Deck 13: The Old South 1820-1860

Question 1

The chapter introduction tells the stories of several southerners-Colonel Daniel Jordan; a nameless Texan; Sam Williams and his wife Nancy; Octave Johnson; and Ferdinand Steel-to make the point that

A) the antebellum South was marked by great diversity, but at its core it was unified by its slave-based agricultural economy.
B) the antebellum South had the reputation for being unified in its views of slavery, but actually only a few in the South actively supported the slave-based agricultural economy.
C) the South was unique among the sections of the U.S. because of racist attitudes and the speculative approach to farming that characterized all classes of its citizens.
D) the South was not much different from other sections, except that the income of the majority of southerners came from slave-grown cotton, while elsewhere the majority of Americans grew corn or wheat with their own labor.

Answer 1

the antebellum South was marked by great diversity, but at its core it was unified by its slave-based agricultural economy.

Question 2

When cotton farmers were opening up new land for cotton cultivation, they typically planted ________ the first year after clearing the new fields.

A) cotton
B) corn
C) wheat
D) soybeans

Answer 2

corn

Question 3

Where was the Black Belt region described in the text located?

A) in central Alabama, in the heart of the deep South, where the rich soil was ideal for cotton
B) in the Tennessee River valley, where devastating flooding was frequent
C) along the Gulf Coast, where the slave population was concentrated
D) in an arc from South Carolina to Mississippi, where in most counties blacks outnumbered whites

Answer 3

in central Alabama, in the heart of the deep South, where the rich soil was ideal for cotton

Question 4

In which of the following states did slaves outnumber white southerners by the 1850s?

A) Alabama
B) Georgia
C) South Carolina
D) North Carolina

Question 5

Which of the following was NOT true about slavery as a labor system?

A) Slavery was worth more in terms of investment than all the land in the South.
B) As slavery spread into the Deep South, wealth and power became more equally shared among the various classes of white southerners.
C) It was slavery that made possible the South's "mass production" of agriculture products for export.
D) Only a minority of southerners owned slaves.

Question 6

What was true about slavery as a labor system?

A) As the institution spread throughout the Deep South, a majority of white families came to own slaves.
B) By the 1850s, the United States was the only remaining slaveholding society in the Americas.
C) The gang and task systems were the two main ways of organizing slaves' work.
D) The most arduous toil was done by field hands, who were all male.

Question 7

Which statement best summarizes the effects of slavery on the southern economy?

A) It was a highly efficient mode of production.
B) It helped diversify the southern economy, but was not highly profitable.
C) It released capital for investment that would otherwise have been tied up in wages.
D) It concentrated wealth and power in the hands of the planter class.

Question 8

Manufacturing lagged in the South because

A) whites believed slaves could not do industrial work.
B) slaveowners lacked capital to invest in manufacturing.
C) high profits from agriculture discouraged other possible investments.
D) the South lacked a suitable white workforce, since immigrants settled in the North.

Question 9

Slaveowners made up ________ of the southern white population, but the true "planters of consequence,"with at least 50 slaves, _______.

A) the great majority; were found only in the older Tidewater region
B) about half; dominated politics
C) roughly a quarter; made up less than 1 percent of the total white population
D) a small minority; constituted a majority of those slaveholders

Question 10

The upper-class plantation mistress

A) accepted a sexual code that kept white women pure but tolerated sexual relations between white men and slave women.
B) lived a life of leisure centered around artistic and literary pursuits.
C) enjoyed the unique luxury of criticizing her own role in society as well as the slave system in general.
D) faced an unexpected variety of burdensome managerial and service duties.

Question 11

In spite of poor diet, lack of medical care, and a high infant mortality rate, the United States was the only slave society in the Americas where the

A) white population grew significantly faster than the slave population.
B) slave population increased naturally.
C) slave population's life expectancy was greater than that of white Americans.
D) slave population grew at a faster rate than the white population.

Question 12

In the 1830s, reacting to Nat Turner's rebellion and the growing abolitionist movement, southern slaveholders developed the argument that slavery was a positive good. Which of the following assertions was NOT part of their proslavery argument?

A) Slavery was a beneficial status for blacks, as they required white guardianship.
B) Slavery was sanctioned by the Bible and history.
C) Slavery was more consistent with the humanitarian spirit of the age than the northern wage labor system.
D) Slavery's opponents could build no persuasive argument against it.

Question 13

Which of the following is NOT true of Nat Turner's revolt?

A) Turner rebelled due to extreme mistreatment by a series of harsh Louisiana masters.
B) It was small and spontaneous, in contrast with earlier noteworthy slave uprisings.
C) Turner was eventually captured and executed.
D) It prompted a debate in the Virginia legislature on the merits of slavery.

Question 14

Most often the slave family

A) was sold as a unit, according to laws in the Upper South.
B) consisted of the nuclear unit (father, mother, and their children).
C) did not exist in a functional way on large plantations.
D) was essentially impossible to sustain under the conditions of bondage.

Question 15

What is NOT true of slave religion?

A) It was expressed in secret meetings beyond white supervision.
B) It was central to the culture of most slave communities.
C) It featured songs with both earthly and heavenly applications.
D) It remained largely unaffected by Christianity until the 1860s.

Question 16

After 1830, southerners defended slavery more aggressively for all of the following reasons EXCEPT

A) a perceived decline in southern influence in national politics.
B) the rise of the abolitionist movement with its threatening literature.
C) the increasing dependence of the southern economy on slave-grown staples.
D) Nat Turner's revolt.

Question 17

The Virginia debate of 1832

A) led to a resolution declaring slavery a positive good.
B) caused the legislature to condemn slavery but adopt no program to deal with it.
C) led to the adoption of a program of gradual emancipation.
D) was the last significant attempt by white southerners to take action against slavery.

Question 18

The ________ system of social stratification separates individuals by various distinctions, such as heredity, rank, profession, wealth, and race.

Question 19

Within the slave community, the house servants and the _______, who supervised the field hands, enjoyed the highest status.

Question 20

The ________ system of slave labor predominated in the cotton districts.

Question 21

In the 1850s more than half the slave population of the South lived in the ________ South.

Question 22

Identify three major differences between society and life on the cotton frontier and in the Tidewater region. What was the significance of these differences?

Question 23

Describe the class structure of the Old South. What was the relationship of slavery to this class structure?

Question 24

What pressures did slavery place on plantation mistresses?

Question 25

What united slaves in the Old South? Were there significant divisions among slaves?

Question 26

How did slaves resist slavery?

Question 27

What role did religion play in the lives of slaves? How did that role differ from the role of religion encouraged by many white masters?

Question 28

Describe the change in attitudes toward slavery in the South before and after the early 1830s. What events contributed to that change?

Question 29

What arguments did southerners use to defend slavery?

Question 30

Compare and contrast slave revolts in North America and Latin America.

Question 31

The chapter introduction profiles several southerners: Colonel Daniel Jordan, a plantation master in South Carolina; a planter from the Red River country of Texas; Sam Williams, a skilled ironworker slave from Virginia, and his wife Nancy; Octave Johnson, a slave in Louisiana; and Ferdinand Steel, a farmer in Mississippi. Using what you have learned from the text about the class structure of the Old South, to which class does each of these people belong? Explain how each class differs from the others.

Question 32

What were the major geographical regions of the Old South? Explain how the geography of the South was a force of both unity and division.

Question 33

How did the conditions of slavery make it especially difficult for slaves to establish their own culture? How did slave communities work to overcome this?

Question 34

"Some [southern plantation] women drew a parallel between their situation and that of the slaves,"the text reports. What parallels could plantation mistresses draw? Where do the parallels break down? Do you agree with the mistresses' observations?

Question 35

Do you believe slavery was the most important factor in shaping southern society? If so, explain why, especially since only one-third of southerners were African American and only one-quarter of southern whites owned slaves or were members of slaveowning families. If you do not believe slavery was the most important factor shaping southern society, what factor was (or factors were) more important?

Question 36

Give three major differences between the North and the South in this period. What was the significance of each of these differences? Which one do you think was the most important, and why?

Question 37

Explain why the South's dependence on exports made it difficult for an internally diversified economy to develop. How did this dependence retard southern economic development?