The document discusses the system of slavery in the Southern United States during the mid-19th century. Slavery varied significantly by state with slave codes defining slaves' limited rights and harsh punishments. Treatment of slaves ranged widely from prison-like conditions to more autonomy, and conditions were often better than free industrial workers but split families and lacked legal protections. While conditions were challenging, slaves developed their own cultural practices including music, religion, and family structures to cope with the harsh realities of their lack of freedom.

2. The “Peculiar Institution”
Few places in theWestern Hemisphere had slavery by the
mid-19th
century
Isolated the South from American society
Southerners increasingly had to defend it

3. Varieties of Slavery
Slave Codes
Limited slaves’ rights
Harsh penalties for slaves, limited penalties for slave
owners
Varied from state to state
Anyone with a trace of African ancestry was defined as
black

4. Varieties of Slavery
Enforcement of slave codes were spotty and uneven
Slave owners often handled punishments
Wide variety of treatment
 From prisonlike to a high degree of autonomy
 Warm & affectionate to tyrannical & cruel
System based on slaves powerlessness; paternalistic
relationships

5. Varieties of Slavery
Overseers & assistant overseers
“Head drivers” & subdrivers
 Trusted slaves
Methods of assigning slave labor
 Task system
 Gang system

6. Life Under Slavery
Diet=Cornmeal, salt pork, molasses, & occasionally fresh
meat
 Many slaves had their own gardens
Cheap clothing & shoes
Crude cabins called “slave quarters”
Female slaves acted as “healers” & midwives

7. Life Under Slavery
Work started as children
Work days longest at harvest time
Women had to carry out work & tradition roles of raising
family, preparing meals, caring for homes

8. Life Under Slavery
International slave trade ended in 1808
Proportion of blacks to whites decreased
High death rates, life expectancy was much shorter than
that of white southerners
Material conditions better than some northern factory
workers & European peasants
Conditions less severe than slaves in South America &
Caribbean
Slave population actually increased through natural
reproduction

9. House Slaves
Less grueling work
Butlers, maids, cook, coachmen
Closer relationships w/ slave-owning family
Female house servants were vulnerable to sexual abuse

10. Slavery in the Cities
Line between slavery & freedom was blurred due to
mobility w/in the city
Mining, lumbering, docks, construction sites, drove
wagons, etc.
Women & children worked in textile mills
Number of slaves in urban areas decreased
Segregation part of southern cities

11. Free African Americans
250K in slaveholding states by CivilWar
Some were slaves that bought freedom
After NatTurner’s Rebellion (1831), it became increasingly
difficult to set slaves free
 All southern states forbade free African Americans from
entering
Most lived in poverty
They were only quasi-free

12. The SlaveTrade
Long trips by train or on rivers, short trips on foot
Taken to cities for auctions
Checked like livestock
Strong field hand brought up to $1,700
Split slave families
Foreign slave trade banned in 1808, but smuggling
continued

13. Amistad
1839—53 slaves in Cuba took charge of ship
Tried to sail back to Africa, ended up in U.S.
Represented in Supreme Court by JQ Adams
Won case & returned to Africa

14. Slave Resistance
 Response to slavery was mix of adaptation & resistance
 “Sambo”—Acted out role the white world expected him to
 Often a façade by the slaves
 Slave rebel
 Revolts were rare
 Gabriel Prosser, Richmond, 1800—stopped before it started
 DenmarkVesey, Charleston, 1822—suppressed
 NatTurner,Virginia, 1831—Killed 60 whites, stopped by state &
federal troops, 100+ were executed

15. Slave Resistance
Running away, to the North or Canada
 Difficult to do
 “slave patrols,” bloodhounds, lack of geographic knowledge
Refusal to work hard
Sabotage
 Stealing, breaking tools

16. Culture of Slavery
Lanugage—”pidgin”—combo of English & African words
Music—spirituals—used to pass time while at work
Religion—Most became Christians
 Mixed elements of religious traditions in Africa
 Often more emotional than white religion
 Emphasized the dream of freedom

17. The Slave Family
Suffered from lack of legal marriage
Premarital births not condemned, average age of
motherhood was younger
Up to 1/3 of families were split by slave trade
Extended family was important
Fictional kinship ties were created when individuals were
separated from family
Paternal relationships between slaves & masters