With a partner, review your notes on "Life Under Slavery." Discuss the laws that slaves were forced to follow, the conditions of slave life, slave labor, and methods for maintaining order.
Desire for Liberty
- Slaves wanted freedom, but confronting the system was dangerous
- Desire for freedom as the constant theme
American Colonization Society
- Abolition of slavery
- Resettlement of black Americans in Africa
- What country was formed in West Africa?
Discuss the different reactions to colonization.
Abolition
The Liberator (1831)
How did the abolitionist movement of the 1830s differ from earlier antislavery movements?
William Lloyd Garrison
"I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation...I will not equivocate-I will not excuse-I will not retreat a single inch-and I will be heard."
Demanded immediate abolition and supported equal rights for black Americans
Many hoped to avoid violence and used moral arguments to point out the "sinful" nature of slavery.
Natural right to liberty and freedom regardless of race
Uncle Tom's Cabin
- Sold over 1 million copies by 1854
- Sympathetic portrayal of slaves
- Human face of slavery
Spreading the Abolitionist Message
- Pamphlets, newspapers, petitions
- American Anti-Slavery Society (1833)
- Local anti-slavery groups
- Speakers, revivals, meetings
Elijah Lovejoy Monument
"Words of activists like Frederick Douglass revealed the "hypocrisy" of the United States."
Explain the meaning of this statement.
"The empty name is everywhere-free government, free men, free speech, free schools, and free churches. Hollow counterfeits all! The substance has gone."
The Amistad
Alton, IL
- 53 slaves took control of a transport ship going from one port in Cuba to another
- Seized off the coast of Long Island
Resistance to Slavery
Slave Culture
Argued that the slaves should be freed because they had recently been brought from Africa, which was against international ban on slave trade
"Nobody will be argued into slavery."
Religion
- Secret religious gatherings
- Biblical story of the Exodus as inspiration
- "Gospel of Freedom:" found inspiration in the figures of the Bible
What southern ideology is exemplified by the following quote?
"The master as the head of the system, has a right to the obedience and labor of the slave, but the slave has also his mutual rights in the master-the right of protection, the right of counsel and guidance, the right of subsistence, the right of care and attention in sickness and old age."
Read Frederick Douglass's "A Former Slave Exposes Slavery (1850)"
In your opinion, what was his goal in writing this account? Who do you believe was his intended audience?
1) Many northern workers rejected the goals of the abolitionist movement because:
Center of the slave community; law did not recognize marriage; families faced constant threat of being separated by sale
A) African-Americans lacked education
B) They feared competition for jobs
C) The Constitution clearly supported slavery
D) Southern cotton production was needed to keep factories running
Religion
- Threat of sale used as discipline method by owners
- Traders gave little to no attention to preserving families
Growth of the Slave Population
The Peculiar Institution
"King Cotton"
697,624
Slave Family
893,624
Sent to factories around the world
Discuss the characteristics of the "Old South"
1,191,362
1,538,022
Old South was the largest and most powerful slave society the modern world has known
- 1790-
- 1800-
- 1810-
- 1820-
- 1830-
- 1840-
- 1850-
- 1860-
"2nd Middle Passage"
2,009,043
African Heritage
Slave trade WITHIN the United States
2,487,355
Cities and Banks
3,204,313
- Small cities
- Banks mainly financed plantations
3,953,760
Limited industry and technology
Paternalism
Less than 10% of manufactured goods produced in the South
African Heritage
The Lower Class
Music, dance, religious worship (shaped by African traditions and American values and experiences)
Many farmers were self-sufficient-3 out of 4 did not own slaves
Poor whites resented power of plantation owners
Slave owners thought of themselves as kind, responsible masters who took care of slaves, gave them a better life
Discuss the pro-slavery arguments that dominated southern opinions concerning the issue
Read William Harper's Apology (1837):
- In what ways does Harper's intended apology actually highlight the issues associated with slavery?
Blacks were "naturally inferior"
Slavery existed in the Bible
Greatest empires in history built on slave labor
Prevented whites from having to perform unskilled jobs
Liberates blacks from "menial" factory jobs
Pro-Slavery Arguments
Freedom and equality must be earned
Wage earners worse off than slaves
Inequality is a fundamental law of society
Hierarchy is natural and normal