CHAPTER 4
POLITICS,
SLAVERY, AND
ANTEBELLUM
SOCIETY
Chapter 4: POLITICS
Development
Rapidly following annexation in 1817
By 1832 it needed a new constitution
By 1840 most Native American ceded land
By 1860 producing more cotton than any other state
Home to many of nation’s wealthiest people
More than half of population were black slaves
were the poorest of poor
Many whites did live in poverty
hills and small communities
Politics are important to history why?
people take sides / division of society
Chapter 4: POLITICS
❖ The State Capital
➢ One of the first instances of division during in
Antebellum MS
■ Antebellum - before the war
➢ 1798 Natchez capital of MS
■ Already a substantial settlement
● No official capitol building
➢ 1802 political rivalry
■ Capital moved to Washington
● Six miles east of Natchez
● No official capitol building
➢ 1817 first constitutional convention held
■ first met in Washington but moved to Natchez
● met in Natchez until 1820
Chapter 4: POLITICS
❖ The State Capital
➢ 1821 state legislature forms a committee
■ Decide to move capital to center of state
■ Chose LeFleur’s Bluff
● located on Pearl River
● named after Louis LeFleur
● town was named Jackson
◆ hero of the Battle of New Orleans
◆ Houses and public buildings erected
■ First meeting of state legislature in Jackson 1822
■ 1840s a capitol was built
● state legislature and mansion for governor
◆ MS governor still resides in house today
◆ First is now a museum after the new capitol built
➢ 20th century
Chapter 4: POLITICS
❖ The Constitution of 1832
➢ Prior to Constitution of 1832
■ Only white males owning property could vote
■ Time period referred to - Era of the Common Man
● Enter Andrew Jackson
● Elected President
◆ little wealth and education
➢ owned property
➢ elected off of success in war
➢ Changes from Constitution of 1817 to 1832
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Judges were now elected for specific terms
Most state offices are now elected
State legislators were determined by people
Banned importing slaves if they were to be sold
● Not enforced. Why?
Chapter 4: POLITICS
❖ Local Government
➢ County governments met most needs of citizens
➢ Post 1832 - board of police
■ Board of Police - elected to govern each county
■ Purpose
● Levied Taxes
◆ build courthouses and jails
◆ support poor
● Appointed supervisors
◆ build and maintain roads and bridges
◆ approved people to run
➢ hotels, ferries, sell alcohol
◆ paid for school for poor children
◆ operated public schools
● Others collected taxes
Chapter 4: Acquisition of Native American Land
❖ Acquisition of Native American Land
➢ Rapid growth
■ removal of Native Americans
● lack of concern for them
● shows greed
❖ Assimilation
➢ Federal government believed in assimilation
■ Assimilation - policy of the federal government
toward the Native Americans
● Farming instead of hunting
■ Problem
● Meant changing their lifestyles
● 1812 - federal government gives up on assimilation
◆ Afraid they would side with British or Spanish
◆ Continually negotiated treaties - pushed west
Chapter 4: Acquisition of Native American Land
❖ Federal Treaties with Native American Tribes
➢ French first came to Mississippi
■ Many Native American tribes still existed
■ 1783 - Choctaw and Chickasaw remain
■ 1798 Spanish give up Natchez District
● U.S. establish Mississippi Territory
■ 1801 - Treaty of Fort Adams
● first of many treaties with Choctaw
● U.S. gains 3 million acres of land
● Right to build a road - Natchez Trace
● Choctaw gains
◆ thousands of dollars in merchandise
◆ promise that non-Native Americans will be
removed
➢ was not kept
Chapter 4: Acquisition of Native American Land
❖ Federal Treaties with Native American Tribes
➢ 1805 Treaty of Mount Dexter
■ U.S. gained 4 million acres of land
■ Cancel debts owed by Native Americans
➢ 1820 Americans demands
■ Native Americans to be subject to State law
■ Negotiate Treaty of Doak’s Stand
● Negotiated by Jackson and Thomas Hinds
● U.S. gains 5 million acres of land
● Choctaw promised land
◆ refused land - settled by whites
◆ not suitable
◆ tried to renegotiate treaty in Washington
◆ New treaty reached - Choctaw refuse to leave MS
Chapter 4: Acquisition of Native American Land
❖ Federal Treaties with Native American Tribes
➢ Jackson becomes President
■ Native Americans are subject to state laws
➢ 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek
■ Ceded the last of land - over 10 million acres
■ Agreed to move Oklahoma
● Agreement that those that wanted to register to
could get land
➢ 1832 Treaty of Pontotoc Creek
■ Chickasaw ceded north Mississippi
➢ Trail of Tears - the trek of Native Americans,
particularly the Cherokee, to Indian Territory
■ Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole
● Seminole waged a 7 year war fighting removal
■ Neshoba County - Indian Reservation for Choctaw 1900s
Chapter 4: SLAVERY
❖ Native Americans and Slaves
➢ What do they have in common?
Chapter 4: SLAVERY
❖ The Black Code
➢ French brought slaves to Louisiana
■ Included the area of Mississippi
● Required legislation
➢ Black Code of 1724 - a set of laws governing
every aspect of slavery and society.
■ Who did the law apply to?
■ Few rights
■ Marriage, property, travel, gathering in groups
● attempts to escape - severe punishment
■ Protections
● Could not separate families if sold
◆ children under 14
● Could not mistreat
● Could not free when old or sick
Chapter 4: SLAVERY
❖ The Black Code
➢ French settlement of Ft. Rosalie (Natchez)
■ Prospered because of slaves
● Cleared land
● Raised tobacco
➢ British settlement of Natchez
■ Revolutionary War
● 1 out of every 5 (black)
➢ Spanish rule during/after Revolutionary War
■ Slave population grew to 40%
Chapter 4: SLAVERY
❖ Cotton Production and Slave Labor
➢ Agriculture / Production of Lumber
■ Main jobs of slaves
➢ Food products / tobacco / indigo / cotton
■ Provided cash for farmers
● Many began turning to cotton
● Cotton Gin 1793
● Slave named Barclay
◆ Developed the first Gin in MS
◆ Cotton because main cash crop
➢ King Cotton
■ Fertile land for growing
■ Long growing season
■ Waterways for shipping
Chapter 4: SLAVERY
❖ Cotton Production and Slave Labor
➢ Martin Phillips ■ Experiments
● Find best methods for farming
● Developed new strains of cotton
◆ Increased cotton production
➢ Rush Nutt / Henry vick
■ Developed and improved Petit Gulf cotton
● most productive strain in MS
■ Most cotton grown with slave labor
● Done on farms or plantations
● Plantations - large farms
■ Most slave labor was concentrated where cotton
was produced
■ 1860 less than 31 thousand slave owners - 9%
Chapter 4: SLAVERY
❖ Working and Living Conditions
➢ Did all work from clearing land to picking cotton
➢ House slaves
■ cooked / cleaned / made clothes /child care
➢ Skilled slaves
■ tended livestock / carpenters / blacksmiths
■ hired out
● platations
● towns people
● could earn enough to buy freedom
Chapter 4: SLAVERY
❖ Working and Living Conditions
➢ Owner - Overseer - Drivers
■ Supervised the slaves or groups of slaves
■ Sundays was a day of rest
➢ Punishment
■ Whipped
■ More incentives than punishments
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extra clothing
pocket knives
time off
party
money
➢ Housing - No privacy
■ Log cabins
■ No windows or floors
Chapter 4: SLAVERY
❖ The Slave Community
➢ Law made slaves property
■ What does this mean?
■ Black Code no longer existed
■ Were not to learn to read or write
■ All gatherings had to have white observer
■ No legal basis for marriages
■ Adopted and adapted Christianity
● Slave owners saw as a way to control
● Slaves saw as a way for freedom
Chapter 4: SLAVERY
❖ Working and Living Conditions
➢ Slave Resistance
■ Resistance open at times
● Owners and Overseers
◆ Lost lives trying to discipline
■ Families poisoned at dinner table
■ Ran Away
● 1831 Nat Turner
◆ Slave preacher in VA led a revolt
◆ Caused deaths
➢ at least 60 whites
➢ 100 blacks
➢ led to beatings and executions
■ No rebellions in MS
● 1835 blacks and whites killed feared a revolt
Chapter 4: SLAVERY
❖ Working and Living Conditions
➢ Free Blacks
■ Not all blacks were slaves in MS
■ Most lived in towns
● Natchez and Vicksburg
■ Most prominent William Johnson of Natchez
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Barber
Owned town lots
A farm
Slaves
Murdered no conviction
◆ Witnesses were slaves - not allowed to testify
■ Many restrictions
■ Could not be freed unless left the state
■ 1830s required to leave unless granted permission
● Reached peak in 1840 then declined
Chapter 4: Antebellum MS
Society
❖ Removal sparked land boom
➢ 1833 - 1837 over 7 million acres of land bought
➢ Mississippi’s population grew faster than Nation
❖ Economy
➢ Land cheap
➢ Cotton price high
➢ Credit extended exceeding the specie
■ Specie - gold and silver
■ stopped due to a severe depression
➢ President Jackson behind the cause
Chapter 4: Antebellum MS
Society
❖ President Jackson and “pet banks”
➢ Fought against the Second Bank of the U.S.
■ Bank handled transactions for federal government
■ Issued paper money
■ Jackson had all government funds withdrawn
● transferred money to state banks (pet banks)
■ Some of these banks were in MS
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Planters Bank of Natchez (1830)
Increased amount of paper money in circulation
Did not have the funds to back up the money
Used notes and money to buy federal land
Chapter 4: Antebellum MS
Society
❖ U.S. Government takes action
■ Specie Circular of 1836 - specie used to buy land
■ Distribution Act - surplus money in federal
treasury be paid in specie to states
■ Banks could not provide gold and silver
● Banks collapsed - led to panic
■ Panic of 1837 - banks collapsed and economic
depression followed
■ MS hit hard
● Federal government takes back land bought on
credit
● Cotton prices tumbled
● Banks would not reappear until after Civil War
● Bonds held by banks no longer valid - still unpaid
● Property owners lost land - could not pay taxes
Chapter 4: Antebellum MS
Society
❖ Transportation
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Travel and communication slow statewide
Paved roads were not prevalent until 20th century
Wagons pulled by oxen - averaged 20 miles a day
MS dependent on adequate transportation
Waterways were still huge
■ Steamboats carried cotton to New Orleans
■ Cotton shipped to New England and Britain
■ Railroads would eventually ease the problem
● Raising money was difficult
● Building was difficult
● 2 stages of building
◆ first to river ports
◆ small lines joined larger lines
➢ development from 1838 to 1861
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Chapter 4: Antebellum MS
Society
Education
➢ Public education slow to develop
➢ Counties could not afford to spend money
➢ 1836 state authorized counties to support schools
■ 1860 - 30 thousand white children were attending
school
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still less than 1/3 of school aged children
1100 plus public schools
No schools for blacks
School terms were about 3 months
◆ Taught reading, writing, arithmetic
■ Higher education responsibility of private and
religious organizations
■ University of Mississippi est. 1840
● began operation in 1848
● closed during Civil War
Chapter 4: Antebellum MS
Society
❖ Religion
➢ Mississippians are known as religious people
■ Many different denominations
● Methodists and Baptists
◆ largest groups
● Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Catholics
■ Many churches were mixed
● Blacks and whites attended church together