10.1: King Cotton and Southern Expansion

Long recognized as a plant suitable for southern soils and growing conditions, Short-staple cotton.
But there is one big drawback: it was so hard to remove the seed from the lint that a single pound of cotton was hand-cleaned all day long.
International demand for cotton was insatiable because of technologies and societies, the Industrial Revolution that we know today.
In the wake of liberty following the American Revolution, slavery and gradual emancipation laws were abolished by all the northern states, and slaves were freed up in the upper South.
The cotton boom caused the domestic slave trade to rise greatly.
- Plant owners in the Upper South sold slaves to meet labor demand in the newly expanding Old Southwest cotton growing regions.
The United States ceased its involvement in international trade in slaves on 1 January 1808.
- After that time, slave labor was primarily driven to grow naturally, i.e. by births in the slave population.

Exports

10.2: The African American Community

The United States ended the international slave business on 1 January 1808.
- Following that date, the growth of slave workers mainly depended on natural growth — by births among the slave population.
The South of America was the only one to grow by natural growth rather than by constant imports of Africans captured
The child born to a slave was destined to remain a slave, in spite of the occasional instances of manoeuvre—liberation of a slave.
75 per cent of all slaves were most affected by the gang labor system in cotton plantations, both male and female.
The degree to which Slaves formed the working class in cities was most visible.
- Partly because the South could not attract the same number of immigrants as the North, south towns provided both enslaved and free black people with the opportunities in skilled work, such as forgery and carpentering, which were neglected in free African Americans in the North.
There was no recognized southern state in law as slave marriages.
- However, most owners not only recognized but encouraged them, even wedding the couple at times.

Slave Labor

10.3: Freedom and Resistance

Black Christianity was a favored religion: slaves survived in small yet meaningful protests, not as passive victims of white bullying but as an active opponent of an oppressive system.
A new source of tension and resistance was brought to the slave master relation with the fast geographical spread of cotton.
- But the slave rebellion was the ultimate resistance.
Southern history has been marked by histories of former slave conspiracies and rumours.
The increasing number of free African Americans was another source of white concern.
- In the South lived by 1860 about 250,000 free blacks. For the most part, freedom dates back to pre-cotton growing periods.

10.4: The White Majority

In agriculture and in many skilled businesses, the slaves make up the permanent, stable workingforce.
- Many poor Whites led very short-lived lives in search of work, like farm labor during harvest time.
The word yeoman, originally a British term for a landowner, often covers the South's self-employed farmers who lived mostly on family farms.

10.5: Planters

Less yeomen took the step from subsistence agriculture to commercial production.
- The largest group of slaveowners.
The slave elite, the 2.5% owners of 50 or more Slaves, enjoyed the prestige, the leadership and the lifestyle that many white Southerians longed to achieve.
Many rich planters, especially the ones on new southwest lands, lived alone with their families and slaves on their plantations.
There were generous and kind masters, but most of the great slaves thought constant discipline and coercion were necessary in order for slaves to work hard.

Slaveholders

10.6: The Defense of Slavery

After the cotton boom began in 1790, Southerners tried to justify slavery more and more.
- In the Bible and in the history of both the slave societies, Greece and Rome, they found justifications for slavery.
In 1831, in defense of slavery the South started to close ranks.
- This regional solidarity has been supported by several factors
Despite these defensive and repressive measures in favor of slavery, which have made the south seem monolithic to the north, there have been some surprising signs of diss

Chapter 10 - The South and Slavery, 1790s-1850s

10.1: King Cotton and Southern Expansion

Long recognized as a plant suitable for southern soils and growing conditions, Short-staple cotton.
But there is one big drawback: it was so hard to remove the seed from the lint that a single pound of cotton was hand-cleaned all day long.
International demand for cotton was insatiable because of technologies and societies, the Industrial Revolution that we know today.
In the wake of liberty following the American Revolution, slavery and gradual emancipation laws were abolished by all the northern states, and slaves were freed up in the upper South.
The cotton boom caused the domestic slave trade to rise greatly.
- Plant owners in the Upper South sold slaves to meet labor demand in the newly expanding Old Southwest cotton growing regions.
The United States ceased its involvement in international trade in slaves on 1 January 1808.
- After that time, slave labor was primarily driven to grow naturally, i.e. by births in the slave population.

Exports

10.2: The African American Community

The United States ended the international slave business on 1 January 1808.
- Following that date, the growth of slave workers mainly depended on natural growth — by births among the slave population.
The South of America was the only one to grow by natural growth rather than by constant imports of Africans captured
The child born to a slave was destined to remain a slave, in spite of the occasional instances of manoeuvre—liberation of a slave.
75 per cent of all slaves were most affected by the gang labor system in cotton plantations, both male and female.
The degree to which Slaves formed the working class in cities was most visible.
- Partly because the South could not attract the same number of immigrants as the North, south towns provided both enslaved and free black people with the opportunities in skilled work, such as forgery and carpentering, which were neglected in free African Americans in the North.
There was no recognized southern state in law as slave marriages.
- However, most owners not only recognized but encouraged them, even wedding the couple at times.

Slave Labor

10.3: Freedom and Resistance

Black Christianity was a favored religion: slaves survived in small yet meaningful protests, not as passive victims of white bullying but as an active opponent of an oppressive system.
A new source of tension and resistance was brought to the slave master relation with the fast geographical spread of cotton.
- But the slave rebellion was the ultimate resistance.
Southern history has been marked by histories of former slave conspiracies and rumours.
The increasing number of free African Americans was another source of white concern.
- In the South lived by 1860 about 250,000 free blacks. For the most part, freedom dates back to pre-cotton growing periods.

10.4: The White Majority

In agriculture and in many skilled businesses, the slaves make up the permanent, stable workingforce.
- Many poor Whites led very short-lived lives in search of work, like farm labor during harvest time.
The word yeoman, originally a British term for a landowner, often covers the South's self-employed farmers who lived mostly on family farms.

10.5: Planters

Less yeomen took the step from subsistence agriculture to commercial production.
- The largest group of slaveowners.
The slave elite, the 2.5% owners of 50 or more Slaves, enjoyed the prestige, the leadership and the lifestyle that many white Southerians longed to achieve.
Many rich planters, especially the ones on new southwest lands, lived alone with their families and slaves on their plantations.
There were generous and kind masters, but most of the great slaves thought constant discipline and coercion were necessary in order for slaves to work hard.

Slaveholders

10.6: The Defense of Slavery

After the cotton boom began in 1790, Southerners tried to justify slavery more and more.
- In the Bible and in the history of both the slave societies, Greece and Rome, they found justifications for slavery.
In 1831, in defense of slavery the South started to close ranks.
- This regional solidarity has been supported by several factors
Despite these defensive and repressive measures in favor of slavery, which have made the south seem monolithic to the north, there have been some surprising signs of diss