1460 Feb 6
- Idea of paternalism
- Masters / Town Fathers
- What being a Master means
- Expert on everything on plantation
- Believe they know most about planting crops
- Believe they know most about their family
- Truly believe themselves as master of slaves
- Thinks of slaves as his kids
- Food, clothing, shelter
- Thinks of slaves as his kids
- Master vs Slave dynamic
- Slaves know more about:
- Planting
- Masters believe they are the best thing to happen to slaves
- Masters get surprised when slaves revolt
- Slaves know more about:
- Mistress of plantation
- Family
- Mistress runs household; know most of family / house dynamics
- Girls learn mistress skills growing up
- Ex. make clothes for dolls; therefore slaves
- Most of marriages are arranged
- Marriages between elite plantation owners
- Act as doctors of plantation
- First aid to slaves
- Clothes for slaves
- Keep eye on kitchen
- Do not want to get poisoned
- Cook is most dangerous slave in plantation
- First person up, last to go to sleep; hard job
- Receives a lot of blame
- Hate double standards
- Anti-miscegenation
- Belief that different races should not mix
- Mistresses annoyed with anti-miscegenation double standards
- Anti-miscegenation
- Misogynist Master view that mistresses need to be protected from black men
- Need to protect the “purity” of women
- Objectification of women
- Basis of stereotype that black men love black women
- However, master is allowed to have sex with black slaves - For “financial reasons” get to create more slaves
- Family
- Marriages
- Typically large gap in age; males usually 30
- Mistresses are worked hard
- Hate double standards
- Regionalism
- Interior (Black Belt) vs. Coastal (Tidewater)
- Old south (Coastal) Tidewater tradition
- Virginia, maryland, north carolina
- Tobacco, rice, indigo (Eastern Crops)
- Shift toward cotton
- Upper South
- Tidewater tradition
- Country gentlemen (Defacto noblemen)
- Artwork
- Training in music
- China plates for dinner
- Silverware
- Crystal glasses
- Value education
- 1635 First College Established Harvard
- Based out of Boston
- Where elite children received education
- New Englanders sent children here
- South plantation owners sent children here
- Old Money vs. New Money
- Century of status for tobacco plantation owners by the time America established
- Cotton plantation (Cotton Lords) owners don’t embrace culture of tobacco plantation
- Time efficiency mentality (Same as industrialist mentality in the north)
- If I don’t need it, then there is no point
- Take out luxuries, keep necessities
- Big house vs. mansion
- Did not value arts the way Coastal tidewater elites do
- Cotton Lords Basic Education needs vs. Tobacco owners Country gentlemen
- Old Money vs. New Money rivalry
- By 1850’s cotton lords adopted old money mentalities
- First generation cotton lords did not originally care for these things
- Cotton Lords started finally appreciating finer things
- Andrew Jackson - Elite Cotton Lord
- High ranking in the army
- High ranking people can enter life of gentry
- Kicked Indians out of lands
- Made them forcibly sell them land at gunpoint
- Viewed as good man for expanding available land in the US
- Bought perfect plantation location in Tennessee
- Bought one slave; eventually got to 200 slaves
- Did not value education because of his success without education
- High ranking in the army
- Discussion in 1780s discussed taking out slavery
- Even Washington said that slavery should stop ( Even as a slave owner himself)
- George Mason
- Owned more slaves than anyone
- Said slave ownership was damming to image of slave owners
- Decline in profits of cotton 1780s
- There is too much supply; driving prices down
- “Maybe slaves aren’t profitable anymore”
- Slaves combing cotton
- Picking seeds through cotton fibers
- Eli Whitney Cotton Gin 1793
- Revives slavery
- Creates huge boost in productivity, saves industry
- Cotton Pickers
- Effects on slaves
- Slave driver
- Different environments of tobacco / indigo plantations vs. cotton
- Tobacco / indigo
- Task orientation
- Given a task every day
- No one controlling pace of work
- Task orientation
- Cotton
- Not task oriented
- Gang orientation
- Group of people / unit
- Move from area to area of plantation
- Production never stops
- Always more to do
- Pace set by another
- Need of diver
- Some plantation have white drivers
- Other plantations have another slave as a slave driver
- Drives pace of gang to get max work
- Slaves can be in charge of other slaves
- Whip other slaves for punishment
- Slave drivers have hat and gloves
- Lighter skin, more significant you are in society
- Chosen from birth of light skin born slaves
- Drivers do not want to tan
- Must be very loyal to master; groomed for this position
- Raised in master’s house
- Has a room; real bed
- Purchased clothing vs. mistress made slave clothing
- Eats same food as master
- Can be invited to eat food with master at same table
- Tobacco / indigo
- Tiers of slave community
- Slave driver
- Domestic workers
- Slave quarters of house
- Not in sun; not getting darker
- Skilled workers
- Ex. Blacksmith
- Most jobs not in sun; not getting darker
- Rest, Field Hands
- Slave Family
- Biggest norm they have is nuclear family
- Only thing that gives them stability
- Upper south depletion of soil
- Shifting out of tobacco
- Shift to growing of corn
- No labor intensive need of slaves
- Trading and selling of slaves
- Trading of slaves from family; tearing apart from their families
- Tidewater slaves distributed throughout blackbelt south
- Have to recommit and start-over
- After civil war
- Freed people would like to reconnect with each other
- There could be situations of multiple marriages
- Who do you reconnect with?
- Slave Values
- Did not frown upon premarital sex
- Value of water in African traditions
- Usually religious
- Usually christian
- Methodist
- Emotional content
- Outlet for hardship of lives
- Reserved
- Sprinkle of water in baptism
- Baptist
- Very open about allowing emotional practice of religion
- Dunking of water in baptism
- Slaves preferred emotional practice
- Methodist
- Other slaves see christianity as form of control
- Some try to practice their African practices
- Hard to continue after generations displaced from Africa
- Syncretism
- Santeria, conjuring, Voodoo are products of combining of multiple ideas
- Usually christian
- Value of water in African traditions
- White preachers versus Slave Preachers
- Talked about obeying masters
- Versus Slave Preachers
- “If you do this, you will be free in the afterlife”
- Slave Preachers
- seen as dangerous due to
- literacy
- Seen as leader
- Nat Turner was a preacher
- seen as dangerous due to
-
Spirituals
- Typically about hope for some freedom in afterlife
- Expression
- Used as signals Some songs mean something
- A certain song can mean someone has passed away
-
Questions
- What is going on with other freed black people in society
- Rights taken away; can't buy guns,
- Is this cultural dynamic happening in every colony to the same extent
- North view slavery as hypocritical; especially in quaker colonies
- Phase slavery out
- Used slaves for different things
- Tobacco owners were the country gentlemen mentality
- What mentalities / philosophies were pitted against each other?
- Coastal tidewater Tobacco vs. cotton lords
- Is old south upper south? Yes
- Further generations of cotton lords would adopt lord mentality / gentry
- What is going on with other freed black people in society
last: planting class is interested in social class where more slaves you own = higher you are
plantation master whole thing is paternalist which means its like the "town fathers" or "founding fathers"
ideal plantation master should be the master and expert of the crops, family, and slaves. (truely, the slaves know the most about the crops though) (truely, the mistress know more about the family though) mistress most of the time handles the family work (tends to keep master updated sometimes)
masters still act like theyre the one who knows it all master is the father figure and provides for the slaves. even gives their lives meaning by giving work. in reality: master whips and brutally beats slaves and tries to get as much profit as he can.
somehow they're still surprised when slaves want to rebel against them.
most marriages are arranged to marry elites only. arranged marriage is now the standard.
the mistress deals with slave first aid. also their job to make clothes for the slaves. their biggest job is to keep an eye on the kitchen. they need to watch out for poison.
antimiscegenation - no relationship allowed between races
no relationship between black man and white women, however while man and black women are fine. they claim it's for a reason: gotta breed more slaves.
time effencicy was quite a buzz word.
most peoples education goes up to modern day 8th grade.
The black belt¶
the soil was pure black and super soft: perfect for cotton growing soil
slaves combing cotton¶
by 1780s cotton price has fully dropped to the point where people started to believe its not worth it to have slaves. eli whitney is famous for creating the cotton gin (1793)
cotton gin removes the seeds from the cotton by combing it it basically was the cause of the civil war.
to run it correctly: it takes 3 people.
suddenly people started putting all the slaves out into the field instead of picking seeds out from cotton. they grew their fields 3 or even 4 times bigger. slaves became valuable again.
process: cotton is picked, then weighed.
the slaves had a different envronment on the cotton plantations compared to tobacco. because: the old plantations were "task orientated" in the morning the master would give the slaves tasks on what to do that day. the slave sets their own pace because its based on the task that needs to be done.
cotton plantations is gang orientated slaves are taken to an area and processes the cotton. their case is based on a driver to keep them working.
slave driver¶
slave drivers were in change of other slaves. only very loyal slaves were selected for this.
a slave driver is what keeps the "gang" working they drive the slave "gang" to work faster. theyre chosen from birth from being lighter skinned. they have their own bed and live in the masters house their clothes are purchased. they eat the same food as the master. (seperately)
slave driver is the top job for a slave.
house slaves are also treated better
domestic workers is the second highest rank
skilled workers is under
and finally field gangs are at the bottom (the mass)
Slave families were torn apart as they were sold from tobacco/corn plantations to cotton plantations since the price of slaves shot up due to the cotton gin.
syn·cre·tism
/ˈsiNGkrəˌtiz(ə)m/
noun
the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought.
"interfaith dialogue can easily slip into syncretism"
the biggest slave revolt was lead by a slave preacher.