Chapter 2, Southern Women

The reading for this blog entry, chapter 2 of Southern Women, is entitled "Reproduction and Childrearing", and deals with the ability of women in the South to become pregnant and to raise their children. For most women in the antebellum period, their primary role was as child-bearing mothers, whose ability to procreate was valuable for several reasons. Firstly, for poorer farm families another child was an additional laborer that could help take care of the farm. Also, for Southern families there was less of a reason to worry about land and space constraints than there was in the North. Slave children were also very valuable to the master, because he or she provided an additional source of labor. This was especially true in the Lower South, whereas in the Upper South new children were seen as a significant new investment. 

Fertility was valued among slave women, as well as white women. For slaves, as mentioned earlier, fertility offered the master more labor. This was especially important after 1808, when the slave trade was banned to the United States. Some slave women ended their pregnancies to keep the child away from the horrors of slavery. Infant mortality was very high among slaves, due to poor diets and harsh working and living conditions. For the poor in the South pregnancies were riskier than for the wealthy, who had access to doctors and also midwives, who at this point were being phased out in favor of "professional" doctors. 

Children were often prized and taken care of very well, especially in wealthy families that could afford slaves to help take care of children. However, in contrast to stereotypes, white mothers took care of their own children, and slave mothers did not always suckle the baby. Still, the color line in the South ended at the life of a child, with white and black mothers caring for children of another race constantly in the antebellum period. 

Greenberg Reading, Chapter 1

The first chapter of Kenneth Greenberg's book on Southern culture, called Honor and Slavery, deals with the role of lying and honor in Southern elite society. The two went hand in hand; in fact, the facade of maintaining honor and honesty in society overtook any actual argument that was taking place. Two examples of that are laid out in the first chapter of the book. The conflict over the Feejee Mermaid was really more about the honor of two men, editor Richard Yeadon and scientist Richard Bachman, and not over the authenticity of the "mermaid" itself. The incident between Thomas Gilmer and William Rives, while about Rives' support for the Force Bill and his stance on the tariff law, was really about the sense of betrayal that existed between the two men. Perception, and not reality, was the key in Southern elite society. 

Even the body itself was not exempt from these cultural laws. The nose was considered the most important part of the body, as it protruded from the face and was the most noticeable part of what was always noticed during conversation, the face. Pulling one's nose was, therefore, an act showing considerable disrespect, and could call for a duel.  Southern law was also built around honor; whenever a person was killed during a duel, they were to be buried in a disrespectful way, or hung in front of others so that they would be humiliated in death. 

Honor was also a barrier between the races, and between master and slave. Honor could only belong to masters, who were seen as being key members of society, and never to slaves, who were seen as being untrustworthy. One important question to ask is: did this also exist for poor whites and free blacks? Or did the system completely ignore those two often forgotten groups of the antebellum south?

Chapter 11 of Boles

The eleventh chapter of the Boles book, "An Agricultural Economy", deals with the growth of the Antebellum South's cash crops, and how those crops shaped the Southern way of life.

Cotton, of course, was the crop of choice for many Southerners, both wealthy planters and small scale farmers. Cotton, unlike tobacco or rice, was not limited to one location due to type of soil or weather. Unlike rice, it didn't have to be grown just on the coast, and unlike tobacco, it did not do nearly as much damage to the soil.

Cotton also gave many white southerners the chance to make some sort of fortune, no matter how small. At the beginning of the 19th century, many farmers moved to what was then the Southwest, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, in hopes of cultivating the millions of acres of land that had not yet been touched by Southerners. Once there, many of them manage to create farms, some of whom were very dependent on cotton. Cotton, being grown by many types of farmers and planters, had a way of democratizing the South. Planters and small farmers could speak to each other on a common level, due to their common ties to cotton.

Cotton also effected the Southern economy by, for all intents and purposes, controlling it. It explained the growth of the hemp crop in Kentucky, and also led to booms for the coastal port cities, especially New York. It gave small scale white farmers the chance to make extra money, next to the food crops they grew for survival. With the rapid success of cotton, and the fact that not as much land was needed to grow it as for other crops, many farms could also grow food, so that the South, contrary to popular belief, could be mostly self sufficient when it came to foodstuffs. Only Louisiana, with its maximizing of sugar cane, would import great amounts of foodstuffs. The economy, as well as white supremacy over blacks, united Southern whites that otherwise, had very little in common.

Boles, Chapter 10

Chapter 10 of the Boles book, "Nationalism Triumphant and Threatened", deals with the Age of Jefferson, the War of 1812, and the first rumblings of sectionalism around the issue of Missouri's admittance to the Union. 

Thomas Jefferson's leadership as President was a symbol of the revolution in American politics at the turn of the 19th century. He represented a more democratic vision of American politics, one that was a direct contrast to the Federalist model pursued until 1800. He created a political coalition that stretched nationwide, encompassing both farmers and merchants in the cities. Unknowingly, he also sowed the seeds of the rise of the commercial North, by supporting the freedom to create and grow commercial ventures. His leadership also displayed the apex of Southern nationalism, when the South was able to create a chain of leaders, from Jefferson to James Madison to James Monroe, that would lead the country for much of the early 19th century. However, Southern politicians were evolving into more sectional figures, due to the more democratic nature of politics at this time. 

New England, and not the South, was the region of the country that was more estranged from the national leadership than the South. During the War of 1812, a war that was largely wanted by Southern leaders, New England considered leaving the Union. The United States did achieve a decisive victory in New Orleans at the end of the war to force the British to finally agree to the Treaty of Ghent, and the nation gained even greater control over the lands it had purchased from France in 1803. 

The Missouri Compromise would show that the country was still divided over slavery, and a new generation of political leaders used to the partisanship of the 1790s would use the opportunity to support sectional interests. Although the crisis was finally settled by admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, it was a harbinger of things to come.