Slavery
From the earliest days of settlement,
slave labor tilled the American land. But in the first half
of the nineteenth century, the slave system experienced unprecedented
growth. As textile factories in England and the North demanded
ever-increasing supplies of cotton, slaveholders moved westward
in search of fertile soil. After Congress prohibited the importation
of Africans in 1808, a flourishing slave trade developed within
the South. Hundreds of thousands were sold from older states
like Virginia to the Cotton Kingdom of Georgia, Alabama, and
Mississippi. By 1860, the 500,000-slave population of 1776
had grown to nearly four million, and slavery was the foundation
of the southern economy.
As the North emancipated its
slaves during and after the Revolution, slavery, previously
a national institution, became peculiar to the South. But
the entire nation was responsible for maintaining the system's
stability. The Constitution required free states to return
fugitive slaves, and it enhanced the South's power in Congress
and the Electoral College by counting three-fifths of the
slave population in determining a state's representation.
Of sixteen presidential elections between 1788 and 1848, all
but four placed a Southern slaveholder in the White House.
By the eve of the Civil War,
the vast majority of slaves were American-born descendants
of Africans brought involuntarily to the New World during
the eighteenth century. For its victims, slavery meant a life
of incessant toil, brutal punishment, and the constant threat
of being separated from loved ones by sale. Yet in the face
of these grim realities, slaves never surrendered their desire
for freedom. They expressed it by creating a vibrant African-American
culture centered on the family and church that enabled them
to survive the ordeal of bondage without surrendering their
self-esteem. They resisted slavery by running away and by
occasional rebellion.
Only about one-quarter of the
Old South's white population owned slaves, and of these only
a minority possessed large plantations. But the planter class
dominated the region's political and social life. Convinced
that slavery was sanctioned by the Bible, economic self-interest,
and racial superiority, slaveholders stood ready to defend
against all assaults the largest slave society the modern
world has known.
Slavery
Exhibit 
