RCWR - Slavery and The Road to Secession (Lesson)

Slavery and The Road to Secession

The Antebellum South

When one thinks of the Antebellum South, the southern plantation often comes to mind. A large manor house, women in frilly skirts, and hundreds of slaves working in the fields are common in these images. Films such as Gone with the Wind have perpetuated this stereotype of Southern life.

The truth is that few Southerners lived on large plantations. Most white southerners were very poor, scratching out a meager existence through subsistence farming. In fact, only about 20-25% of white southern families even owned any enslaved people at all (even though most white Southerners who did not own enslaved people still supported the practice because their society was based upon slavery.) Less than 1% of Southerners owned more than 100 slaves.

However, the plantation system did exist. Even though small in numbers, these families were essentially an aristocracy. They controlled much of the land, wealth, and political power in the Antebellum South. This wealth and power came at the cost of depriving millions of humans of their freedom by forcing them to work in bondage without rights or freedom. Some of the old plantations have been restored and are open for tourists to visit to learn about life on a plantation, for both slave and free.

 

The Road to Secession

When the Confederacy opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor in April of 1861 the Civil War began. The violence that erupted here and in the 4 years that followed flowed from decades of built up resentment and conflict. The North and South had been growing further apart for many years.

When flashpoints had flared in the past there was always a resolution, usually a compromise, that would ease tensions for a time. But the underlying issues that were dividing North and South had not been addressed. Slavery had become a lightning rod of controversy. Throughout the 1850s, the nation became more divided than ever, and eventually secession and armed conflict would follow.

Read this document from Boundless for a description of the events leading to the Civil War. Links to an external site. View the presentation below of the 1850s as the nation moves toward war.

 

[CC BY 4.0] UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED | IMAGES: LICENSED AND USED ACCORDING TO TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION