APUSH Chapter 16 (P1) - American Pageant

The South Before the Civil War

The video reviews the South’s economy and society before the Civil War, emphasizing how slavery shaped agriculture, class relations, and regional tensions.

Cotton, Slavery, and the Economy

Cotton and slavery expanded together. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin helped make cotton the South’s dominant crop and increased demand for enslaved labor. Northern shippers profited by transporting Southern cotton to Britain and bringing manufactured goods back to the United States. Because Britain relied heavily on Southern cotton, Southerners believed it might support them in a future conflict.

Cotton farming depleted the soil, encouraging settlement farther west. As farms became less productive, smaller farmers often sold their land to larger landowners. The video also describes financial instability caused by speculation and the high cost of enslaved people.

Southerners resented the fees paid to Northern shippers and middlemen, while depending on the North for many manufactured goods. The video says immigrants were deterred by the high cost of fertile land, limited paid work in a slave-based economy, and unfamiliarity with cotton cultivation.

Wealth and Class

A wealthy plantation elite held significant power. The video says that by 1850, about 1,700 families each owned at least 100 enslaved people. This “cottonocracy” controlled much of the region’s wealth and, according to the presenters, helped limit the development of public schools. Its members admired ideas of aristocratic authority associated with writers such as Sir Walter Scott.

Southern society included several groups:

• Wealthy planters formed the top tier.
• Many white Southerners were smaller farmers who owned a limited number of enslaved people.
• Millions of white Southerners owned no enslaved people and often grew subsistence crops. The video notes that some were disparagingly called “poor white trash,” “crackers,” or “hillbillies.”
• Despite their poverty, many non-slaveholding whites supported slavery, partly because they hoped to own enslaved people in the future and regarded themselves as socially above Black people.
• The video describes Appalachian “mountain whites” as hostile to wealthy planters and says they later helped undermine the Confederacy.

Free Black People and Enslavement

The video describes several routes to freedom for Black people, including emancipation after the Revolution, purchasing freedom, and freedom for some people of mixed ancestry. Free Black people could own property but faced restrictions on employment, court testimony, voting, and education. The video also presents anti-Black prejudice as widespread in both regions, while making a broad comparison between Southern and Northern attitudes.

Although importing enslaved people was prohibited in 1808, the video says smuggling continued and the enslaved population exceeded four million by 1860. The internal slave trade also expanded. Enslaved people were treated as property and investments; the video says they were encouraged to have children and notes that some were promised freedom after having ten. Auctions separated families, a practice depicted in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Speakers and Sources Featured

The subtitles name Abe and Frank as speakers and introduce Sacagawea as a special guest. Daniel is addressed by name during a question about how enslaved people became free, but the subtitles do not clearly establish Daniel as a speaker.

The video cites The American Pageant by Kennedy, Cohen, and Bailey, specifically its chapter on the South and the slavery controversy. People and works referenced include Eli Whitney, John C. Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, Sir Walter Scott and Ivanhoe, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and the British West Africa Squadron.