14.4- Life in the South

US History Fort Burrows 14.4- Life in the South READ pages 422-426

Main Idea: Most white southerners were not plantation owners; however, the plantation system and slavery were at the center of southern life.

Vocabulary: cottonocracy - name for the wealthy planters who made their money from cotton in the mid-1800s slave codes - laws that controlled the lives of enslaved African Americans and denied them basic rights extended family - family group that includes grandparents, parents, children, aunts, uncles, and cousins

Setting the Scene: In1937, 88 year old Katie Darling recalled her life growing up as an enslaved person in East Texas. "You now talking to a slave what nursed seven white chillum in them bull-whip days. Massa have them chillum when the war come on, and I nursed all of 'em. I stays in the house with 'em and sleeps on a pallet on the floor. Miss Stella, my young mistress, got all our ages down in a Bible, that’s how I knows I was born in 1849… Mammy died in slavery, and Pappy ran away… Soon as I's big enough to tote the milk pail they puts me to work milkin' too. Massa have more than 100 cows and most of the time Violet and me does all the milkin'. We better be in that cowpen by five o'clock. We better milk all of them cows too or they’d bull-whip us.” She also talks about the process of handling the death of the slaves: "When a slave die, Massa make the coffin hisself and send a couple of slaves to bury the body and say, 'Don't be too long.' No singin' or prayin' allowed, just put them in the ground and cover them up and hurry on back to that field. I'm Katie Darling." Katie Darling, Interview, August 2, 1937 With her brothers and sisters, Darling worked from dawn to dusk and often on Sundays. She was only one of millions of African Americans throughout the South who suffered the anguish of slavery.

White Southerners ╔ A few lived in the Grand Ole Plantations ╔ Most white Southerns owned no slaves and were not wealthy

1 of 14.4 Printer Copy US History Fort Burrows 8% Owners of 5 or more slaves 8% Owned 1 to 4 slaves 50 % Whites owned no slaves 2 % Free African Americans 32 % Enslaved African Americans Southern Society in 1860

╠ The “Cottonocracy” ╔ A ‘planter’ was someone who owned at least 20 slaves ╔ In1860, only one white southerner in 30 belonged to a planter family ╔ An even smaller number - less than 1 percent - owned 50 or more slaves ╔ These wealthy families were called the cottonocracy ╔ Their views of life dominated the South ╔ They owned the elegant plantation homes and dressed and behaved like European nobility ╔ They devoted themselves to running the politics of the day ╔ Overseers actually ran the day-to-day operations; the crops and the slaves ╠ Small Farmers ╔ 3 out of 4 Southern whites were farmers; they owned some land ╔ They might own one or two slaves ╔ They worked the fields along side of a slave ╔ They helped each other, “…people who lived miles apart counted themselves as neighbors… in case of sorrow or sickness, there was no limit to the service neighbors provided.” Quote from a Mississippi farmer ╠ Poor Whites ╔ Most did not own the land, they rented the land and made payment with a portion of their crops ╔ They lived in the hilly wooded areas of the South; growing corn, potatoes, and other vegetables ; some raised livestock like cattle and pigs ╔ Even though they were poor, they enjoyed rights ╔ Rights were denied to ALL African Americans; enslaved or free

African American Southerners ╔ Free and enslaved African Americans lived in the South ╔ Free African Americans faced harsh discriminations ╔ Enslaved African Americans had no rights at all 2 of 14.4 Printer Copy US History Fort Burrows

╠ Free African Americans ╔ Most free African Americans were descendants of slaves freed during and after the American Revolution; some bought their freedom ╔ 1860, over 200,000 free blacks lived in the South ╔ Slave owners feared free African Americans; afraid they would encourage slaves to rebel ╔ Slavery was justified because whites claimed ‘they could not care for themselves ╔ Southern states passed harsh laws against African Americans voting or traveling ╔ Free blacks in the South had to move out of the state or submit to slavery ╔ Robert Rillieux (RIHL yoo) proved his self-value; he invented a machine that revolutionized the way sugar was refined Born a free man, his father was a wealthy white engineer involved in the cotton industry and his mother was a family slave. A Creole born in New Orleans, he was educated at a Catholic school and sent to France for advanced education. He returned to change his father’s cotton plantation into a sugar plantation. He invented a machine that cooked the sugar in closed vats under low pressure. With his invention, pipes moved the ‘hot liquid’ sugar from one pipe to another, reducing the danger of explosion to workers. This process made a better sugar with fewer accidents to his workers. Factories today use the same techniques he created.

¿¿ What was life like for African Americans in the South ? ______.

╠ Enslaved African Americans ╔ By 1860, enslaved African Americans were 1/3 of the South’s population ╔ Adult men and women cleared the land, planted, and harvested the crops ╔ Children worked hard also; pulled weeds, collected firewood, hauled water ╔ Teenage blacks worked 12 to 14 hour days in the fields ╔ A few became ‘skilled workers’ – carpenters and blacksmiths, but the earnings belonged to their owners Life without Freedom ╔ Enslaved African Americans lived by the laws of individual owners ╔ Some owners cared for their slaves; clean cabins, food and clothing ╔ Some owners spent as little money as possible on their slaves; you die and I’ll just buy another to replace you

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╠ Slave Codes ╔ Slave Codes were written to keep slaves from running away or rebelling ╔ Slave Codes forbid gathering in groups larger than 3 slaves, leaving the master’s property without a written pass or permission (which never was given), or to own a gun ╔ Learning to read or write was illegal; motto – ‘keep them uneducated’ ╔ Owners believed this would keep them from being able to use maps or read train schedules and escape to the North ╔ Slaves could not testify in court; this kept them from complaining about the master’s unfair or cruel treatment ╔ Slave Codes ensured African Americans remained a piece of property

╠ Hard Work ╔ Even the kindest owners insisted their slaves work long, hard days ╔ Slaves worked from dawn till dusk, up to 16 hours a day ╔ Frederick Douglas escaped slavery… “We were worked in all weathers. It was never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, blow, hail, or snow too hard for us to work in the fields. Work, work, work… The longest days were too short and the shortest nights were too long for him.” Frederick Douglas, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave

¿¿ How did Southern laws restrict the lives of enslaved African Americans ? ______.

╠ Family Life ╔ Very hard for enslaved African Americans to keep their families together; Southern laws did not recognize slave marriages or slave families ╔ Owners could sell a husband and wife to different buyers ╔ Children were often taken from their parents and sold ╔ On large plantations, many enslaved families did manage to stay together ╔ In this rare case, grandparents, parents, children, aunts, uncles, and cousins formed close-knit groups called extended family ╔ Parents taught traditional African stories and songs; folk tales to pass on African history and moral beliefs

╠ Religion Offers Hope ╔ By the 1800s, many enslaved African Americans were devoted Christians ╔ Planters often allowed white ministers to preach to their slaves ╔ African Americans also had their own preachers and beliefs ╔ Religion helped African Americans cope with the harshness of slave life 4 of 14.4 Printer Copy US History Fort Burrows ╔ Bible stories about how the Hebrews had escaped slavery inspired a new type of religious song called a spiritual ╔ They sang these songs waiting, longing for their day of freedom

Resistance against Slavery ╔ Enslaved African Americans struck back against the system that denied them both freedom and wages; breaking tools, destroying crops, and stealing food ╔ Many enslaved African Americans tried to escape to the North ╔ The journey was so long and dangerous, very few made it to freedom ╔ Every county had slave patrols and sheriffs ready to question an unknown black person ╔ A few African Americans used violence to resist the brutal slave system ╔ Denmark Vesey was one of them; he was betrayed, caught, and then tried; at his trial it was proclaimed, “He then read in the Bible where GOD commanded, that all shall be cut off, both men and women, children, and he said, it was no sin for us to do so, for the LORD had commanded us to do so.” Testimony of Rolla, belonging to Thomas Bennett, recorded in the Trial Record of The Denmark Vesey Slave Conspiracy of 1822; eventually he was executed by hanging ╔ In 1831, an African American preacher named Nat Turner led a major revolt ╔ He was a slave in Virginia and wanted to take revenge on plantation owners ╔ He and his followers killed about 57 whites in about a two month rampage ╔ He was caught and hanged ╔ Revolts were rare ╔ Whites were cautious and well armed, a revolt by African Americans had almost no chance of success

1. Which group of whites made up Southern society ? ______.

2. How were free African Americans treated ? ______.

3. What laws restricted the freedoms of African Americans? ______.

4. How did African Americans resist slavery?

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