NASH.7654.CP11.p356-387.vpdf 9/12/05 1:14 PM Page 356 CHAPTER 11 Slavery and the Old South The young Frederick Douglass, shown here in a photograph from about 1855, understood as well as any American the profound human, social, and political complexities and con- sequences of slavery. What qualities do you see in his face? (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture/Art Resource, NY) American Stories A Young Slave Discovers the Path to Freedom As a young slave, Frederick Douglass was sent by his master to live in Baltimore.When he first met his mistress, Sophia Auld,he was “astonished at her goodness” as she began to teach him to read. Her husband, however,ordered her to stop. Maryland law forbade teaching slaves to read. A literate slave was “unmanageable,” “utterly unfit . to be a slave,” he said. From this episode Douglass learned that “what he most dreaded, that I most desired . and the argument which he so warmly urged, against my learning to read, only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn.” In the seven years he lived with the Aulds, young Frederick used “various strata- gems” to teach himself to read and write. In the narrative of his early life, written 356 NASH.7654.CP11.p356-387.vpdf 9/12/05 1:14 PM Page 357 CHAPTER OUTLINE after his dramatic escape to the North, Douglass acknowledged that his master’s Building a Diverse Cotton “bitter opposition” had helped him achieve his freedom as much as did Mrs.Auld’s Kingdom “kindly aid.” The Expansion of Slavery in a Most slaves did not, like Douglass, escape. But all were as tied to their masters as Global Economy Douglass was to the Aulds. Nor could whites in antebellum America escape the influ- Slavery in Latin America ence of slavery. Otherwise decent people were often compelled by the “peculiar insti- White and Black Migrations in the tution” to act inhumanely. After Sophia Auld’s husband’s interference, Douglass ob- South served that she was transformed into a demon by the “fatal poison of irresponsible Southern Dependence on Slavery power.” Her formerly tender heart turned to “stone” when she ceased teaching him. Paternalism and Honor in the “Slavery proved as injurious to her,” Douglass wrote,“as it did to me.” Planter Class A slavebreaker,Mr.Covey, to whom Douglass was sent in 1833 to have his will bro- Slavery, Class, and Yeoman Farmers ken, also paid the cost of slavery. Covey succeeded for a time, Douglass sadly re- The Nonslaveholding South ported, in breaking his “body, soul, and spirit” by brutal work and discipline. But one hot August day in 1833 he could stand it no longer; the two men fought a long, gruel- Morning: Master and Mistress ing battle. Douglass won.Victory, he said,“rekindled the few expiring embers of free- in the Big House dom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood.” Although it would be four The Burdens of Slaveholding more years before his escape north, the young man never again felt like a slave.The The Plantation Mistress key to Douglass’s resistance to Covey’s power was not just his strong will, or even the Justifying Slavery magical root he carried, but rather his knowledge of how to challenge and jeopardize Noon: Slaves in House and Covey’s reputation and livelihood as a slavebreaker.The oppressed survive by knowing Fields their oppressors. Daily Toil As Mrs.Auld and Covey discovered, as long as some people were not free, no one Slave Health and Punishments was free. Douglass observed,“You cannot outlaw one part of the people without en- Slave Law and the Family dangering the rights and liberties of all people.You cannot put a chain on the ankle of the bondsman without finding the other end of it about your own necks.” After quar- Night: Slaves in Their reling with a house servant, one plantation mistress complained that she “exercises Quarters dominion over me—or tries to do it. One would have thought . that I was the Ser- Black Christianity vant, she the mistress.” Many whites lived in constant fear of a slave revolt.A Louisiana The Power of Song planter recalled that he had “known times here when there was not a single planter The Enduring Family who had a calm night’s rest; they then never lay down to sleep without a brace of Resistance and Freedom loaded pistols at their sides.” In slave folktales, the clever Brer Rabbit usually outwit- Forms of Black Protest ted the more powerful Brer Fox or Brer Wolf, thus reversing the roles of oppressed Slave Revolts and oppressor. Free Blacks: Becoming One’s Own Master Slavery in America was both an intricate web of human relationships and Conclusion: Douglass’s Dream a labor system. Two large themes permeate this chapter. First, after tracing the of Freedom economic development of the Old South in global context, in which slavery and cotton played vital roles, this chapter will emphasize the dreams, daily lives, and relationships of masters and slaves who, like Douglass and the Aulds, lived, loved, learned, worked, and struggled with one another in the years before the Civil War. Perhaps no issue in American history has generated as many interpretations or as much emotional controversy as slavery. Three interpretive schools devel- oped over the years, each adding to our knowledge of “the peculiar institution.” The first saw slavery as a relatively humane institution in which plantation own- ers took care of helpless, childlike slaves. The second depicted slavery as a harsh and cruel system of exploitation. The third, and most recent, interpretation de- scribed slavery from the perspective of the slaves, who, like Douglass, did in- deed suffer brutal treatment yet nevertheless survived with integrity, intelli- gence, and self-esteem supported by community and culture. While the first and second interpretive schools emphasized workaday interactions among powerful masters and seemingly passive, victimized slaves, the third focused on 357 NASH.7654.CP11.p356-387.vpdf 9/12/05 1:14 PM Page 358 358 PART 3 An Expanding People, 1820–1877 the creative energies, agency, and vibrancy of life in defined the Old South, diverse social groups and inter- the slave quarters from sundown to sunup. national trade patterns contributed to the tremendous In a unique structure, this chapter follows these economic growth of the South from 1820 to 1860. We masters and slaves through their day, from morning in will look first at these socioeconomic aspects of ante- the Big House through the hot afternoon in the fields to bellum southern life and then follow whites and blacks the slave cabins at night. Although slavery crucially through a southern day from morning to noon to night. NASH.7654.CP11.p356-387.vpdf 9/12/05 1:14 PM Page 358 358 PART 3 An Expanding People, 1820–1877 BUILDING A DIVERSE corn. Some masters were kindly, but many were not; COTTON KINGDOM some slaves were contented, but most were not. There were many Souths, encompassing several Many myths obscure our understanding of the an- geographic regions, each with different economic tebellum South. It was not a monolithic society bases and social structures reflecting its own cultural filled only with large cotton plantations worked by values. The older Upper South of Virginia, Maryland, hundreds of slaves. The realities were much more North Carolina, and Kentucky grew different staple complex. Large-plantation agriculture was domi- crops from those grown in the newer nant in the antebellum South, but most southern Lower or “Black Belt” South, from South whites (75 percent) were not even slaveholders, Carolina to eastern Texas. Within each much less large planters. Although rich slavehold- state, moreover, the economies of flat ing planters dominated the political and social life coastal areas differed from inland upcoun- of the South, middling, yeoman “self-working farm- try forests and pine barrens. A still further Slavery in the South ers” with few or no slaves played a significant role. diversity existed between these areas and Most southern farmers lived not in imposing man- the Appalachian highlands, running from northern sions but in modestly small or dark, cramped, two- Alabama to western Virginia. Southern cities, few in room cabins. Cotton was a key cash crop in the number—New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, and South, but more acreage was actually planted in Richmond—differed dramatically from rural areas. The Varied Economic Life in the South Note the short-fiber cotton–growing “Black Belt” running from southern Virginia to eastern Texas. Despite the economically varied South, cotton was “king.” 0 Miles 300 Sea-island VIRGINIA Richmond Frankfort Short-fiber cotton KENTUCKY Corn Nashville NORTH Raleigh Knoxville CAROLINA TENNESSEE Tobacco ARKANSAS Memphis SOUTH Wilmington Little Rock CAROLINA Atlanta Rice MISSISSIPPI ALABAMA Sugar Charleston Montgomery GEORGIA LOUISIANA Savannah Lumber Natchez Mobile TEXAS Iron and steel St. Augustine Houston New Orleans Textiles San Antonio FLORIDA Coal Hemp NASH.7654.CP11.p356-387.vpdf 9/12/05 1:14 PM Page 359 CHAPTER 11 Slavery and the Old South 359 Although the South was diverse, agriculture Starting in England in the late eighteenth century, dominated its industry and commerce. In 1859, a the industrial factory system, made possible by an Virginia planter complained about a neighbor who agricultural revolution providing surplus food and la- was considering abandoning his farm to become a bor to cities, gradually replaced “putting out” various merchant. “To me it seems to be a wild idea,” the tasks to a cottage industry of rural people. Inventions planter wrote in his diary. Southerners placed a of the spinning jenny, the flying shuttle, and the high value on agriculture.