Chapter 8 of the Boles Reading

Chapter 8, Southerners as Nation Builders, shows the development of the early Republic, from shortly after the Revolutionary War until 1800. Here, the reader sees the development of the national government, from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution, and the role the South played in that transformation.



It was clear by the middle of the 1780s that the Articles of Confederation, while designed to guard against the tyrranies of a strong, overbearing executive, made the national government far too weak and the state governments far too strong. It was delegates from Maryland and Virginia who were among the first to suggest a type of convention to deal with the issues brought forth after years of incoherent government policy.



A Virginian, James Madison, recognized some of the problems that plauged the national government, and his "Virginia Plan" helped to move the meeting in Philadelphia from simply amending the Articles to making a new document that would make the national goverenment stronger. Checks and balances and a strong executive were among Madison's greatest, and most time honored, ideas, and showed a broader pattern among Southern delegates to the Constitutional Convention: an ability to look beyond sectional interests, and to make compromises for the common good of the young country.



Virginia would play a major role in the ratification of the Constitution, being one of the largest states in the country and holding a vote that, while close, would swing in the favor of pro-Constitution, or "Federalist", forces. The South's role in building the young nation can also be seen in the first President, George Washington, who put national interests above sectional loyalty. It can also be seen, however, in the actions by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison -also both Virginians- in creating a national opposition, or party, to oppose Alexander Hamilton's view of a strong, centralized government that was heavily involved in economic policy. These Republicans, led by Jefferson and Hamilton, had appeal across the country, but all agreed that they could not go along with Hamilton's policy. Nonetheless, it was clear by the end of John Adams' only term in office and the ascension of Thomas Jefferson that the South was, in fact, in control of the country's future.

Chapter 3 of American Slavery

The readings in Chapter 3 show the evolution of slavery during the Revolutionary War in America. Before the middle of the 18th century, European thought had not dealt with the fairness or morality of slavery. During their time, most people accepted the view that society wasn't supposed to be equal, and that some people were better than others.

With Enlightenment Age thought, however, came a questioning of the inequalities inherent in most societies, and within that argument, the fairness of slavery. For the first time, people began to see in slavery an evil that, if unchecked, could impact the lives and decision making of even the white slaveowners. In the American colonies, and later the newly independent United States, slavery came to be questioned by both Northerners and Southerners.

The arguments against slavery took one of two tracks: economic and moral. The economic argument, which came to be more important to most slaveowners North and South, was that slavery was useless in a declining economy (as was the case in Virginia) , and that with the birth of capitalism and "free labor", slavery was quickly becoming incompatible with the growth of market driven capitalism, that was to be based on the labor of free men. The moral argument against slavery was more important, and also often made, by Quakers and other religious groups that thought that it was wrong to hold another man in bondage. Around this time, some even began to question whether Africans deserved to be enslaved. Were they slaves because it was their natural condition, they argued, or were they slaves because that was the usually the only life allowed for them in the New World?

The Revolution itself also helped to cripple slavery during this time, in a manner that would not be seen again until the American Civil War. Many masters found themselves away from home for long stretches of time during the war, and so many slaves gained a new degree of autonomy that, while not meaning they were free, did give them new responsibilities on farms and plantations. Also, many slaves began to run away from plantations, taking advantage of a chaotic atmosphere that, again, would not be seen until the 1860s.

Once slavery was limited to just domestic slaves, after laws passed state by state and by the federal government in 1808, a free black population grew across the country. Most blacks did not gain the same rights as most whites, especially in the Southern United States, and often had to struggle for work. However, a small and wealthy subsection of the Black population in the US, often made up of refugees from Saint Dominique, did gain some stature and monetary power in the South.

Revolutionary fervor failed to end slavery. While most people, even Southerners, believed slavery would die on its own during the Revolutionary era, by the early 19th century Southerners began to hold on tightly to slavery. Economic booms fueled by slavery made Southerners much more reluctant to see the "peculiar institution" disappear, while in the North the growth of a new, industrialized economy made slavery an obsolete institution that was ultimately done away with. Differences within the United States over slavery were just beginning to become more pronounced.

Charleston Non-Importation Agreement

The primary source, courtesy of the Avalon Project of Yale University, is concerned with South Carolina's entry into the fervor of boycotting British goods in protest of Acts designed raise taxes from the colonial subjects. This Non-Importation document is designed to both spell out why the colonies are boycotting goods from Britain, and show what they will be abandoning as a result of the boycott.

One of the more curious findings of the document is the ban on slaves imported from Africa and the West Indies. This is certainly an explanation for why there was a severe drop in the number of slaves imported, as discussed in class on Monday, but I'm forced to wonder whether such a ban would've taken place had there not been a growing population of American-born slaves to replace whatever losses would've occurred as a result of this boycott.

It is also interesting to note that the language of the document shows that the colonists are still overwhelmingly loyal to the king and to the British Empire, even referring to themselves as "his Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects". Independence is not an option that appears to be on the table at this time. Most of the colonists still want to stay subjects to the king, but they want their rights restored as free English subjects.

Intro to Colonial African American Life: 9/11/2008

The plight of African Americans seemed, on the surface, mostly bleak. The vast majority of African Americans in the colonies were enslaved, and the few who were free were often subject to discrimination by society. Slavery in the Chesapeake, however, was the focus of this article, and in particular the difference groups of slaves that came to dominate the Southern economy.

Slaves worked in several different areas that gave rise to different modes of work: in the field, in large plantation houses, and in urban environment. The article goes in-depth to explore urban slavery, a domain of slavery often forgotten in the face of the better remembered plantation slavery. The majority of slaves in the Chesapeake worked on farms and plantations, in particular plantations that grew tobacco. Tobacco was in important cash crop for Virginia in the Colonial era, and since it was a very labor intensive crop to grow, slaves were often the only people who appeared to be useful for such an enterprise.

The lives of slaves also plays a role in the article. Slaves often had very little privacy when living in an urban environment due their proximity with their masters. However, both slaves who worked in plantation houses, as well as slaves in an urban environment, were better off than slaves who worked in fields. It was almost a class structure within the slave community, with slaves who worked in the fields often seen as the most expendable, and least well treated, of the slaves in the Chesapeake region. Such diversity, as well as the region's dependence on the tobacco trade, led to the Chesapeake bearing a culture that was an amalgamation of African American and European cultures and thoughts.

The Southern Backcountry

Chapter 4 in general, and the section entitled “The Southern Backcountry” in particular, speaks to the diversity of the southern American colonies.  The section offers up the story of those southerners, particularly the white colonists, who made up the population that lived in the backcountry, away from the large coastal cities.  Most whites in the South at this time, in fact for all of the history of the antebellum South, did not in fact own slaves. The majority of the inhabitants of the backcountry were simply small farmers who struggled to get by with the crops they grew. The people of the backcountry would grow food for their families, and then try to grow a cash crop for a family income.

The whites who made up this region came from places such as the Scottish highlands and Germany, and were able to eventually assume some sort of political control in the region. Unlike in the coastal areas and places that had already been settled, the backcountry was without a true aristocracy built on slavery. Therefore, most of the people who lived in this region built a society that was based mostly on equality, and was different from what was occurring elsewhere in the South. The lack of slavery also prevented the creation of an aristocracy, which elsewhere in the region was built on the back of slave labor.

            Overall, it is clear that the South was not a monolithic region. Some parts of the South were heavily influenced by the slave-based economy. Other parts, such as the backcountry, were a bit more democratic, and depended a lot less on an aristocracy to control it.