CHAPTER 5Antebellum Mississippi

• On a clean sheet of paper, you will be write a short essay to turn in today. Make sure you have your name, date, and class period at the top right corner.

• Main idea behind the question you will address: During the years between the War of 1812 and the Civil War, sectionalism developed. The ways of life in North and South were very different, and it caused problems when each side was more concerned for their own good than the good of the nation. The Protective Tariff and Slavery were two issues that divided them.

• The question to address in your writing: Think of an issue that divides people in our nation today, where people are more concerned with themselves than the good of the nation as a whole. How does it divide people, and what should be done about it?

SECTION 1

Heartland of the Cotton Kingdom

KING COTTON• Two changes made cotton

growing more desirable:

• A new seed smuggled from Mexico and developed by Dr. Rush Nutt in Natchez-called the Mexican-Petit Gulf Seed.

• The Cotton Gin developed by Eli Whitney to remove seeds from bolls.

Click on picture to see more about Longwood Plantation

To find out more about Dr. Nutt and his son Haller Nutt, who began the building of Longwood, click on the cotton picture.

THE POPULATION BY 1860

• Large Planters- • A small minority

• Only 59 had more than 200 slaves

• Aristocrats

• Most were whigs

• Did not originally want war

•Small Planters and Farmers• Some had smaller numbers

of slaves, and some had none

• Looked to expansion of slavery in territories as opportunities for them to move up economically and socially

• Most were Democrats.

Believe it or not, the roof on this house is a bit more modern, but the dog trot style home was typical for a small farmer in the mid 1800’s even up through the 1940’s. What would make this style home user-friendly in Mississippi?

EDUCATION

• Large planters had tutors or private academies

• Most believed women did not need formal education, but Sallie Reneau challenged that by establishing the first state-supported college for females in Columbus, MS.

Mississippi University for Women used to be named Mississippi State College for Women (MSCW). Male students have also attended since the 1970’s.

http://web3.muw.edu/

• Teaching slaves was prohibited, but they sometimes learned, anyway.

• 16th section lands were set aside for public education in 1798. Franklin Academy in Columbus was the first public school in state.

Why do you think that slave codes would prohibit education of slaves?

• Chickasaw School Funds from tax on these 16th

section lands also funded education.

• University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) was established in 1848 in Oxford. http://

www.olemiss.edu/

SECTION 2Chattel Slavery

ORIGINS OF SLAVERY• Ancient civilizations (Rome, Egypt, Greece)

• Europeans brought in slaves

• Spanish

• English

• French

• Slavery already existed in MS before it became a territory or state.

• Less than half of families had slaves.

TYPES OF SLAVES

• Field Slaves- largest groups

•House Slaves-sometimes given special treatment

• Town Slaves-usually skilled workers

Click on this picture for link to source about slavery

SLAVE CODES

• Required written passes to leave the plantation

•Written permission to buy and sell goods

• Couldn’t teach slaves to read or write

• Patrols set up for runaways

• Slaves could not testify in court against whites

• Could be punished by owners

This Slavery Code was from Washington, D.C.

SLAVE FAMILY

• The family unit within the slave quarters was the glue that held together the self-concept and dignity of the individuals.

• Even though marriages were not sanctioned legally, there were slave owners who encouraged it.

• Other times, a slave owner might break up a family through selling a family member. Extended family would become very important.

Learn more about slave families by clicking on the picture.

MISSISSIPPI COLONIZATION SOCIETY

• Part of the American Colonization Society

• Provided a way for free blacks to go to Liberia in Africa

• Almost 600 of the 12,000 people who went to Liberia were from MS.

For more about the American Colonization Society, click on the picture!

FREE MEN OF COLOR• By 1860, there were 773 Free African Americans in MS, about 1/2 the number in MS 20 years earlier.

• They did not have the rights and privileges afforded to whites at the time.

• One of the most prominent Free Men of Color was William Johnson of Natchez, a very successful businessman.

Click on the picture to learn more about William Johnson!

William Johnson, ironically, was a slave owner in

the town with the 2nd largest slave

market in the South, called Forks of the

Road.

What does this newspaper advertisement tell you about the attitude toward slaves?

SLAVE RESISTANCEVarying degrees of defying the system:

• Slow down of work

• Disable or break equipment

• Run away

• Hurt or kill owner

• Open rebellion

• White owners were wary of slave uprisings after Nat Turner’s Rebellion in VA and Denmark Vesey’s plot in SC. Even the rumor of insurrection led to hangings in Natchez. Click on the picture above to get the story.

SECTION 3

Slavery, States’ Rights, and Secession

INFLUENCES-RELIGION

• Mississippi is known as “The Buckle of the Bible Belt

• The 2nd Great Awakening – a time when religion stressed a conflict between God and Satan. You had to choose God and reward of Heaven, or Satan with the consequences of Hell. The idea that things were one thing or the other, with no shady areas, carried over into politics.

This church with the finger pointing toward Heaven is in Port Gibson. Click the picture for its history.

INFLUENCES-POLITICIANS AND NEWSPAPERS

Politicians promised that

• Secession was the only way to preserve the southern lifestyle.

• The North would not go to war with the South .

• The Confederacy would be like the Roman Empire. The picture above shows what a northern

newspaper editor thought of the secession movement. Who is in the political cartoon? What are they doing? What is the statement the artist is trying to make?

Newspaper editors usually took sides instead of just printing the facts.

THE CHOICE ACCORDING TO THE INFLUENCES

Three issues were at stake:

• Slavery

• States’ Rights

• Tariffs

• They believed it came down to obeying the wishes of the North or separating from them. They chose the latter.

This picture is inside the Old Capitol in Jackson. The setting is the Senate Chamber during the Secession Session of 1861. For more about secession in MS, go to http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/articles/206/the-road-to-war-1846-1860

EVOLUTION OF THE DEFENSE OF SLAVERY

• 1818- Slavery was not thought to be right, but it was already in existence when the state was formed. There was not a good way to get rid of the institution .

• 1830- Land Boom time in MS- Slavery was a “necessary evil.”

• 1831- Wm. Lloyd Garrison, an abolitionist, published a newspaper that called not only slavery evil , but also those who practiced it. This made slave holders dig in their heels.

• By 1836, the MS Legislature looked on it “not as a curse, but a blessing.”

• “The Peculiar Institution”- a euphemism often used to refer to slavery

JUSTIFICATIONS MADE

• Economic-Planters said it was necessary to do the work and make the profit that kept the economy going.

• Religious-Preachers and politicians pointed out Biblical references to slavery in Old and New Testaments

• Racial and Philosophical- Teachers, editors, and other white leaders said that the African culture was not as advanced; other societies had had slavery, too.

BIG DISAGREEMENT FOR WESTERN TERRITORIES

• Slave holders wanted slavery to expand westward to

• Keep slave population proportionate to whites

• Keep their families safe

• Keep up the price of slaves

• Keep their way of life

Slavery

here?

NORTHERN OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY

• The idea of Natural Rights begun in the Declaration of Independence and fought for through the Revolution began thoughts of slavery as a moral issue.

• Northern economy was based on manufacturing, not agriculture.

THE FINAL STRAW

• Lincoln, a Republican who campaigned against slavery in the West, became President in 1860.

• Days later, South Carolina seceded.

• Mississippi was second to secede in January of 1861. They believed they had voluntarily entered the Union, and thus had the right to leave it.

• They did not anticipate a war, but they had one.

Click on Lincoln’s picture to see Mississippi’s Secession Document.