In the 1850s the issue of slavery threatened to tear a young America apart
America in the 1850s 7 Plantation slaves in the 1850s Slaves who worked on plantations worked from dawn until dusk They would rise before sunrise and be led out to the fields by a driver The driver was another slave who usually carried a whip and whose job was to discipline unruly slaves White overseers watched to make sure slaves worked hard and did not try to escape Men women and children worked side by side in the fields The older women remained at the slave quarters caring for young children doing laundry and preparing food As soon as children were old enough they were sent to the fields to work Some slaves developed skills in carpentry while others operated cotton gins Other slaves worked in the master’s house as cooks butlers or as nursemaids for the master’s children When they were not working slaves spent their time in the slave quarters Their homes were usually log cabins with no plumbing or heat and with wooden slats as beds Masters gave slaves cornmeal and fatty pork to eat but many masters allowed them to grow their own vegetables and to catch fish in nearby ponds and rivers Under these harsh conditions slaves were exposed to diseases such as cholera yellow fever and malaria Fewer than two out of three slave children survived to the age of ten Despite these hardships slaves tried to maintain a family life Although their marriages were not recognized by law slaves had marriage ceremonies and raised families as best they could Sometimes they said the marriage vow as until death or separation do us part The threat of the master selling one member of a family and sending that person away always hung over slave families Slave songs and stories spoke of their yearning for freedom of the day they would be free of bondage and suffering Slaves often resisted their masters Some slaves engaged in acts of sabotage such as arson poisoning or work slowdowns and stoppages Several thousand escaped to the North during the early 1800s but for the remaining millions such a run to freedom was not a possibility Many slaves ran away for short periods sometimes to visit wives or husbands who had been sold to other masters on nearby plantations Slaves who ran away faced severe whippings if they were caught Although some masters treated their slaves with kindness in the end they were still slaves They were completely lacking in freedoms and basic human rights
8 America in the 1850s While the North developed as a region of small farms businesses and factories the South with its warmer climate remained mostly agricultural Slaves worked on cotton plantations and also harvested sugarcane rice and tobacco Some plantations had hundreds of slaves but most had an average of ten Slaves were not citizens and had no rights or freedoms Owners bought and sold slaves like cattle In the North anti-slavery meetings were sometimes held on the Boston Common in Massachusetts
Normal family life among slaves became very difficult At any time owners could sell a mother father or child separately They might never be seen again by other members of the family If slaves disobeyed their masters they could suffer brutal physical punishment such as whippings Attitudes of people toward slavery in both the North and the South had hardened by the 1850s Most people in the North thought slavery was wrong A small but very vocal group known as abolitionists called for the immediate abolition or end of slavery Most slave owners in the South hated the abolitionists Not only were slaves valuable property a slave could cost thousands of dollars but slavery was regarded as positive and necessary especially by wealthy southern landowners To protect their own interests slave owners often promoted the false belief that slaves were inferior beings little more than children who could never learn how to take care of themselves and who were better off being kept as slaves A number of slave rebellions in the 1820s and 1830s badly frightened the white population of the South Slave laws in southern states during the 1830s and America in the 1850s 9 1840s became more severe as slaves were forbidden to travel on their own and were prohibited from being taught how to read Racism and hatred grew as the country seemed to divide along sectional lines That is between the North and South Slavery and Political Parties in the 1850s The question of how to organize the new territories affected American politics particularly in the presidential elections held between 1848 and 1856 Until the 1850s the two major political parties of the time the Democratic Party and the Whig Party attracted voters in all parts of the country In other words there were Democrats in both the North and the South just as there were Whigs in both the North and South Words to Know abolitionists ab-uh-LISH-uh-nists People opposed to slavery who demanded its immediate prohibition by law Democratic Party dem-uh-KRAT-ik PAHR-tee A major political party in the 1850s Democrats were divided over the issue of slavery and they split in two during the 1860 election Whig Party WIG PAHR-tee A major political party that was strong in the 1840s and early 1850s The Whig Party dissolved over the slavery issue in the 1850s
