HIST 1301 Part Four 11: Slaves and Masters
Some Facts About Slavery 7 min. 38 sec.
By 1860, there were nearly 4 million slaves in the Antebellum South. Most worked in cotton fields. Slaves made up about 12% of the population of the entire United States and 30% of the South s population.
Most slaves lived in the Cotton Belt or Deep South.
In 1860, there were 8,434,126 free white people in the slave states. Most were yeoman farmers who worked their own land. 75% of white Southerners lived in non-slaveholding families and less than 5% of the South s free white population actually owned slaves.
Out of 384,884 slaveholders, 338,598 (88%) owned fewer than 20 slaves. 46,286 (12%) owned more than 20 slaves. 2,296 (less than 1%) owned more than 100 slaves. With a total of 1,130 slaves, Joshua J. Ward of Georgetown, S.C. was largest planter in the country.
Slaveholders controlled Southern politics. They were governors, state legislators, senators and congressmen. And 10 of the first 15 Presidents were slave-owners! Alabama Congressional Delegation, 1860 In 1860, every member of Alabama s Congressional delegation (7 congressmen and 2 senators) was a slaveholder. And it won't make one bit of difference if I answer right or wrong. When you're rich, they think you really know! --From the song If I were a rich man.
What was the one intangible thing that enabled Southern slaveholders to hold such disproportionate power? Answer: TIME!
The 1860 federal census reveals that Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi owned land worth $300,000 and personal property (largely slaves) worth $225,000. $300,000 in today s money is nearly $7 million. $225,000 would be about $5 million today.
The 1860 federal slave schedules reveal that Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi owned 115 slaves. This is just the first of three pages!
How Slavery Was Justified
Poor, non-slaveholding whites accepted this system because they were kept in ignorance and taught from birth to believe in white supremacy. The mass of Southern people, through the policy of the slave power, have never had a common school instruction, read little or not at all, and depend almost entirely upon their political leaders for all their opinions of public affairs. -- New York Times, June 4, 1864
Negro slavery exists in the South, and by the existence of negro slavery, the white man is raised to the dignity of a freeman and an equal. Nowhere else will you find every white man superior to menial service. -- Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, Feb. 29, 1860
Southerners used the Bible to justify slavery in general. The relentless war on slavery in the North had caused the people of the South to look up authority in the Bible to justify it. The politicians on the rostrum and the preachers in their pulpits justified it and proclaimed the institution a good thing for the slave as well as the master. --Col. William C. Oates, C.S.A. When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property. (Exodus 21:20-21) Leviticus 25:44 -- "Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves." 1 Peter 2:18 -- "Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh." Ephesians 6:5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ." The right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example. I n the Old Testament, the Israelites were directed to purchase their bond-men and bond-maids of the Heathen nations; except they were of the Canaanites, for these were to be destroyed. And it is declared, that the persons purchased were to be their bond-men forever and an inheritance for them and their children [and] that the children born of slaves are considered slaves as well as their parents. And to this well-known state of things, as to its reason and order, as well as special privileges, St. Paul appears to refer, when he says, But I was born free. --Exposition of the Views of the Baptists Relative to the Coloured Population (1823).
Southerners also used Noah s Curse of Canaan to justify black slavery And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. Genesis 9:20 27 The meaning of Ham, being burnt, or black, is peculiarly significant of the countries allotted to his family, for Noah, in dividing the earth between his three sons, apportioned the Southern and hot regions of Asia and Africa to Ham; the better portion of Asia to Shem, and Europe to Japheth the Divine grant of of the services of Ham's posterity, was renewed through Moses, the Jewish Lawgiver. (From the Columbus, Georgia Daily Enquirer, August 5, 1851)
How Slaves Were Treated
This cartoon shows how Southern planters saw themselves as beneficent patriarchs. Our slaves do not yearn for freedom. They would not know what to do with it if they had it. -- A Slaveholder, New York Times, Dec. 5, 1859
The 1860 census confirms that about 13% of all colored people in the U.S. were of mixed ancestry. In other words, many slaveholders were literally the fathers of their slaves. A half-white slave was called a Mulatto, a three-quarters white slave was called a Quadroon.
Slaves were generally sold at auction. A prime field hand could cost up to $2,000.
Slaves who displeased their masters were punished, sometimes severely.
Running away was risky. Even if he or she evaded slave catchers, the slave could die from the results of an accident and lack of medical treatment. Most slaves couldn t read (it was illegal to teach a slave) and had no knowledge of maps, or how far it was to freedom.
Frederick Douglass said that most slaves did not run away because of close family ties.
Yet slave families were often broken up by the master when one or more members were sold.
3 min. 32 sec. Remarkably, slave insurrections were rare. One of the most famous was Nat Turner s Rebellion of 1831.
The Abolitionists 4 min. 26 sec.
In 1831 Boston Publisher William Lloyd Garrison began his leadership of the Abolitionist or antislavery movement I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there no cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation I am in earnest I will not equivocate I will not excuse I will not retreat a single inch and I will be heard! --William Lloyd Garrison
Sojourner Truth Some former slaves also became prominent abolitionists. Frederick Douglass Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave-trade go hand in hand together. The slave prison and the church stand near each other. The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard at the same time. The dealers in the bodies of men erect their stand in the presence of the pulpit, and they mutually help each other. The dealer gives his blood-stained gold to support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return, covers his infernal business with the garb of Christianity. Here we have religion and robbery the allies of each other devils dressed in angels robes, and hell presenting the semblance of paradise. --Frederick Douglass
Others helped slaves escape on the Underground Railroad, a secret trail to freedom in the North or Canada. 2 min. 56 sec. Harriet Tubman, or Moses, was a conductor on the Underground Railroad.