CHAPTER NINE: WORKERS, FARMERS, AND SLAVES:

THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY, 18151848

I.

The Market Revolution

A.
B.
C.
II.

Agricultural Changes and Consequences

A Nation on the Move: Roads, Canals, Steamboats, and Trains
Spreading the News

The Spread of Industrialization

A.
B.
C.
D.

From Artisan to Worker

Women and Work
The Lowell Experiment
Urban Industrialization

III. The Changing Urban Landscape

A. Old Port Cities and the New Cities of the Interior
B. Immigrants and the City
C. Free Black Communities in the North
D. Riot, Unrest, and Crime
IV. Southern Society
A. The Planter Class
B. Yeomen and Tenant Farmers
C. Free Black Communities
D. White Southern Culture
V.

Life and Labor under Slavery

A.
B.
C.
D.
E.

Varied Systems of Slave Labor

Life in the Slave Quarters
Slave Religion and Music
Resistance and Revolt
Slavery and the Law

The United States experienced extraordinary economic growth and change in the first half of the nineteenth century. But
the economies of the Northern and Southern regions of the nation evolved along very different paths. The North developed a free labor
economy marked by rapid industrialization and urbanization as well as massive immigration. Essential to this process was the
introduction of new technology like water-powered looms, railroads, steamboats, and the telegraph. By contrast, while the South
experienced some industrialization and urban growth, the great majority of its expansion and development focused on raising cash
crops by means of slave labor. The huge profits generated by cotton cultivation prompted the expansion of plantations into the socalled Black Belt that stretched from Alabama westward.
By mid-century Northerners and Southerners became increasingly self-conscious about the distinctiveness of the labor
system in their own region and more critical of that employed in the other half of the nation. Although North and South had
developed different labor systems, each was tied to the expanding market economy that Henry Clay praised in his 1824 address. The
expansion of the market economy transformed the countryside in both the North and South and fueled the growth of Americas cities.
Economic growth was spurred by new technologies that made agriculture more productive and factories more efficient, as well as by
improvements in transportation and communication that spurred consumer demand for the latest goods.
Learning Objectives
After a careful examination of Chapter 9, students should be able to do the following:
1.

Define the term transportation revolution and explain its impact on stimulating the development of American
manufacturing.

2.

Explain the role of state governments as funding agents for transportation projects.

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Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.

3.

Identify two Supreme Court decisions that offered protection and support for railroads.

4.

Compare and contrast Irish and German immigrants of the early nineteenth century, focusing on the numbers of people of
each nationality who came to the United States and the levels of economic security reflected in each population.

5.

Define the term putting out system and explain why it is so often considered the first step in the Industrial Revolution.

6.

Identify and describe the working and living conditions of the Lowell girls.

7.

Explain the impact of steam power on the expansion of industrial growth in the United States.

8.

Identify the major difference between American industrial workers of the early nineteenth century and the labor of the midnineteenth century. Comment on the extent to which skill, class, and national origin contributed to this division.

9.

Distinguish geographically, economically, and demographically among the Upper South, the Lower South, and the Border
South.

10.

List the factors that contributed to the rise of short staple cotton as a profitable commodity in the Old South. Explain why
slave labor was considered by southern planters to be particularly suitable to the cultivation of cotton.
Describe the physical characteristics and operation of a southern plantation.

11.
12.

Discuss the profitability of the institution of slavery, including the return on investment and the increase in value of slave
property during the first half of the nineteenth century.

13.

Discuss the reasons southern planters feared industrialization and urbanization, and explain the impact they felt these
trends could have on the southern institution of slavery.

14.

Identify Edmund Ruffin and explain his contribution to promoting agricultural reform in the Upper South.

15.

List factors that contributed to the decline of the slave population in the Upper South during the first half of the nineteenth
century.

16.

Describe the work routines and living conditions of slaves in the antebellum South.

17.

Define the term slave codes and explain how they defined the status of slaves and the rights of slave owners in the
antebellum South.

18.

Describe the characteristics of family life in slave communities of the antebellum South.

19.

Describe African Christianity and explain its effect on slave identity and indirect resistance of the institution of slavery.

20.

Identify three examples of slave conspiracies in the antebellum South and comment on the success or failure of each.

21.

Explain the meaning of the term Underground Railroad and explain its connection to the issue of slave resistance.

22.

Summarize the diversity and complexity of the non-slaveholding southern white community.

23.

Define the term black codes and describe how they were used to restrict the rights of free African Americans and to
preserve racial inequity in the South.

24.

Outline the major points of both the religious and racial justifications for slavery. Explain the circumstances in which each
argument was more likely to be used.

Topics for Classroom Lecture

1.

Prepare a presentation on historical myth with a focus on the antebellum South. Begin the class with a clip from the film
Gone with the Wind and ask students to comment on the images they associate with the antebellum South. Then, discuss
the reality of life in the Old South. Ask students why Americans have created myths about their history in general and why
we have created myths about the antebellum South in particular.

2.

Discuss the status of women on the antebellum southern plantation. Consider both plantation mistresses and female slaves.
Describe the living conditions of each, and their relationship with each other. How did the sexual mores of southern
planters impact the lives of both female slaves and plantation mistresses? How did the patriarchal system of the antebellum
South validate this situation?

3.

Discuss the connection between religion and politics in the slave community. What roles were played by the black preacher
in the slave community? Examine the lyrics of spirituals and have students point out the connection between the lyrics of
these religious songs and the slaves political agenda of freedom. Play some spirituals for the class to give students a feel
for the power of the music. An excellent collection is Spirituals in Concert by Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman.

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Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.

4.

Prepare a lecture on southern white dissent in the antebellum South. Was the white South united in its defense of slavery?
Where did dissent appear, and what issues promoted opposition to the proslavery argument? How were dissenters treated
by the defenders of slavery?

Topics for Class Discussion and Essays

1.

Introduce students to the concept of historiography by reviewing some of the classic works on the institution of slavery.
Use a variety of historical treatments of this issue to help students understand the idea of revisionist history and to help
them see how a historians objectivity is situated within a historical context. Some classic historical treatments of the issue
of slavery include U. B. Phillipss American Negro Slavery (1918), Kenneth Stampps The Peculiar Institution (1956),
Stanley Elkinss Slavery (1959), Eugene Genoveses Roll, Jordan, Roll (1972), and Robert Fogel and Stanley Engermans
Time on the Cross (1974).

2.

Have the class examine the proslavery arguments. Why did white southerners change their perception from believing
slavery to be a necessary evil to believing it to be a positive good? Discuss the fact that, by 1850, the national debate on
slavery had changed from being a primarily legal debate to being a moral debate. What impact did this transformation of
the debate have on the southern defense of the institution? Why was the biblical defense of the institution so critical to the
argument?

3.

Have students look at the connection between racism and slavery. Increasing numbers of Americans began to oppose the
institution of slavery during the early nineteenth century. Did opposition to slavery necessarily mean a person was not
racist? Was it possible to have racist reasons for opposing slavery? Were there any aspects of the proslavery argument with
which opponents of the institution might actually agree?

4.

Which aspects of the Lackawanna Valley painting present a positive view of the technology? Which aspects suggest a
negative view of technology?

5.

Why did the protestors at Lowell seek to wrap their cause in the banner of the American Revolution and its ideals?

6.

Most modern scholars agree that the decision in State v. Mann reflects the fundamentally immoral nature of slavery. The
controversy over the decision focuses on a more basic question about law itself. Does law simply reflect the dominant
power relations of society? Or, can the law embody ideals of justice or fairness that are not simply a mask to disguise the
naked exercise of power?

Topics for Term Papers and Class Projects

1.

If your location permits, have students visit plantations from the antebellum period. If not, contact historical sites such as
Natchez, Mississippi, or Charleston, South Carolina, or visit Web sites (e.g., for Natchez
http://www.natchez.ms.us/custom/webpage2.cfm?content=content&id=110
and
for
Charleston
http://www.charlestonmuseum.org/topic.asp?id=1) and show students slides of the various architectural styles and varying
degrees of opulence reflected in the southern plantation lifestyle.

2.

Write a paper on the life of Sojourner Truth. Involved in both the abolitionist and womens movements of the early
nineteenth century, her life offers an insight into the connection between these two social reform movements.

3.

Write a paper on children in slavery. An issue only recently examined, the plight of children in slavery reveals to students a
particularly moving and poignant aspect of slaverys horror.

4.

Write a paper on the circumstances surrounding the Nat Turner revolt. How successful was the revolt? What factors
contributed to the outcome? Slave rebellion was generally unsuccessful in the antebellum South. Why, then, did southern
whites fear it so strongly?

Resources for Lectures and Research Projects

John W. Blassingame, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South (second ed., 1979).
Catherine Clinton, The Plantation Mistress: Womans World in the Old South (1982).
Carl Degler, The Other South: Southern Dissenters in the Nineteenth Century (1974).
Stanley M. Elkins, Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life (third ed., 1976).
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., ed. The Bondwomans Narrative (2002).
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South (1988).
Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made (1974).
Eugene D. Genovese, The Slaveholders Dilemma: Freedom and Progress in Southern Conservative Thought, 18201860 (1992).
Eugene D. Genovese, The World the Slaveholders Made (1969).
Herbert G. Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 17501925 (1976).
Wilma King, Stolen Childhood: Slave Youth in Nineteenth Century America (1995).
Larry Tise, Proslavery: A History of the Defense of Slavery in America, 17011840 (1988).
Deborah Gray White, Arnt I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South (1985).
Gavin Wright, The Political Economy of the Cotton South (1978).

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Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.

Audio-Visual Resources
Africans in America, WGBH Educational Foundation, 1998.
This four-part series examines the American experience with slavery from 1450 until the abolition of the institution during the Civil
War.
Ship of Slaves: The Middle Passage, A&E Video, 50 minutes.
This video explores the story behind Steven Spielbergs 1997 movie Amistad.

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Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.