600 of the 12,000
people who went to Liberia
were from MS.
For more
about the
American
Colonization
Society, click
on the
picture!

16. FREE MEN OF COLOR
• By 1860, there were 773 Free
African Americans in MS, about
1/2 the number in MS 20 years
earlier.
• They did not have the rights and
privileges afforded to whites at the
time.
• One of the most prominent Free
Men of Color was William Johnson
of Natchez, a very successful
Click on the picture
to learn more about
William Johnson!

17. William Johnson,
ironically, was a
slave owner in the
town with the 2nd
largest slave
market in the
South, called
Forks of the Road.
What does this newspaper
advertisement tell you about
the attitude toward slaves?

18. SLAVE RESISTANCEVarying degrees of defying
the system:
• Slow down of work
• Disable or break
equipment
• Run away
• Hurt or kill owner
• Open rebellion
• White owners were wary of slave uprisings
after Nat Turner’s Rebellion in VA and
Denmark Vesey’s plot in SC. Even the rumor
of insurrection led to hangings in Natchez.
Click on the picture above to get the story.

19. SECTION 3
Slavery, States’ Rights, and Secession

20. INFLUENCES-RELIGION
• Mississippi is known as “The Buckle of the
Bible Belt
• The 2nd Great Awakening – a time when
religion stressed a conflict between God and
Satan. You had to choose God and reward of
Heaven, or Satan with the consequences of
Hell. The idea that things were one thing or
the other, with no shady areas, carried over
into politics.
This church with the
finger pointing
toward Heaven is in
Port Gibson. Click the
picture for its history.

21. INFLUENCES-POLITICIANS AND
NEWSPAPERS
Politicians promised that
• Secession was the only way to
preserve the southern lifestyle.
• The North would not go to war
with the South .
• The Confederacy would be like
the Roman Empire.
The picture above shows what a northern
newspaper editor thought of the secession
movement. Who is in the political cartoon?
What are they doing? What is the statement
the artist is trying to make?
Newspaper editors usually took
sides instead of just printing the
facts.

22. THE CHOICE ACCORDING TO THE
INFLUENCES
Three issues were at stake:
• Slavery
• States’ Rights
• Tariffs
• They believed it came down to
obeying the wishes of the North
or separating from them. They
chose the latter.
This picture is inside the Old Capitol in Jackson. The
setting is the Senate Chamber during the Secession
Session of 1861. For more about secession in MS, go to
http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/articles/206/the-
road-to-war-1846-1860

23. EVOLUTION OF THE DEFENSE OF SLAVERY
• 1818- Slavery was not thought to be right, but it
was already in existence when the state was
formed. There was not a good way to get rid of
the institution .
• 1830- Land Boom time in MS- Slavery was a
“necessary evil.”
• 1831- Wm. Lloyd Garrison, an abolitionist,
published a newspaper that called not only
slavery evil , but also those who practiced it. This
made slave holders dig in their heels.
• By 1836, the MS
Legislature looked
on it “not as a curse,
but a blessing.”
• “The Peculiar
Institution”- a
euphemism
often used to
refer to slavery

24. JUSTIFICATIONS MADE
• Economic-Planters said it was necessary to do the work
and make the profit that kept the economy going.
• Religious-Preachers and politicians pointed out Biblical
references to slavery in Old and New Testaments
• Racial and Philosophical- Teachers, editors, and other
white leaders said that the African culture was not as
advanced; other societies had had slavery, too.

25. BIG DISAGREEMENT FOR WESTERN
TERRITORIES
• Slave holders wanted
slavery to expand westward
to
• Keep slave population
proportionate to whites
• Keep their families safe
• Keep up the price of
slaves
• Keep their way of life

26. NORTHERN OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY
• The idea of Natural Rights begun in
the Declaration of Independence and
fought for through the Revolution
began thoughts of slavery as a moral
issue.
• Northern economy was based on
manufacturing, not agriculture.

27. THE FINAL STRAW
• Lincoln, a Republican who campaigned
against slavery in the West, became President
in 1860.
• Days later, South Carolina seceded.
• Mississippi was second to secede in January of
1861. They believed they had voluntarily
entered the Union, and thus had the right to
leave it.
• They did not anticipate a war, but they had
Click on Lincoln’s
picture to see
Mississippi’s
Secession Document.