United States History 17A
Study Guide 10
 
 
Assignments Page
Previous /Next Study Guide
Today in U. S. History

 
 

 
Study Guide 10
Nation of Nations
Chapter Thirteen
The Old South
Answer the following questions:
1. Why could cotton, rice and sugar be grown only in the south? 
I. The Social Structure of the Cotton Kingdom.
2. What was the 'black belt' region of Alabama, and what opened up this area for agriculture?
3. What area, even farther west, attracted cotton planters? By the time of the Civil War, what percent of the total cotton crop came from west of the Mississippi River?
4. What crop was 'king' in the south -- the major source of wealth? By 1860, 75 percent of the world's ____ came from the United States?
5. What were two problems created by reliance on a single crop?
6. What was perhaps the most striking environmental consequence of the expansion of southern society? Where was one particularly notorious area?
7. As cotton transformed the boom country of the Deep South, what became the major crops (not the staple crops) of the upper south? Because these crops required less labor, what happened to the surplus of slaves in the upper south?
8. What was the price of a prime field hand in the Deep South by the late 1850s? Why was this so much higher than in the early 1840s?
9. By 1860, what percent of the labor force north and south was engaged in agriculture?
10. In the years before the Civil War, what percent of the nation's manufactured goods came from the south?  Why did so few cities develop in the south?
11. Why were free public schools rare in the south? In 1850, what percent of native-born, white southerners were unable to read and write?  How does this compare to the rate for New England?
12. Compared to land, how much were all the slaves worth?
13. How much per year did the average slaveowner spend to support an adult slave? How much could a planter expect a slave to produce in cotton? Thus, a slaveowner took about ___ percent of the weatlh produced by a slave's labor.
II. Class Structure of the White South
14. In 1860, what percent of the 8 million white southerners either owned slaves or were members of slave-owning families? How many white southerners belonged to families of the planter class, that is, those who owned of 20 or more slaves? What percent of all slaves did the planter class own? What percent of the region's total wealth did they control?
15. How large was the typical plantation? How many slaves lived and worked there? Why weren't they larger? How did the larger slaveowners handle this problem?
16. Where was the legendary 'Old South' located? What was the ideal of this area?
17. In what 3 ways did the cotton lords of Alabama and Mississippi differ basically from the Tidewater planters?
18. Identify five tasks that a plantation master had to coordinate.
19. How did planters often seek to expand their production?
20. Where did some of the most brutal forms of slavery exist? Why?
21. What were five of the responsibilites of the plantation mistress?
22. What did some of these plantation mistresses find confining about their lives?
23. What were the penalties for southern men who fathered illegitimate children by slave women? What were the penalties for men who raped slave women? What was the penalty for white women who were guilty of adultery?
24. Who accounted for over one-half of the southern white population? How many slaves and how much land did they own?
25. For what 3 reasons could these people not compete with planters in the production of staples?
26. Why did the yeoman farmers admire the planters and why did they accept slavery?
27. Where did the poorest white southerners live? About what percent of the population did they represent? What were their lives like? Why did poor whites favor slavery? 
III. The Peculiar Institution
28. On what 2 types of farms might slaves generally be found? How were they supervised on each? Which plantations required the longest hours and the most grueling labor?
29. Which slaves were accorded the highest satus?
30. On large plantations, what were the 'gang' and 'task' systems? Which system was preferred in the rice fields? In the cotton fields?
31. What time did work begin and end for most slaves? How long might they work during times of cultivation and harvest? Did this include Saturdays and Sundays?
32. In what four ways might slaves be punished by their masters? What was the most common way?
33. How, most commonly, were slaves housed? On average, how much did a planter spend per year on medical care for each slave? Fewer than __ of slave children lived to the age of 10.  For those slave children who survived past the age of 10, what was their life expectancy compared to white Americans?
34. For what 4 reasons were slave revolts more rare in the United States that in Latin America?
35. Apart from revolts, what were four more subtle ways of resistance among slaves?  What was the most common form of resistance?
IV. Slave Culture
36. What was one of the most remarkable achievements of African-Americans in bondage?
37. Why were songs so important among slaves?
38. What kind of family was the rule among slaves?
39. In what 3 ways did masters control religion among slaves?
40. What was a 'hush harbor'?
41. From religion, slaves learned that God would ___ and raise ___ . Slave preachers assured their congregations that  ___ ?
42. In the years before the Civil War, how many calories per day did the average adult slave receive? From what sources mostly? What were the results? What was a hoecake?
V. Southern Society and the Defense of Slavery?
43. Of the 4 milliion African Americans living in the south in 1860, what percent were free?
44. Following Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831, what were 7 ways that southern legislatures restricted the behavior of free African Americans?
45. In what five ways did the south justify slavery? Whom were the defenders of slavery expecting to influence with these apologies for slavery? Why?
Please click on the site, The Confessions of Nat Turner, read the selections there, and answer the following questions:
46. For what did Nat Turner believe he was intended? What motivates Nat Turner?
47. What sign appeared to Turner, after which he prepared himself to slay his enemies? Why?
48. What happens to Nat Turner?
49. According to the 'Recollections of Harriet Jacobs', after Nat Turner's insurrection began, what did the country bullies and poor whites do?  What stopped them?
Please click on the site, The Wonderful Tar Baby, read the selection there, and answer the following questions:
50. Why does Brer Fox put the tar baby in the road? Why does Brer Rabbit get stuck in it?  How does Brer Rabbit get out of his predicament?

 

 
Assignments Page

 
Revised  April 7, 2008

by Tom Gallup, e-mail address: [email protected]
West Valley College
http://www.westvalley.edu/wvc/ss/gallup/gallup.html