Slavery, Cotton, and Capitalism in America
The Importance of Language
Slave
The Importance of Language
Slave–a person’s being (noun) implies that it is their essence
Enslaved person-a person’s condition (adjective)
The Importance of Language
Normally as historians we adopt the language of the people of the time
In this case it tends to normalize slavery and the behavior that supported it.
Discipline ===> torture
Planters ===> enslavers
Plantation ===> cotton labor camp
Was slavery part of a capitalist system?
Does it matter?
U. B. Phillips (1877-1934)
Leading historian of slavery of his time (Georgian, but prof at Michigan, Yale)
Sees slavery as part of a paternalist economy
Way for whites to control an inferior group of people
U. B. Phillips
“The Economic Cost of Slaveholding in the Cotton Belt” 1905
The cotton-planters controlled the South, and for some decades they dominated the policy of the federal government; but the cotton-planters themselves were hurried hither and thither by their two inanimate but arbitrary masters, cotton and slavery.
Historians have often seen slavery as a dead end, that didn’t have much to do with American economic development
The main story of American industrial development is told in the north, with factories and steam engines.
The Way Many Thought of it: Two Streams
Capitalism in the North Civil War Today
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Slavery Dead End at
Civil War
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The Way It was
North and South Intertwined
In different periods, different products/technologies play a key role in economic growth (today electronic technology)
In the late 1700s/early 1800s it was cotton/textiles
People’s View of History is Affected by Their View of the Present
Historiography (The History of the History)
How many of you have seen the movie Hidden Figures?
How does it present a different view of the space program?
The United States After Reconstruction (1877) --Downplaying Slavery
Failure of efforts to give African-Americans full citizenship
Compromise between North and South
Efforts to reunite the North and the South
Stop talking about slavery
Focus on valor of soldiers North and South
Accept white supremacy in the South
UNC Silent Sam
Julian Carr (namesake of Carrboro)
–Give speech at Silent Sam Dedication (1913)
–admits beating black woman
The present generation, I am persuaded, scarcely
takes note of what the Confederate soldier meant to the welfare
of the Anglo Saxon race during the four years immediately succeeding the war,
Robert E. Lee Statue in Richmond, 1890
Reunions-1913 Gettysburg
Thomas Jefferson and Slavery
Thomas Jefferson’s Farm Book
His records of going on in his plantation
Introduction (Written c. 1953)
“Jefferson never exploited his slaves. He was vitally interested in every phase of their welfare. In fact, he was often over indulgent to their wishes.”
Jefferson’s Implication in Slavery
Often downplayed
Long time denial that he was the father of enslaved Sally Hemings child
(modern DNA analysis has shown that he was)
Thomas Jefferson and Slavery
Calculates that births of enslaved provide him 4% annual profit
Advice to a friend
Every farthing should be laid out in land and negroes which bring a silent profit of 5 to 10 per cent in this country by their increase in value
Thomas Jefferson’s nail factory
Established 1794
Enslaved boys whipped (not by Jefferson)
Jefferson carefully calculates their production from materials used
1796 provides income of $2,000
“Provides completely for the maintenance of my family”
"Jim makes 15 pounds. 20d Nails
Barnaby makes 10 pounds, 10d do.
Wagner Davy makes 10 pds. 10d do.
Bedford John makes 8 pounds. 8d do.
Bedford Davy makes 6 pounds. 6d do.
Bartlet makes 6 pounds. 6d do.
4 Boys makes 8 pounds. 6d
[total] 63 pounds nails
Jefferson on his enslaved nail workers
they require a vigour of discipline to make them do reasonable work, to which he cannot bring himself.
Alexander Hamilton
From a society (West Indies) where slavery was endemic
Part of New York Manumission Society, trying to end slavery in NY
Although father-in-law enslaved people
Desire to support Constitution led him to compromise
Slavery and the Constitution
How many times is slavery mentioned in the US Constitution?
Why Not Mentioned?
Slavery is a central element in negotiations in drafting the Constitution
Enslaved people 4% of Northern population, 40% of Southern population
Southerners want:
Government strong enough to protect against rebellion of enslaved
Without the authority to free the enslaved
South Carolina, Georgia
Willing to not be in Union if don’t get their way on slavery
Article 1, Section 2
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.
Article 1, Section 9
The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.
Article IV, Section 2
No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.
UB Phillips Article
New York Times 1619 Project
Slavery existed in the Colonies/United States for 246 years
It left a deep imprint on the United States, some of whose traces can be seen today
How do we define capitalism?
Usual formulation
Owners who have invested private capital in search of profit
Hiring Wage workers
Therefore under this definition slavery cannot be a part of a capitalist system
Karl Marx
Saw economics in evolutionary terms
feudalism==>Capitalism
Systems of economies were evolving
Interested in what is going on in Europe
(Development of factory system)
Largely ignored slavery
But could the European experience with factory system be
generalized to the whole world??
Karl Marx
One of Marx’s key insights was capitalism as a system of commodification
Use value versus exchange value
Slavery is based on the commodification of the human body
Slavery and Capitalism
Makes us look at development of US capitalism differently
Makes us look at connections between regions differently
Normally think of opposition between North and South pre-Civil War
Slavery Up to 1790
Tobacco in Virginia/Maryland
Rice in South Carolina
Enslaved People in US 1790
Total US Population 3,929,214
Total 681,777
Virginia 292,627
Maryland 103,036
South Carolina 107,094
North Carolina 100,783
Total 681,777
In 1780s Expectation That Slavery was on the Decline
1780s-manumission made easier in Virginia, Maryland
1784- Jefferson drafts bill banning slavery in western territories
(fails by one vote)
Virginia 1778 passes bill barring slave imports
Constitution allows ban on foreign importation of enslaved people after 20 years
Second Slavery System--Cotton
--1793 Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin
--Expropriation of Southeastern Land
--Movement of Enslaved People South
1793 Eli Whitney and Cotton Gin
Allows for cleaning of short staple cotton 50X faster than hand methods
Thomas Jefferson to Eli Whitney 1793
As the state of Virginia, of which I am, carries on houshold manufactures of cotton to a great extent, as I also do myself, and one of our great embarrasments is the clearing the cotton of the seed, I feel a considerable interest in the success of your invention, for family use. Permit me therefore to ask information from you on these points, has the machine been thoroughly tried in the ginning of cotton, or is it as yet but a machine of theory? what quantity of cotton has it cleaned on an average of several days, and worked by hand, and by how many hands?
From Tobacco/Rice to Cotton
Decline in Tobacco Prices/Exhaustion of Soil in Virginia, Maryland
In Virginia moving from Tobacco to Wheat Production
Events in England
English developing machines to spin cotton into thread and to weave cotton thread into cloth
Arkwright waterframe, Samuel Crompton mule, power loom
An entire industrial system : the birth of the factory
Demand for cotton!
Where does the Cotton Come From? Before 1795
India
West Indies
Brazil
Ottoman Empire
Not Continental America!
Cotton
Grows many places in subtropical climates throughout the world
Changing Geography of Slavery
Moves south and west
First to upland South Carolina
Georgia
Then Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
Later Texas
Thomas Jefferson and the idea of an Agrarian Society
Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson-- ideal of country made up of small self sufficient white farmers
Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.
Saint Dominque (Haiti)
French colony huge producer of sugar/cotton based on plantation slavery
1791 revolt of enslaved people
French efforts to retake it fail
The purpose of French Louisiana was to provision Saint Dominque
(but without Saint Dominique Louisiana has little worth to French)
1803 Jefferson President; US diplomats seek to buy New Orleans from French, French offer all of Louisiana Territory
After Saint- Dominique
Some planters to US, start cotton plantations
Brings expertise to US
Military Cotton Complex
(use of military power to expand US territory to grow cotton)
1803 Louisiana Purchase
1819 Acquisition of Florida from Spain
1814 Treaty of Fort Jackson (land taken from native Americans)
1838 Cherokee removal from Georgia
1845 annexation of Texas
Financing of Louisiana Purchase
British banker Thomas Baring sells bonds that finances Louisiana Purchase
The prime minister “appears to consider Louisiana in the hands of Americans as an additional means for the vent of our manufacturers & Co. in preference to France.”
Political Power Supporting Slavery
South has disproportionate power in US Govn’t
⅗ rule in Constitution
The Rise of Cotton
Deep Southern States Become More important for Growing Cotton
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas
1,000,000 enslaved people moved from upper South to lower South
Shows Sensitivity of Enslavers to Markets/Possibility for Profit
The “Georgia Man”
Buy enslaved people in Maryland/Virginia
Transport to Georgia for sale at a higher price
Turn a $300 Maryland/Virginia purchase into $600 Georgia Sale
The Coffle
Marched from Virginia/Maryland to
Georgia
The Cameron Family of North Carolina
Family-Richest in NC
Paul Cameron
1844 buys 1600 acre plantation in Alabama
Borrows $30,000 to do so
Ships 144 enslaved people from NC to Alabama
From Gregory Clark, A Farewell to Alms
Key Points of Class Today
–Alexander Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures
–Links Between North and South regarding slavery
–Slavery as part of a “Modern” Economic System
North Versus South?
Common Understanding
North oriented towards manufacturing
South Towards agriculture
North antislavery/South proslavery
North advanced/South Backward
Alexander Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures (1791)
US as a Technologically Backward Country
People with Technical Skills Largely Stay in England
Ideas of Hamilton Not Accepted
Federal “Internal Improvements”
Bounties for specific production
England Developing Large Scale Textile Manufacture/Steam Engines
US and Industrial Espionage
Samuel Slater (working with English Textile Manufacturer)
Comes to US with plans for a Spinning Frame (in disguise, under false name)
Opens factory in 1793
Francis Lowell
1810-1812 In Great Britain, studying textile mills
Memorizes plans for them
Comes back to US in 1812 (Searched in Great Britain to make sure not bringing back contraband)
1814 Starts work on textile Mill
Lowell Mills and Boston Associates
1822 Lowell Mills
Premier manufacturing site in US
Uses young girls as workers
(avoid permanent working class)
By 1832 uses 15 million pounds of cotton per year
Lowell Mills as the “Ethical Business of its Day”
British factories seen as negative reference point
Dehumaniziing
Lowell System
Hire Single Young Women (15-35)
Idea that they would work there a short time before marriage
Provide dormitories for them (dorm mother)
Encouraged to pursue intellectual pursuits in their off time
Hear lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Produce their own journal
Slavery and the North
US manufacturing goes up in North
1820 75,000 employed in manufacturing
1832 200,000 employed in manufacturing
Cotton mills lead in US industrialization
Use Cotton produced by enslaved people
William Sumner
Senator from Massachusetts
“Unholy Union between Lords of the lash
and the lords of the loom” –1848
Purpose of Tariffs (Historically)
Tariffs inherently advantages some elements of society and disadvantage others
Normally tariffs seen as helping manufacturers, but some tariffs affecting imported raw materials (iron, wool) raise prices on manufactured goods
Tariffs
Tariff of 1816
Purpose was to protect infant industries
25% on textiles, 20% on iron goods
Tariff of 1828
Tariff of Abominations
60%
Includes Tariff on imported raw materials (which hurts New England manufacturers)
South Carolina and Nullification
South Carolina 1833
Nullification Ordinance
Congress has violated true meaning of Constitution with tariffs
Declares not lawful to enforce payment of tariffs
Threatens secession
Compromise of 1834
Congress agrees to lower tariffs (gradually from 60% to 20%)
Tariffs only for raising revenue (not for protection)
South Carolina accepts this compromise
Links to Slavery Throughout New England
Textile factories, Axe factories, and shoe manufacturing that is aimed at the producing for the Southern plantation market
Hazard Family of Rhode Island
Quakers
Woolen textile factory
Specializing in producing Woolen cloth for enslaved people
(cheap, poor quality cloth)
One brother travels regularly to the South to do market research
Have certain plantations serve as testers
North Brookfield, Massachusetts
Prospers in the early 1800s based on making shoes that will be worn by enslaved people
Thomas Snell, local minister “we are all making gain by making drafts upon the fruits of slave labor”
Brogans
Often not distinguishing left/right
Eyelets for shoelaces optional
Poorly made
Leather not tanned (red)
$12.50/dozen
Made by outworkers/farmers
Collins Axe Works, in Connecticut
Improved manufacturing processes making 1,000 axes a day
Sell in South
Enslaver opens two crates of Collins axes for clearing land
Used by enslaved people to fell trees to prepare land for cotton
Common Idea of “Backward South”
Sophisticated use of
Technology
Finance
Management/Torture
Biology/Plant Breeding
Politics
Slavery and “Innovation” in Management
Previously had idea that major innovations in accounting/management came with factory.
They were first ones who had large fixed investments and attempted to maximize profits.
A plantation might be considered as a piece of machinery, to operate successfully, all of its parts should be uniform and exact, and the impelling force regular and steady; and the master, if he pretended at all to attend to his business, should be their impelling force, if a master exhibits no extraordinary interest in the proceedings on his plantation, it is hardly to be expected that any other feelings but apathy, and perfect indifference could exist with his Negroes, and it would be unreasonable for him,
Diary of Bennett Barrow, Louisiana Plantation Owner
Accounting for Slavery: Financial Controls (Quicken for Enslavers)
Thomas Affleck
Former bookkeeper in Scotland
Comes to Mississippi to plant cotton
Provides complete set of books
For managing cotton plantation
Suite of Forms for Managing Cotton Plantation
Collecting Data on Cotton Picked
Standardization
Idea of “prime field hand”
Individual who had maximum productivity that could be expected
1841 plantation lists 40 full hands then
58 “hands that were not full”
Affa--¾
“Cripple Susey” at zero
Thinking of enslaved people as commoditized units
Share their data in agricultural journals throughout the South
Other Sources of Increased Output: Organization/Treatment of Enslaved People
In Chesapeake large number of nonworking older people, nonfield workers
In cotton all work at same tasks
Historians consider Chesapeake system having some elements of paternalism in it.
Gone from Cotton system
Torture
Each enslaved person given a quota
At end of day if didn’t meet quota, would be whipped
Increases in quotas over time
Productivity Gains in Picking Cotton 1800-1860 almost match gains in factory labor (aided by machines)
Increases in Picking Productivity
From 1801 26 pounds a day
To 1840s average of 340 pounds a day
Efficiency of picking in southwestern cotton states grew
2.6% per year
Clearly Gains in Productivity
Where did this productivity come from?
Enslaved people?
Biological changes in cotton, making it easier to pick?
Debate: Historians Versus Economists
Sophistication in Cotton Breeding
Optimization of Cotton Plant
Upland Cotton (Green Seed) started cotton boom
1806 Natchez planter visiting Mexico Walter Burling
Sees attractive cotton plant
Smuggles back seeds
Planters begin experimentation
Mexican Cotton
By 1820 talking about Mexican Cotton
Most common called “Petit Gulf”
Ripens more rapidly
Has bolls that are easier to pick
150 pounds in a day became common
Cotton Production w/o change in cotton varietals
Improving and producing seed became a
Business
Advanced Technology
Steamboats on the Mississippi
Made it possible to ship goods upriver
Brought goods closer to market
More steampower in Mississippi River region than in New England
Steamboats optimally designed for Mississippi environment
New Orleans to Natchez
268 miles
Time shortened by steamboat
From 6 days 6 hours in 1814 to
17 hours 30 minutes in 1856
Financial Innovation and Slavery
Enslaved people represented huge amount of capital
In 1840 2.5 million enslaved people, worth $1billion
Roughly 19% of US wealth
Very liquid wealth, due to auctions of enslaved people
New Orleans
Mid 19th century one of world’s great cities
1850--3rd largest city in US, 4th largest port in the world
Global financial center
New Orleans Markets Selling Enslaved People
Consolidated Association of Planters of Louisiana
Ever increasing desire to expand
Provides funds to planters
Sells securitized bonds
Allows Europeans to invest in plantation economy
Guaranteed by state
Who Takes the Risk?
Enslaved people--have to work harder
People in states (bonds backed by states)
Panic of 1837
Bubble
Confidence that prices will continue to rise
Increase prices of cotton, increased prices for enslaved
1837 collapse in cotton prices from 18 cents/pound to 6 cents
Many firms go bankrupt
Enslavers sell those enslaved people they have mortgaged
New Orleans Times Picayune, May 4, 1837
The largest known auction of enslaved people
600 people Charleston, SC
Slavery, Capitalism and the Future
“Capitalists,” then are people who make bets on the future. The essence of capitalism is a psychological orientation toward future wealth and property.”
Thomas McCraw, Harvard Business School
Do we see this in slavery?
Efforts to Extend Slavery
--to Mississippi, Alabama
--to Texas (the reason for the Mexican War)
--enslavers efforts to take Cuba
--extend slavery to California
buy/annex Mexican land
Build transcontinental railroad by southern route
Judge Hiram Warner, from Georgia, US House 1856
There is not a slaveholder in the House or out of it, but who knows perfectly well that, whenever slavery is confined within certain specific areas, its existence is doomed. It is only a question of time as to its final destruction.
Slavery, Capitalism and the Civil War
Claims that Civil War/Secession was not about Slavery, but State’s Rights
After Dred Scott Decision, (denying citizen to African-Americans)
Price of Enslaved People Rises
After Lincoln’s Election Price of Enslaved People in the South Decline by 33%
Splitting the Country Commercially
Before 1830s Midwest and South Connected
Midwest sells goods and services
Best way to ship is on Mississippi River
After 1830s less so
Railroads reorient midwest towards east
Plantations begin raising more of own foodstuff (self-sufficiency)
Divergence of Interests Midwest and South
Midwest wants infrastructure, “improvement”
Schools, roads,
Wheat harvested over two week period, encourages mechanized farming
South does not want taxes for infrastructure
85% of US Cotton Shipped to Great Britain
The “Achievement”
By 1860 enslaved people producing 2 billion pounds of cotton/year
US supplied 80% of cotton to Great Britain
½ of US exports between 1815-1860 were cotton
Northern Universities and Slavery
Princeton
Starting 2013 Professors and students investigating ties between Princeton and slavery
Princeton: A Southern School
Class of 1851--63% Southern
Between 1746-1863 40% of Students from the South
1835-students drove abolitionist out of town
Students from South Provided good income stream to struggling universities
Princeton
Pro-Slavery Commencement Address given in 1850 by Princeton Alumni David Kaufman, Texas Senator
“Slavery is not a spot upon the sun of our Union”
Slavery confers “unnumbered blessings upon the black man as well as the white”
More Princeton alumni fought for the Confederacy than for the Union
323 vs 313
Moses Pyne Princeton Class of 1877
One of Princeton’s greatest benefactors
Name throughout Princeton
Dorms, prizes, towers, etc.
Day of funeral university suspends classes
Riches came from families involvement in sugar trade in Caribbean based on labor of enslaved people
Institutions where we see legacy of slavery today
Georgetown University
Johns Hopkins University
Brown University
(indeed many northern universities)
Slavery, Capitalism and the Civil War