11-2 Plantations and the Spread of Slavery

Ø The invention of the cotton gin and the demand for cotton caused slavery to spread in the South.

Ø The spread of slavery created lasting racial and sectional tensions.

ONE AMERICAN’S STORY

Catherine Beale was born into slavery in 1838. At the age of 91, in 1929, she recalled her childhood on a Virginia plantation. When asked what games she had played, Catherine replied that enslaved children never played games—they were too busy with chores. Among the tasks were picking and cleaning cotton.

A VOICE FROM THE PAST

We had to work in the field in the day and at night we had to pick out the seed before we went to bed. And we had to clean the wool, we had to pick the burrs and sticks out so it would be clean and could be carded and spun and wove.

Catherine Beale, quoted in Slave Testimony

Catherine had to clean cotton by hand because the plantation didn’t have a cotton gin. This machine made it easier for enslaved workers to clean cotton. But it also made cotton growing and slave owning more profitable. In this section, you will learn how slavery expanded in the South and how it affected the lives of people living under it.

The Cotton Boom

· Eli Whitney invented a machine for cleaning cotton in 1793, after visiting the Georgia Plantation of Catherine Greene, the window of a Revolutionary War general. Mrs. Greene was struggling to make her plantation profitable. English textile mills had created a huge demand for cotton, but the short-fibered cotton that grew in most parts of the South was hard to clean by hand. A worker could clean just one pound of this cotton in a day.

· Whitney’s cotton gin (short for engine) made the cotton-cleaning process far more efficient. With the new machine, one worker could now clean as much as 50 pounds of cotton a day. The cotton gin helped set the South on a different course of development from the North. It made short-fibered cotton a commercial product and changed Southern life in four important ways.

1. It triggered a vast move westward. Cotton farming moved beyond the Atlantic costal states, where long fibered, easy to clean cotton grew, Cotton plantations began to spread into northern Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. Then they crossed into Louisiana and Arkansas. After 1840, they reached Texas.

2. Because cotton was valuable, planters grew more cotton rather than other goods, and cotton exports increased.

3. More Native American groups were driven off Southern land as it was taken over for cotton plantations.

1. Growing cotton required a large work force, and slaves from the east were sold south and west to new cotton plantations.

Slavery Expands

· From 1790 to 1860, cotton production rose greatly. So did the number of enslaved people in the South. Using slave labor, the South raised millions of bales of cotton each year for the textile mills of England and the American Northeast.

· In 1820, The U.S. earned $22 million from cotton exports. By the late 1830s, earnings from cotton exports were nearly ten times greater, close to $200 million.

· As cotton earnings rose, so did the price of slaves, a male field hand sold for $300 in the 1790s. By the late 1830s, the price had jumped to $1000. After 1808, when it became illegal to import Africans for use as slaves, the trading of slaves already in the country increased. The Expansion of slavery had a major impact on the South’s economy. But its effect on the people living there was even greater.

Slavery Divides the South

· Slavery divided white Southerners into those who held slaves and those who did not. Slaveholders with large plantations were the wealthiest and most powerful people in the South, but they were relatively few in number. Only about one third of white families owned slaves in 1840. Of these slave-owning families, only about one tenth had large plantations with 20 or more slaves.

· Most white Southern farmers owned few or no slaves. Still, many supported slavery anyway. They worked their small farms themselves and hoped to buy slaves someday, which would allow them to raise more cotton and earn more money. For both small farmers and large planters, slavery had become necessary for increasing profits.

African Americans in the South

Slavery also divided black Southerners into those who were enslaved and those who were free. Enslaved African Americans formed about one-third of the South’s population in 1840. About half of them worked on large plantations with white overseers. Decades later, a former slave described the routine in an interview.

A VOICE FROM THE PAST

The overseer was ‘straddle his big horse at three o’clock in the mornin’, roustin’ the hands off to the field. . . . The rows was a mile long and no matter how much grass [weeds] was in them, if you [left] one sprig on your row they [beat] you nearly to death.

Wes Brady, quoted in Remembering Slavery

· Not all slaves faced the back-breaking conditions of plantations, in cites, enslaved persons worked as domestic servants, skilled craftsmen, factory hands, and day laborers. Sometimes they were hired out and allowed to keep part of their earnings.

· Fredrick Douglass, a famous African-American speaker and publisher, once commented, “A city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation.” But they were still enslaved.

· In 1840, about 8 percent of African Americans in the South were free. They had either been born free, been freed by an owner, or bought their own freedom. Slavery also divided black Southerners into those who were enslaved and those who were free. Enslaved African Americans formed about one-third of the South’s population in 1840. About half of them worked on large plantations with white overseers.

· Though not enslaved free black faced many problems. Some states made them leave once they gained their freedom. Most states did not permit them to vote or receive an education. Many employers refused to hire them, but their biggest threat was the possibility of being captured and sold into slavery.

Finding Strength in Religion

An African-American culture had emerged on plantations by the early 1800s. Slaves relied on that culture— with its strong religious convictions, close personal bonds, and abundance of music—to help them endure the brutal conditions of plantation life. Some slaveholders tried to use religion to make slaves accept their treatment. White ministers stressed such Bible passages as “Servants, obey your masters.” But enslaved people took their own messages from the Bible. They were particularly inspired by the story of Moses leading the Hebrews out of bondage in Egypt.

Enslaved people expressed their religious beliefs in spirituals, religious folk songs. Spirituals often contained coded messages about a planned escape or an owner’s unexpected return. African-American spirituals later influenced blues, jazz, and other forms of American music.

Families Under Slavery

· Perhaps the cruelest part of slavery was the sale of family members away from one another. Although some slaveholders would not part mothers from children, many did causing unforgettable grief. When enslaved people ran away it was often to escape separation or to see family again.

· When slave families could manage to be together, they took comfort in their family life. They married though their marriages were not legally recognized. They tried to raise children, despite, interference from owners. Most slave children lived with their mothers who tried to protect them from punishment. Parents who lived on the other plantations often stole away to visit their children, even at the cost of a whipping. Frederick Douglass recalled visits from his mother, who lived 12 miles away.

A VOICE FROM THE PAST

I do not recollect of [remember] ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone.

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Douglass’s mother resisted slavery by the simple act of visiting her child. Douglass later rebelled by escaping to the North. Other enslaved people rebelled in more violent ways.

Slave Rebellions

· Armed rebellion was an extreme form of resistance to slavery. The most famous rebellion was led by Nat Turner in Virginia in 1831. On August 21st, Turner and 70 followers killed 55 white men, women and children. Later witness claimed that he spoke these words.

“We do not go forth for the sake of blood and carnage, remember that ours is not a war for robbery, it is a struggle for freedom.”

· Most of Turner’s men were captured when their ammunition ran out and 16 were killed. When Turner was caught, he was tried and hanged. Turner’s rebellion spread fear in the South. Whites killed more than 200 African Americans in revenge.

· State legislatures passed harsh laws that kept free blacks and slaves from having weapons or buying liquor. Slaves could not hold religious services unless whites were present. Postmasters stopped delivering antislavery publications. After Turners rebellion the grip of slavery grew even tighter in the South. Tension over slavery increased between the South and the North.