American History: A Survey (Brinkley), 13th Edition

Chapter 11: COTTON, SLAVERY, AND THE OLD SOUTH

Primary Sources

1
In the South, the plantation dominated the economy, much as industry did in the Northeast. Following is a description of and some observations on the plantation system and slave labor taken from the travel account of Frederick Law Olmsted. What similarities do you find between the regimentation of the factory workers at Lowell in the previous chapter and the status of the slaves? What differences exist? How might Thoreau have responded to what Olmsted described?

How did the objectives of the plantation owner differ from the objectives of those who owned the mills at Lowell? Might the plantation owner have argued that he offered his charges many of the same things as the factory? What analogy was the South fond of drawing between the factory and the plantation? What does this excerpt tell you about that analogy?

What evidence can you find to indicate classes among slaves? Read the section "Where Historians Disagree: The Character of Plantation Slavery," and consider how this excerpt relates to the theories advanced by Elkins, Fogel, and Engerman.

Frederick Law Olmsted

2
As the section "Where Historians Disagree" indicates, the South's "peculiar institution" has been debated for some time. Following is an excerpt from Joseph B. Cobb's Mississippi Scenes, published in 1851, that sheds some light on the question of the slave's response to slavery. Read it, and consider how it relates to the information and points of view presented in the text. From it determine, at least in this case, how slavery apparently changed blacks, and what elements of the system brought these changes about. In studying this question, reexamine Document 1. Would you call slavery a brutal system or, as many southerners (including Joseph B. Cobb) contended, a "positive good"?

Joseph B. Cobb

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