Transcript Antebellum Georgia

Antebellum Life in Georgia
1800 to 1860
Southern Bells
Plantation Mansions
Analyze the graph and write a
brief depiction ( 5 sentence )
King crop = Cotton
• The cotton gin
reinvigorated the
slave economy in the
South, adding
decades to its life
Antebellum Georgia
• Antebellum means before the Civil War
• Backbone of Georgia’s economy was
agriculture (cotton, rice, tobacco)
• Georgia manufacturing grew out of
agriculture (cotton mills)
• Education was not a important part of
Georgia life
* wealthy had private tutors
* 20% of white Georgian’s could not read
• Georgia Academy for the blind open in Macon
in 1851
Division Among the States
• States’ Rights: belief the states interests
should be more important than national
interests
North
South
•Political
•States had the
decisions should
right to govern
benefit union
themselves
•All states abide by •Right to decide
laws set by
would be best for
Congress
their own state
•Union had more
•States had more
power than states power than union
Division Among the States
• Economy:
* North – Industrial -factories, banks,
mining, railroads
* South –Agriculture - farmed cotton,
tobacco, rice cotton shipped north
• Tariffs: tax on imported goods
*North – high tariffs on foreign goods so
more products made in the North would
sell
* South – low tariffs b/c they traded with
foreign countries often.
Slaves on Plantations
Slavery
• 35% of Georgians owned slaves
• Many slaves converted to Christianity
• Slave Codes: restrictions that took away
the rights of slaves
• Illegal to teach slaves to read.
• Fugitive Slave Laws – required the
return of runaway slaves to their owners
• North wanted to eliminate slavery and
the south wanted to keep it.
Issues and Compromises
•Georgia Platform – GA
supported the Compromise of
1850 as long as the U.S didn’t
violate southern rights.
•Nullification – the belief that a
state could refuse to enforce a
federal law
Slavery Issues
• North wanted to eliminate slavery and
the south wanted to keep it.
• More states were being added to the
union.
• Debates over if the new states would be
slave or free state.
• North and South wanted to keep
representation in Congress equally slave
and free state
• The South was afraid that without equal
number of slave and free states the
North would outlaw slavery
Slavery Issues
• Missouri Compromise:
*Maine entered Union as a free state
and Missouri as a slave state.
*No slavery above 36 degrees latitude
* It maintained the balance of free and
slave states.
• Dred Scott Decision:
*slave sued for freedom b/c lived in a free state
* Supreme court said slaves could not sue b/c
they weren’t citizens.
*Congress had no right to stop slavery in
territories
Missouri Compromise
Slavery Issues
• Compromise of 1850:
* California entered as a free state
*Slave trade ended in District of Columbia
*New Mexico and Utah would determine if
they were free or slave
* Stronger fugitive slave laws were enacted
• Kansas-Nebraska Act:
* created the territories of Kansas and
Nebraska
* citizens of territories would vote if they
would be a slave or free state
The Compromise of 1850
Election of 1860
• 1854 the Republican party was created
*platform opposed the spread of slavery
• In 1860 Abraham Lincoln ran for the
Republican party and Stephen Douglas
ran for the Democrats.
• Lincoln won with votes from only one
section of the country, the north (this
was a first)
• Lincolns anti-slavery views scared
southerners
• The South decided to leave the Union
Secession
• Alexander Stephens:
Congressman from Ga.
Led Whigs which favored moderated
protected tariffs and Federal help for the
south.
Spoke against secession
• The debate over Secession: Many Georgians
were split over whether or not to leave the
Union.
Secession
• December 20, 1860 South Carolina left the
Union (seceded)
• January 16, 1861 Georgia voted to leave the
Union
• By February 1861 Florida, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas had seceded.
• Confederate States of America were formed
* Jefferson Davis-President
* Georgian- Alexander Stephens-Vice President
*Georgian -Robert Toombs –Secretary of State