Antebellum Slavery

U.S. History to 1877

The Myth of Tara

Geography of slavery

¡ Climate and soil patterns

¡ Little immigration

¡ Comparison with the North

Economics of Slavery

¡ Cotton boom

¡ Monoculture in the Deep South

¡ Labor shortage: importation of slaves banned, 1808

Slave Ownership

¡ Fewer slaveowners

¡ Average price: 1850 $400; 1860 $800

¡ Prime hand $1200; skilled hand $2000

¡ More slaves per owner

¡ Popular support for slavery

¡ Control competition

¡ Race control

Slave Life

¡ Material conditions

Slave Quarters

Planting Cotton

Harvest

Harvest

Bringing Cotton to the Gin

Domestic Slaves

Recreation

Marriage

Family Life

Unprotected
Family

Religion

Punishment

Death

Slavery of the Mind

¡ Psychological conditions

¡ No rewards

¡ Motivation: punishment

¡ No hope: slave for life

¡ Powerless to affect one’s own life

¡ “Slave mentality” and its legacies

¡ Act dumb; work slow

¡ The system is stacked against you

¡ Few slave revolts

¡ None after Nat Turner Revolt, 1831

¡ Running away