“American History is largely the record of the adjustment of a migrating people to their environment.”* The colonists came mostly from North Europe bringing with them a well-developed civilization into a virgin country of varied topogoraphy [sic] and resources and a climate ranging from sub-tropical to cold temperate. Their institutions, customs, laws, habits, in short, their civilization adapted themselves to their new environment. The earlier colonists were largely British and their common inheritance gave a unity to their civilization as it developed in different geographic environments. Had North America, north of the Ohio, been settled from North Europe, and the South been occupied by immigrants from Southern Europe, it is safe to say that both from differences in racial inheritances

and from different geographic environments, two very different civilizations would have sprung up in the United States. Slavery was one of the institutions having an early beginning in the colonies and an existence prolonged to recent times. It was primarily economic in its development, or in other words, the institution thrived and developed in the areas where it paid the best. Its spread was conditioned largely by the geographic factors of soils, topography and climate. Other factors existed of course, some easily recognized and others difficult of analysis. Religious beliefs,

FIG. 1.

the systems of land tenures, customs, prejudices and many other factors influenced the spread of slavery. But the notable extension of the institution was in areas whose geographic conditions favored the growth of crops to which slavery could be well adapted.

     The purpose of this paper is to trace from the geographic standpoint the development and extension of slavery. The paper will necessarily include a discussion of the factors of the institution, a general survey of the South where the institution became characteristic, and a consideration of those areas in the South in which

slavery expanded and reached its most notable development. The discussion is more definite after 1790 because then the census returns became available; it is more complete from 1810 to 1860 because slavery had its greatest expansion and development in those decades.

     Slavery arose in the colonies from an economic need. Land was cheap and plentiful, the ordinary necessities of life were easily obtained, but labor was scarce.* Wages were high, land was cheap or practically free, and there was a constant inclination on the part of the wage earner to take up new land, become a freeholder and own his own home. A few cleared acres would support his family and his cabin was easily erected.

     Thus there arose a demand in all the colonies for enforced labor, but this demand was especially insistent in South Carolina and

FIG. 2. Section near Greenville, Tenn., in the Eastern part of the Ridge Belt. Bald, Mt., is a part of the Blue Ridge System. (From the Greenville Folio, U. S. G. S., and the U. S. Soil Survey of the Greenville Area.)

Georgia where the white laborer could not without danger endure the hard labor in the low malarial coast region which was, in colonial times, the principal area of population. The old law of war that made the captives slaves was early invoked in all the colonies with respect to the Indian and very early the system of white servitude was introduced from England. At best the Indian made a poor laborer. He was intractable and, if successfully retained as a slave, he did not long survive hard labor. The indentured white laborer served but a limited time and then became a freeman. In both of these servile types the owner’s control was somewhat precarious.

     Negro slavery was introduced largely as an experiment and its success even in the South was not assured for nearly fifty years† The negro slave proved far superior to the Indian or the indentured white. He was tractable, capable of hard work, hardy, and easily and cheaply maintained. He could endure heat and malarial conditions.

On the other hand he has many inherent disadvantages. He was stupid and incapable of little but simple routine labor. Having learned the care of one crop, it was with difficulty that he could be taught the culture of another. His labor was more or less unwilling, and this, combined with his unintelligence, made necessary a close supervision of his work.* Slave labor must be organized and the slaves worked in gangs. It soon came about that the owner of a considerable number of slaves had an economic advantage over the owner of a small number; and out of this fact and the factor of cheap fertile lands, the plantation system developed.

FIG. 3. Profile, section and graphs of the southern part of the Nashville Basin.

     The negro slave, then, was not available for all industries. He was never largely employed in anything but agriculture, and even in this he was restricted to certain crops. The ideal slave crop would have its cultivation extended well over the year, since slave labor was not versatile enough to be employed at different crops or to take up other work between crops. The cultivation must be simple and intensive enough so that the labor could be thoroughly supervised. If at any of its stages the women and children could be employed, that was a great advantage. Finally the output must be of considerable value since slave labor and the attendant poor methods of agriculture were, in the long run, expensive.

     The principal crops fulfilling in various degrees these requirements

were tobacco, indigo, rice, cotton and sugar. All of these staples require a fertile soil, abundant rainfall, and, except tobacco, a warm temperature. While tobacco could be raised in the North it never became a very large crop there. In the North the capitalist and entrepreneur turned toward commerce and manufactures, while in the South they found a promising field in agriculture. In the North the slave was largely a family servant instead of a field hand, and was unimportant in the life of the people. He had not the adaptability or intelligence to take a place in the varied industries of this region, and crops to which slave labor was adaptable were not profitable in the North. Consequently by the time of the revolution, slavery was nearly extinct both by custom and legislation in the states north of Maryland.

     The institution then was economically excluded from the colonies north of Maryland. The ordinance of 1787 fixed the Ohio River as its northern boundary, west of the Alleghenies and east of the Mississippi, and the compromise of 1820 practically held it at the northern boundary of Missouri. South of these boundaries slavery could legally expand. In some places it became dominant, and elsewhere it was practically unknown. The factors of soil and climate which dominated the slave crops, and the factor of topography which markedly influenced the soil, and also in a greater degree the means and routes of transportation, all these factors likewise controlled the extension of slavery. The principal physiographic and climatic areas will first be briefly described, and the somewhat detailed descriptions of these various areas, together with the development of slavery therein, will follow the general description.

     The principal physiographic provinces included in the slave states are the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont Plateau, the Blue Ridge, the Great Valley, the Ridge Belt, the Cumberland Plateau, and the Mississippi Alluvial Lowland. (Fig. 1.)

     The Coastal Plain slopes gently from the Piedmont to the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. It is an upraised sea-bottom which continues beneath the Atlantic to the Continental Scarp. The sediments comprising the Coastal Plain are mostly unindurated and dip seaward at a low angle. Sand and clay are its principal constituents, although in places there is limestone. The inner margin of this division rises on the average from 100 to 200 feet above sea level. As one passes from the sea inland, the lower portion of the Coastal Plain is so level as to appear flat, but as the inner margin is reached there is considerable dissection and the surface is rolling and rough.

     The entire shore of this division, especially in the north, has been

drowned with the result that the broad tidal estuaries reach well into the land and, in Virginia and Maryland, they often extend to the Piedmont. The rivers in the Coastal Plain have a low slope, are sluggish and often tidal. The larger streams are navigable well toward the Piedmont, a fact of no small importance in the development of this region. Along the shore from Virginia to Florida is a discontin[u]ous line of off shore bars which are especially well developed off the North Carolina coast.

     If the soils of the Coastal Plain were simply derived from the underlying rock, we would have a series of sub-parallel soil belts corresponding to the outcropping strata that compose the Coastal Plain. This holds true in some instances that will be mentioned later, but the greater part of this division is overlain by a veneer of sands

FIG. 4. Average Temperatures for July.

and loams of the Lafayette and Columbia formations whose precise origin is as yet unsettled. While there are clays and silts found in these formations, they are predominantly composed of sands and sandy loams. The silt and clay areas are best developed in the Gulf Coastal Plain.* The characteristic soils of the Coastal Plain are therefore sandy.† Such a soil is warm and stimulating but easily exhausted. The sluggish rivers are commonly flanked by flood plains, which, when they can be drained, are very fertile.

     The Piedmont Plateau forms the inner boundary of much of the Coastal Plain. In general the junction of these two divisions is marked by a low though somewhat persistent slope. The streams flowing over this junction commonly descend in falls or rapids, thus

giving the name “Fall Line” to this slope, a feature that has marked influence in transportation and the location of towns. Back of the Fall Line, the Piedmont slopes gently upward to the Blue Ridge.

     In contrast with the Coastal Plain, the rocks of the Piedmont are largely crystalline and relatively hard. The surface is moderately dissected so that the term “rolling” is often applied. As the Blue Ridge is approached the dissection becomes greater and the country more mountainous.

     The soils of the Piedmont are largely residual, being derived from the granites, schists, gneisses, slates, etc., which underlie the division. Such rocks in weathering yield sand and clay. Piedmont soils therefore contain a higher content of clay than do those of the Coastal Plain, and vary from heavy clays through loams to sandy

FIG. 5. Average Temperatures for January.

loams. These soils are in general retentive of moisture, they contain considerable humus, and are far less easily exhausted than are those of the Coastal Plain.

     The Blue Ridge, like the Piedmont Plateau, is a mass of crystalline rocks. It lies to the west and northwest of the Piedmont and has an altitude considerably above that of the latter. In horizontal outline it is club-shaped with the smaller end on the Potomac. (Fig. 1.) Near the Potomac the Blue Ridge has an altitude of 1000 feet and it rises to an average altitude of 3000 to 4000 feet in its southern portion. In the northern part there are frequent wind and water gaps that afford easy access from the Piedmont to the Great Valley. In the southern portion are several intermontane valleys encircled by high mountains, the largest of these being the Ashville Basin on the upper French Broad River.

     The soils of the Blue Ridge are derived from the same kinds of rocks as are most of the Piedmont. However, the thorough drainage

consequent upon the steep slopes leaves much of the region with thin soils. In the intermontane valleys a deep fertile soil has often accumulated. The elevation of the Blue Ridge gives it a somewhat more severe climate than that of the Piedmont or the Coastal Plain in the same latitude.

     The Great Valley and Ridge Belt extend from New York to Alabama. Here the rock is sedimentary and is folded. The harder strata, mostly sandstone and siliceous limestone, are left projecting as ridges, while the softer limestones and shales are etched by erosion into valleys, (Fig. 2.) . The Great Valley is a long structural valley forming the eastern boundary of the Ridge Belt. The Shenandoah River flows along the Great Valley in Virginia and the Tennessee River, in Kentucky and Tennessee. West and north of this division

FIG. 6

Average Dates of last Frosts in Spring

is the Ridge Belt. Long, narrow ridges, broken by wind gaps and water gaps, alternate with narrow valleys. The soils of the ridges, both from the composition of their rocks and from their steep slopes, are naturally unfertile. The valley soils, derived largely from lime stones and shales, are generally fertile. (Fig. 2.) The Great Valley with its long reaches of level floor and fertile soils, is an important agricultural province.

     The folded rocks of the Ridge Belt grade into the approximately horizontal rocks of the Cumberland Plateau, from which it is usually separated by a prominent escarpment. The Cumberland Plateau slopes gently north-westward and westward, and merges into the Ohio Basin. The western part of the Plateau is overlain by carboniferous limestone which affords fairly fertile soils. The central and eastern Plateau is overlain by sandstone and underlain

by limestone. The sandstone covers much of the Plateau, except in some of the deeper valleys which have been eroded to the limestone and along a low anticline that extends from Ohio into Tennessee. In places along this anticline the overlying sandstone has been eroded leaving the Louisville Basin in Kentucky and the Nashville Basin in Tennessee floored by limestone. There are few better examples than these showing the influence of the underlying rock upon the soils, and, in turn, the influences of these various soils upon the inhabitants. Without the Basins the soil is sandy and rather sterile; in the Basins the prevailing limestone soils are very fertile. The graph in Figure 3 brings out these contrasts in soil values.

FIG. 7. Average dates of first frosts in Autumn.

     Such then were the various physiographic divisions in which slavery was allowed to develop. Various minor divisions and details have been left to be considered later in connection with their appropriate areas.

     A geographic factor even more vital than physiography and soils is climate. A given type of fertile soil, alluvium for example, is widely distributed, but the crops obtained therefrom are closely conditioned by temperature and rainfall. The climate of the South, with the possible exception of Florida, is essentially continental. It is characterized by sudden variations and the contracts between winter and summer are considerable, such contrasts becoming more marked in the northern and western portions.

     So far as the temperatures are concerned, the climate of the South is mild and even warm. The summers are hot and the winters are moderate. (Figs. 4 and 5.) The higher elevations of the Blue

Ridge and Cumberland Plateau somewhat depress the isotherms, but most of this section has a moderate or low relief.

     However, the crop possibilities are sharply conditioned by spring and autumn frosts. The growing season of most crops is included between the latest frosts in spring and the earliest in autumn. This is especially true of the principal slave crops, tobacco, rice, sugar and cotton. Figs. 6 and 7 show a rough division of the South into two frost provinces. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky have a growing and harvesting season of about seven months, while the rest of the South has a considerably longer season. The rainfall of the South is in general ample for all crops and is well distributed

FIG. 8. Average Rainfall for July (in inches).

during the crop growing seasons. (Figs. 8 and 9). Most of the South has a mean annual rainfall of from 40 to 60 inches with a minimum in the autumn. Southern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have a high annual rainfall and also a high autumnal rainfall.

     Like colonization by the whites, the institution of slavery first began at the coast region, that is to say, at the eastern margin of the Coastal Plain. Its earliest development was in eastern Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia, since these regions were easily accessible and near the slave marts of the West Indies.* North Carolina was settled later in large part by migrations from the adjacent

colonies.* This deferred settlement of North Carolina was mainly a response to the character of the coast, which is largely fronted by long off shore bars, the inlets through which were shallow and shifting, while the smooth coast offers no good harbors except in the southern part of the state at Wilmington. (Fig. 10.)

     It was on this eastern seaboard that the two main slave regions which persisted to the end of the slave period were initiated. We have noted that the slave crops determined the expansion of slavery. These crops have rather sharp climatic limits, the principal conditioning factor of which is frost although the other climatic factors are not unimportant. Tobacco was the principal slave crop in that

FIG. 9. Average Rainfall for October (in inches).

part of the South which had a mild climate and short growing season, while rice, cotton and sugar require a longer growing season and a hotter temperature. Virginia, much of North Carolina, Kentucky and much of Tennessee became and continued a tobacco growing region with cereals and live stock as subsidiary products. The rest of the South was ultimately given over for the most part to cotton, rice, and sugar. The ante bellum terms “Tobacco South” and “Cotton South” have therefore a geographic significance. They denote the two main areas into which slavery expanded and in which, largely for geographic reasons, the institution acquired conditions somewhat characteristic. The geographic expansion of slavery.

therefore, will be discussed mainly with reference to these two crop districts, although, of course, they were not closely delimited from each other.

     The tobacco plant is a flowering annual which will grow under a somewhat wide range of climatic conditions. It is a native of the tropics but it can be grown in a temperate climate. The ordinary varieties thrive best in a warm, fairly moist climate and on a fertile, loamy soil. More than most others, the crop quickly impoverishes a soil. In colonial times, at least, tobacco was not grown for export north of Maryland.

     The culture of tobacco is necessarily intensive and demands careful attention at each stage. At least seven different operations are demanded during the growing and harvesting season. The seed bed is carefully prepared and the plants are set. The crop must be ridden of worms and pests. Superfluous “suckers” must be pulled off and the plants “topped” or cut back. Finally comes the picking, curing and packing. Meanwhile the soil must be cultivated and the weeds kept down.*

     In its growing stage much of the culture is simple and does not demand hard work. While the stronger slaves were hoeing and cultivating, the women and children could pick the worms from the plant.† Tobacco was therefore especially suited to slave labor.

     The culture of tobacco began, of course on the Coastal Plain in Maryland and Virginia where the fresh soils generally yielded good crops. During colonial times there was usually a brisk European demand and the home government’s policy favored tobacco culture.‡ Slavery was therefore profitable and yielded quick returns on the investment. Both by the crop demands and by the continuous planting of tobacco without crop rotation, the sandy soils of this region were quickly impoverished. Land was so cheap and abundant that it was cheaper to take up and clear new land than to improve the old. Tobacco culture, therefore, together with its accompanying system of slave labor, moved westward leaving sand wastes in place of the fertile soil that had been deprived of its humus.

     By 1790 slavery was well established on the Piedmont but still there was a dense slave population on the Coastal Plain, a population which, on the whole, increased up to 1820. The succeeding maps show a rather rapid movement of the slave population to the

FIG. 10. The Coast of North Carolina. (From maps of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Surv.)

Piedmont and a progressive increase in this division from the North southward; a kind of slave wave, so to speak, passing southward. The small planters and non-slave-holding farmers were forced westward. The migration of slave owners who were largely from the Tobacco South, is shown as early as 1800 when slavery was well organized in the Louisville and Nashville Basins. From about 1830 on, both the Tidewater Region and the Piedmont of Virginia became

a slave raising rather than a slave working region. By 1840, the Coastal Plain was largely given to the cultivation of cereals. Fig. 12.) The Piedmont in North Carolina held its density up to 1850 and, in fact, well through the slavery period. This area was within the cotton belt and was also a notable tobacco district. The Piedmont soils endured the exhaustive tobacco cultivation much better than did those of the Coastal Plain.