- The Old South
- Emergence of slavery as "peculiar institution"
- Cotton and the growth of southern slavery
- Central place of cotton in world economy
- Southern dominance of world cotton supply
- Emergence of United States as center of new world slavery
- Rise of internal slave trade
- Pace and magnitude
- Geographical patterns
- Public visibility
- Integral place in southern commerce
- Importance to Cotton Kingdom
- Slavery's impact on national life
- Political
- Economic
- In North
- Commerce
- Manufacturing
- In South
- Vitality of plantation economy
- Limits on industrialization, immigration, and urban growth
- The New Orleans exception
- Plain folk
- Remoteness from market revolution; self-sufficiency
- Class strata
- Isolated poor
- Yeomanry
- Relation to planter elite
- Alienation
- Bonds
- Racial
- Familial
- Political
- Regional
- Investment in slave system
- Material
- Ideological
- Planter elite
- Measures of regional dominance
- Scale of slave ownership
- Size and quality of landholding
- Income
- Political power
- Economic engagement in world market
- Paternalistic, non-competitive ethos
- Defining features
- Contributing factors
- Influence on southern values
- Intellectual life
- Measures of regional dominance
- Proslavery argument
- Rising currency in southern thought
- Elements of
- Racial assumptions
- Biblical themes
- Notions of human progress
- Prospects for equality among whites
- Shift to more hierarchical defense of slavery
- Life under slavery
- Slaves and the law
- General patterns
- Status as property
- Pervasive denial of legal rights
- Power of slave owners over enforcement
- Law as mechanism of master's control
- Nineteenth-century trends
- Legislation to humanize bondage
- Features
- Contributing factors
- Legislation to tighten bondage
- Features
- Contributing factors
- Legislation to humanize bondage
- General patterns
- Free black population
- Size
- Social and civil stature
- Blurry line between slavery and freedom
- Broad denial of legal rights
- Growing reputation as threat to slave system
- Regional variations
- Lower South
- Small numbers
- Concentration in cities
- Free black elite
- Upper South
- Concentration in farmlands
- Ties to slave community
- Lower South
- Slave labor
- Diversity of occupations
- Agricultural
- Small farms vs. plantations
- Gang labor (cotton, sugar) vs. task labor (rice)
- Urban
- Relative autonomy and independence
- Growing reputation as threat to slave system
- Modes of order and discipline
- Physical punishment
- Manipulation of divisions
- Material incentives
- Threat of sale
- Slaves and the law
- Slave culture
- General features
- Central arenas
- Family
- Church
- Chief functions
- Survival of bondage
- Preservation of self-esteem
- Transmission of collective values across generations
- Sources
- African heritage
- American values and experiences
- Central arenas
- Slave family
- Demographic foundation
- Legal constraints
- Resiliency
- Distinctive kinship patterns
- Vulnerability to break-up through sale
- Gender roles
- "Equality of powerlessness"
- Assertion of gender roles where possible
- Slave religion
- Practices
- Black preachers on plantations
- Urban black churches
- Influences
- Fusion of African and Christian traditions
- Religious revivals in South
- Slaves' version of Christianity
- Solace amid bondage
- Hope for liberation
- Sympathy for the oppressed
- Brotherhood and equality
- Negation of masters' pro-slavery version
- Practices
- Desire for freedom and justice
- As expressed in folk tales, spirituals
- Reflection of American language of freedom
- General features
- Resistance to slavery
- "Day-to-day"; "silent sabotage"
- Escape
- Obstacles
- Destinations
- Southern cities
- Remote areas within South
- North
- Underground Railroad
- Resourcefulness
- Harriet Tubman
- Large-scale collective escape
- Infrequency of
- Amistad episode
- Slave revolts
- Major nineteenth-century episodes
- Gabriel's Rebellion
- Louisiana sugar plantation slave rebellion
- Denmark Vesey conspiracy
- Nat Turner's Rebellion
- Notable patterns
- Infrequency
- Blend of African and American influences
- Link between open rebellion and quieter resistance
- Bleak prospects for success in South
- Aftermath of Nat Turner's rebellion in South
- White panic
- Widespread assaults on slaves
- Tightening of restrictions on blacks (slave and free)
- Stifling of slavery debate, abolitionism
- Major nineteenth-century episodes