Civil War Summary Nights
Slavery
1. Cotton economy and slavery
The peculiar institution
• By 1808 the USA declared the African slave trade illegal, but there were about 1 million slaves
already in the USA
• Slave population continued to expand naturally
• Cotton and Slavery
◦ In 1776 slavery existed in all thirteen colonies
◦ Major importance in the south due to the northern climate not being suited to plantation
agriculture
◦ After 1776 northern states abolished slavery
◦ 1787 Congress passed an ordinance that kept slavery out of the North West Territory
◦ 'king cotton' ensured that slavery survived and thrived
◦ 1790 - only 9000 bales of cotton were produced in the USA
◦ Eli Whitney's invention of a cotton engine in 1793 revolutionised Southern agriculture
◦ By 1830s the south was producing 2 million bales per year
◦ Cotton outstripped all other plantation crops in economic importance
◦ 1815-1860, cotton represented more than 50% of all US exports
◦ The cotton belt = area of the south producing cotton (Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama,
Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas)
◦ Cotton production needed a large amount of unskilled labour therefore slave labour was
ideal
◦ Gang labour = defining feature of the cotton plantation system
• Slaves were organised into groups based on their physical abilities
• Supervised by a, usually white, overseer and a driver (usually black)
• Punishment was inevitable if workers fell behind the pace
◦ Most southerners were committed to their peculiar institution
2. Conditions of enslavement
• The conditions of enslavement
◦ Important to acknowledge limitations to slave trade
◦ The census returns of 1850 and 1860 provide a starting point for trying to understand the
nature of slavery
• In 1850 there were 3.2m slaves (6.2m whites) by 1860 there were nearly 4m slaves
(8m whites)
• Slaves were mainly concentrated in the lower south
▪ Slaves outnumbered whites in SC
• 1850, 1 in 3 white southern families owned slaves, by 1860 one family in four were
slave owners
• 1860, 88 per cent of slaveholders owned fewer than twenty slaves no more than
50% owned no more than 5 slaves
• Over 50% of slaves lived on plantations with over twenty slaves, thus the 'typical'
slaveholder did not own the 'typical' slave
• Most slaves were held by about 10,000 families
• 55% of slaves worked in cotton production, 10% in tobacco and 10% in sugar, rice
and hemp while 15% were domestic servants
• In 1860 about 10% of slaves lived in towns or worked in a variety of industries
• Slaves were sometimes hired out to other employers for parts of the year
◦ All slave states had codes, laws which emphasised that slaves were property and which
greatly restricted their behaviour
, ◦ Codes varied form state to state
◦ Most common codes where that slaves could not
• Leave plantations without authorisation
• Carry weapons
• Strike a white person
◦ Codes were enforced with militia-like patrols
◦ Free white men served for one, three or six month periods, policing their local areas
◦ Not all AA were slaves, by 1860 there were about 260,000 free blacks in the south
• Some had made enough money to purchase their freedom
• Many were of mixed race and had been given their freedom by their white fathers
◦ Southern free blacks had to carry documentation proving their freedom at all times or risk
the danger of being enslaved
◦ They had no political rights and their legal status was precarious
◦ Job opportunities = limited
◦ Few free blacks prospered
• In Charleston there were 360 'coloured' taxpayers
• 130 f these owned 390 slaves
• In New Orleans, free blacks owned over $15m worth of property
◦ 200,000 blacks lived in the north
◦ Many northern whites were as racially prejudiced as southerners
◦ Northern blacks usually had the worst jobs and segregation was common in most aspects of
life
◦ Only three states allowed blacks to vote on terms of parity with whites in 1860
◦ Some northern states tried to exclude blacks all together
◦ A number of politicians worked to expand black rights in the decades before the civil war
◦ By 1861, northern blacks had more rights than at any time in te previous 30 years
• Slavery comparisons
◦ Historians and sociologists have tried to compare slavery in the USA with slavery elsewhere
◦ It has often been claimed that slavery in LA was less severe than slavery in the USA
• Slaves seem to have had more legal protected in Spanish and Portuguese law,
which at least recognised the essential humanity of the slave
• The Roman Catholic Church may have offered more protection to slaves than
Protestant Churches in the USA
• In LA slaves could legally marry
• Manumission was easier in Brazil and Cuba
◦ It is now generally accepted that American slaves were better of than their counterparts in
Brazil and Cuba
• They enjoyed better material conditions
• Lived longer
• Slave Domains
◦ Despite the threat of forced sale, most slaves lived in two-parent family groups and slave
marriages were surprisingly stable and long-lasting (Many slave owners made efforts to
keep slave families together)
◦ The family was a zone of safety
◦ By giving slaves love, individual identity and a sense of personal worth, it helped to mitigate
some of the severity of slavery
◦ The realities of slavery, moreover, forced the creation of an extended family which helped to
protect children, in particular, if and when a family was sold
◦ Most slave children has aunts, uncles and cousins who might or might not be real kin but
who were prepared to assume family roles should a child be orphaned
◦ The family was one of the most powerful transmitters of slave cultures
, ◦ Slave music - a means of expression, communication and protest - permeated many
aspects of slave life, as did dance
◦ Black folktales also helped to foster a sense of community
◦ Religion played an important part in the life of many slaves, may also have been a vital
cultural transmitter
◦ Churches and black ministers were not common until the 1850s
◦ Working in the fields led to a strong sense of camaraderie, cohesion and community
◦ Members of the slave community were also bound together, helping and protecting one
another and a sense of shared grievance
3. Adaptation and resistance
• Resistance to slavery
◦ If slave conditions were really so bad then serious slave revolts ought to have occurred
◦ Slave revolts were infrequent
• Gabriel Prosser, a slave in Virginia, plotted outright rebellion in 1800
• In 1811, a slave revolt - the German Coast Uprising - occurred east of the
Mississippi River
• Denmark Vesey purchased his freedom in 1800
• Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831 was the only serious revolt to actually occur
• John Brown failed to stir up a slave revolt in 1859
◦ No slave rebellion during the Civil War
• Could indicate that:
▪ Didn't have any weapons
▪ Actual force of white power
▪ Harsh punishments
• The underground railroad
◦ Individual slaves found it difficult to escape from slavery and it virtually impossible for a large
family group to make it to freedom
◦ 90% of runaways were male and 75% were under 35
• Most were caught and severely punished
◦ The underground railroad was far from extensive or well organised
◦ It was a system of safe houses from which fugitive slaves made their way as they fled north
◦ Safe houses provided money, food, clothes and advice
◦ Difficult to know ow many slaves escaped
◦ Most escapees came from the upper south
• Daily resistance
◦ Many slaves resisted slavery on a daily basis
• Some feigned illness to avoid work
• Some harmed themselves so they were unable to work
• Many deliberately worked slowly or inefficiently
• A few killed their owners
4. Abolitionist debate—ideological, legal, religious and economic arguments for and
against slavery, and their impact
Origins of the Civil War
1. The Nullification Crisis
◦ The issue of states' rights became a serious concern in the Nullification Crisis
◦ The problem of tariffs
, • During the 1820's tariffs became an important issue
• New England states = increasingly industrial - therefore supported high tariffs to keep out
European manufactured goods
▪ Southerners opposed
▪ Reasoned that while protective tariffs enriched northern manufacturers the
consequences for themselves were more expensive goods
▪ Southern protests increased with the "Tariff of Abominations" - passed by congress
in 1828
◦ John C. Calhoun = powerful politician from South Carolina
• Denounced the "Tariff of Abominations" in the South Carolina Exposition and Protest
• Claimed it was 'unconstitutional, unequal and oppressive'
• Proposed an ingenious constitutional safeguard for Southern Rights
▪ The doctrine of nullification
▪ Echoed the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, Calhoun argued that a state could
nullify any act of the federal government it deemed unconstitutional
▪ South Carolina endorsed the Exposition
• A series of personal and political quarrels led to a breach between Pr Jackson and VP
Calhoun
• The great senate debate in 1830 brought their disagreement into the open
• Union was intended to be perpetual: nullification was treasonable and would lead to civil war
◦ Nullification and slavery
• Following the passage of a new tariff act in 1832 the nullification controversy came to a head
• The tariff act reduced duties - didn't go far enough to satisfy SC
• The tariff question did not account fully for the fear of federal power which now seized SC
dominant planter aristocracy
• The nullification came to be seen in SC as a means of limiting the federal government's
potential power over slavery, as well as preventing Northern economic exploitation
◦ The crisis
• In SC nullifiers won control of the legislature and a popularly elected convention, meeting in
November 1832, adopted an ordinance which:
▪ Pronounced the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 to be unconstitutional and hence null
and void
▪ Prohibited the collection of customs duties within the state after 1/2/1833
▪ Warned that SC would secede if the federal government used force against it
◦ Compromise
• While determined to uphold federal authority, Jackson urged Congress to make further tariff
reductions
• Calhoun and SC had become uncomfortably aware of their isolation
• Other southern states opposed protective duties, they supported Jackson
• Substantial congress support when Senator Henry Clay came forward with a compromise
measure providing for the gradual reduction of all tariffs to a uniform level of 20%
• The Force Bill and the Compromise Tariff simultaneously passed by Congress on 1 March
1833 promptly received presidential approval
• 15 March = SC convention accepts the compromise and withdrew its nullification ordinance
• Crisis ended with both sides claiming victory
▪ Jackson had demonstrated that no state could defy federal authority with impunity
▪ The threat of nullification had enabled a single dissident state to change federal
policy
2. State’s Rights
◦ Doctrine of states rights was rooted in fears of centralised power
◦ The constitution reflected the strength of the states' rights:
Slavery
1. Cotton economy and slavery
The peculiar institution
• By 1808 the USA declared the African slave trade illegal, but there were about 1 million slaves
already in the USA
• Slave population continued to expand naturally
• Cotton and Slavery
◦ In 1776 slavery existed in all thirteen colonies
◦ Major importance in the south due to the northern climate not being suited to plantation
agriculture
◦ After 1776 northern states abolished slavery
◦ 1787 Congress passed an ordinance that kept slavery out of the North West Territory
◦ 'king cotton' ensured that slavery survived and thrived
◦ 1790 - only 9000 bales of cotton were produced in the USA
◦ Eli Whitney's invention of a cotton engine in 1793 revolutionised Southern agriculture
◦ By 1830s the south was producing 2 million bales per year
◦ Cotton outstripped all other plantation crops in economic importance
◦ 1815-1860, cotton represented more than 50% of all US exports
◦ The cotton belt = area of the south producing cotton (Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama,
Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas)
◦ Cotton production needed a large amount of unskilled labour therefore slave labour was
ideal
◦ Gang labour = defining feature of the cotton plantation system
• Slaves were organised into groups based on their physical abilities
• Supervised by a, usually white, overseer and a driver (usually black)
• Punishment was inevitable if workers fell behind the pace
◦ Most southerners were committed to their peculiar institution
2. Conditions of enslavement
• The conditions of enslavement
◦ Important to acknowledge limitations to slave trade
◦ The census returns of 1850 and 1860 provide a starting point for trying to understand the
nature of slavery
• In 1850 there were 3.2m slaves (6.2m whites) by 1860 there were nearly 4m slaves
(8m whites)
• Slaves were mainly concentrated in the lower south
▪ Slaves outnumbered whites in SC
• 1850, 1 in 3 white southern families owned slaves, by 1860 one family in four were
slave owners
• 1860, 88 per cent of slaveholders owned fewer than twenty slaves no more than
50% owned no more than 5 slaves
• Over 50% of slaves lived on plantations with over twenty slaves, thus the 'typical'
slaveholder did not own the 'typical' slave
• Most slaves were held by about 10,000 families
• 55% of slaves worked in cotton production, 10% in tobacco and 10% in sugar, rice
and hemp while 15% were domestic servants
• In 1860 about 10% of slaves lived in towns or worked in a variety of industries
• Slaves were sometimes hired out to other employers for parts of the year
◦ All slave states had codes, laws which emphasised that slaves were property and which
greatly restricted their behaviour
, ◦ Codes varied form state to state
◦ Most common codes where that slaves could not
• Leave plantations without authorisation
• Carry weapons
• Strike a white person
◦ Codes were enforced with militia-like patrols
◦ Free white men served for one, three or six month periods, policing their local areas
◦ Not all AA were slaves, by 1860 there were about 260,000 free blacks in the south
• Some had made enough money to purchase their freedom
• Many were of mixed race and had been given their freedom by their white fathers
◦ Southern free blacks had to carry documentation proving their freedom at all times or risk
the danger of being enslaved
◦ They had no political rights and their legal status was precarious
◦ Job opportunities = limited
◦ Few free blacks prospered
• In Charleston there were 360 'coloured' taxpayers
• 130 f these owned 390 slaves
• In New Orleans, free blacks owned over $15m worth of property
◦ 200,000 blacks lived in the north
◦ Many northern whites were as racially prejudiced as southerners
◦ Northern blacks usually had the worst jobs and segregation was common in most aspects of
life
◦ Only three states allowed blacks to vote on terms of parity with whites in 1860
◦ Some northern states tried to exclude blacks all together
◦ A number of politicians worked to expand black rights in the decades before the civil war
◦ By 1861, northern blacks had more rights than at any time in te previous 30 years
• Slavery comparisons
◦ Historians and sociologists have tried to compare slavery in the USA with slavery elsewhere
◦ It has often been claimed that slavery in LA was less severe than slavery in the USA
• Slaves seem to have had more legal protected in Spanish and Portuguese law,
which at least recognised the essential humanity of the slave
• The Roman Catholic Church may have offered more protection to slaves than
Protestant Churches in the USA
• In LA slaves could legally marry
• Manumission was easier in Brazil and Cuba
◦ It is now generally accepted that American slaves were better of than their counterparts in
Brazil and Cuba
• They enjoyed better material conditions
• Lived longer
• Slave Domains
◦ Despite the threat of forced sale, most slaves lived in two-parent family groups and slave
marriages were surprisingly stable and long-lasting (Many slave owners made efforts to
keep slave families together)
◦ The family was a zone of safety
◦ By giving slaves love, individual identity and a sense of personal worth, it helped to mitigate
some of the severity of slavery
◦ The realities of slavery, moreover, forced the creation of an extended family which helped to
protect children, in particular, if and when a family was sold
◦ Most slave children has aunts, uncles and cousins who might or might not be real kin but
who were prepared to assume family roles should a child be orphaned
◦ The family was one of the most powerful transmitters of slave cultures
, ◦ Slave music - a means of expression, communication and protest - permeated many
aspects of slave life, as did dance
◦ Black folktales also helped to foster a sense of community
◦ Religion played an important part in the life of many slaves, may also have been a vital
cultural transmitter
◦ Churches and black ministers were not common until the 1850s
◦ Working in the fields led to a strong sense of camaraderie, cohesion and community
◦ Members of the slave community were also bound together, helping and protecting one
another and a sense of shared grievance
3. Adaptation and resistance
• Resistance to slavery
◦ If slave conditions were really so bad then serious slave revolts ought to have occurred
◦ Slave revolts were infrequent
• Gabriel Prosser, a slave in Virginia, plotted outright rebellion in 1800
• In 1811, a slave revolt - the German Coast Uprising - occurred east of the
Mississippi River
• Denmark Vesey purchased his freedom in 1800
• Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831 was the only serious revolt to actually occur
• John Brown failed to stir up a slave revolt in 1859
◦ No slave rebellion during the Civil War
• Could indicate that:
▪ Didn't have any weapons
▪ Actual force of white power
▪ Harsh punishments
• The underground railroad
◦ Individual slaves found it difficult to escape from slavery and it virtually impossible for a large
family group to make it to freedom
◦ 90% of runaways were male and 75% were under 35
• Most were caught and severely punished
◦ The underground railroad was far from extensive or well organised
◦ It was a system of safe houses from which fugitive slaves made their way as they fled north
◦ Safe houses provided money, food, clothes and advice
◦ Difficult to know ow many slaves escaped
◦ Most escapees came from the upper south
• Daily resistance
◦ Many slaves resisted slavery on a daily basis
• Some feigned illness to avoid work
• Some harmed themselves so they were unable to work
• Many deliberately worked slowly or inefficiently
• A few killed their owners
4. Abolitionist debate—ideological, legal, religious and economic arguments for and
against slavery, and their impact
Origins of the Civil War
1. The Nullification Crisis
◦ The issue of states' rights became a serious concern in the Nullification Crisis
◦ The problem of tariffs
, • During the 1820's tariffs became an important issue
• New England states = increasingly industrial - therefore supported high tariffs to keep out
European manufactured goods
▪ Southerners opposed
▪ Reasoned that while protective tariffs enriched northern manufacturers the
consequences for themselves were more expensive goods
▪ Southern protests increased with the "Tariff of Abominations" - passed by congress
in 1828
◦ John C. Calhoun = powerful politician from South Carolina
• Denounced the "Tariff of Abominations" in the South Carolina Exposition and Protest
• Claimed it was 'unconstitutional, unequal and oppressive'
• Proposed an ingenious constitutional safeguard for Southern Rights
▪ The doctrine of nullification
▪ Echoed the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, Calhoun argued that a state could
nullify any act of the federal government it deemed unconstitutional
▪ South Carolina endorsed the Exposition
• A series of personal and political quarrels led to a breach between Pr Jackson and VP
Calhoun
• The great senate debate in 1830 brought their disagreement into the open
• Union was intended to be perpetual: nullification was treasonable and would lead to civil war
◦ Nullification and slavery
• Following the passage of a new tariff act in 1832 the nullification controversy came to a head
• The tariff act reduced duties - didn't go far enough to satisfy SC
• The tariff question did not account fully for the fear of federal power which now seized SC
dominant planter aristocracy
• The nullification came to be seen in SC as a means of limiting the federal government's
potential power over slavery, as well as preventing Northern economic exploitation
◦ The crisis
• In SC nullifiers won control of the legislature and a popularly elected convention, meeting in
November 1832, adopted an ordinance which:
▪ Pronounced the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 to be unconstitutional and hence null
and void
▪ Prohibited the collection of customs duties within the state after 1/2/1833
▪ Warned that SC would secede if the federal government used force against it
◦ Compromise
• While determined to uphold federal authority, Jackson urged Congress to make further tariff
reductions
• Calhoun and SC had become uncomfortably aware of their isolation
• Other southern states opposed protective duties, they supported Jackson
• Substantial congress support when Senator Henry Clay came forward with a compromise
measure providing for the gradual reduction of all tariffs to a uniform level of 20%
• The Force Bill and the Compromise Tariff simultaneously passed by Congress on 1 March
1833 promptly received presidential approval
• 15 March = SC convention accepts the compromise and withdrew its nullification ordinance
• Crisis ended with both sides claiming victory
▪ Jackson had demonstrated that no state could defy federal authority with impunity
▪ The threat of nullification had enabled a single dissident state to change federal
policy
2. State’s Rights
◦ Doctrine of states rights was rooted in fears of centralised power
◦ The constitution reflected the strength of the states' rights:
