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Chapter 16 The South And Slavery Essay

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Chapter 16
THE SOUTH AND SLAVERY, 1793–1860

1. Part Three Introduction This introduction gives you a preview of the authors’ answers to certain key questions about the causes and consequences of the nation’s “awesome trial by fire,” the Civil War. Look at this section and list three major questions you think the authors will be addressing in the next seven chapters.

(1)

(2)

(3)

2. Southern Economy and Social Structure
a. Explain the connection between the invention of the cotton gin by Eli _________ in 17___ and the rapid expansion of short-staple cotton production based on slave labor in the South. If the cotton gin actually made picking seeds from cotton much easier, why did planters perceive a vastly …show more content…

Was there any truth in this charge?

d. Were the abolitionists popular or unpopular in the North? Why?

VARYING VIEWPOINTS

Nature of Slavery

Read the Varying Viewpoints essay and address ONE of the following questions:

1. According to historian Eugene Genovese, what motivated southern slave-owners to embrace “a strange form of paternalism” toward their slaves? *** Do you agree with the authors that this paternalistic attitude had the effect of subverting the “racist underpinnings” of the slave society?

2. Although economic historians have demonstrated that slavery was still a profitable proposition at the time of the Civil War, it was dying out as an institution in other places around the world. *** Do you have any thoughts as to what would have happened to slavery in America in the absence of a Civil War?

3. Slaves were purposefully kept illiterate and therefore left few written records of their life on the plantations. Technology for audio and video recordings was unavailable and few travelers from the North recorded observations on slave treatment, lifestyle, or culture. *** If you were a historian trying to make conclusions about these subjects, what types of sources would you consult? Do you think an “objective” picture of southern slavery is possible to construct?

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