Proslavery ideology took place in the prewar United States. It began as an opposition to the growing antislavery movement in the late 18th century and early 19th century. When reading thoughts of the authors such George Fitzhugh's and James Henry Hammond's on slavery we can see strong arguments and controversial points that make us think about a subject in our modern days.
Born in 1806 and being almost 75 years of his hermit life in Virginia, George Fitzhugh, became an advocate for slavery in mid 19th century America. Those times the slavery issue has been a main discussion topic in political world. A Fugitive Slave Act that was passed by the United States Congress and declared that all runaway slaves be brought back to their masters. It was a part of the Compromise between South and North, but it triggered more controversy. People like Fitzhugh insisted that all labor had to be enslaved and that the world must become all slave or all free. By 1850s these views had become commonplace in the South. Basically Fitzhugh called for war against the modern world. And many of his supporters agreed that free labor spelled class war and invited anarchy.
They also agreed that slavery overcame the "social question" by establishing a master class that combined interest with sentiment to offer the masses security. But, having no confidence in his utopian vision of a reversal of history, they generally tried, however illogically, to convince the European and northern bourgeoisie to restore some form of slavery in a corporatist order. Fitzhugh opposed secession until the last minute, arguing that a slaveholding Confederacy could not survive until the advanced capitalist countries had themselves converted. After the war, which once begun he loyally and enthusiastically supported, Fitzhugh sank into obscurity, becoming increasingly negrophobic and idiosyncratic. (Encyclopedia of Southern Culture)
In comparison with humble Fitzhugh, James Henry Hammond was an active politician who in 1835 served as a United States representative and was 60th Governor of South Carolina. Later on, at the end of 1850s he served as a Senator. Political career cared away his previous desires to teach in school and practice the law. A democrat on one side, Hammond was a frank defender of slavery. He compared slaves from South as "well compensated" slaves to the North's hired skilled laborers as "scantily compensated". In his famous speech Speech Before the United States Senate, on 4 March 1858 Hammond said:
A race inferior to her own, but eminently qualified in temper, in vigor, in docility, in capacity to stand the climate, to answer all her purposes. We use them for our purpose, and call them slaves. We found them slaves by the common "consent of mankind," which, according to Cicero, "lex naturae est." The highest proof of what is Nature's law. We are old-fashioned at the South yet; slave is a word discarded now by "ears polite;" I will not characterize that class at the North by that term; but you have it; it is there; it is everywhere; it is eternal. (Hammond)
In his "The Universal Law of Slavery," George Fitzhugh claims that slaves are similar to children, they need care from the master otherwise their careless nature will harm themselves:
He the Negro is but a grown up child, and must be governed as a child, not as a lunatic or criminal. The master occupies toward him the place of parent or guardian. We shall not dwell on this view, for no one will differ with us who thinks as we do of the negro's capacity, and we might argue till dooms-day in vain, with those who have a high opinion of the negro's moral and intellectual capacity. Secondly. The negro is improvident; will not lay up in summer for the wants of winter; will not accumulate in youth for the exigencies of age. He would become an insufferable burden to society. Society has the right to prevent this, and can only do so by subjecting him to domestic slavery. In the last place, the negro race is inferior to the white race, and living in their midst, they would be far outstripped or outwitted in the chaos of free competition. (Fitzhugh)
In unison with Fitzhugh, James Henry Hammond, is explaining that masters of the South are taking care of their slaves. As of the slaves are the children, they are provided with everything they need and in comparison with the North dwellers who unhappily earning their wages. On a top of everything, Hammond in one word with Fitzhugh points that the black race is inferior to a white one:
The difference between us is, that our slaves are hired for life and well compensated; there is no starvation, no begging, no want of employment among our people, and not too much employment either. Yours are hired by the day, not cared for, and scantily compensated, which may be proved in the most painful manner, at any hour in any street in any of your large towns. Why, you meet more beggars in one day, in any single street of the city of New York, than you would meet in a lifetime in the whole South. We do not think that whites should be slaves either by law or necessity. Our slaves are black, of another and inferior race. The status in which we have placed them is an elevation. They are elevated from the condition in which God first created them, by being made our slaves. None of that race on the whole face of the globe can be compared with the slaves of the South. They are happy, content, unaspiring, and utterly incapable, from intellectual weakness, ever to give us any trouble by their aspirations. (Hammond)
Fitzhugh’s and Hammond’s points that slavery is not only a good thing but the only right thing for inferior race to survive is based on the point of view of the slave owner who would not survive himself without a “help” so to speak from a “cheap” labor. As Native American Indians were considered a lower race to Anglo-Americans the black slaves were without a doubt assigned to the same category. And like Missions in California came in to “teach” helpful resources for a future use as well the South plantations owners bought useful workforce from Africa. In California mission story the pay for what they have done was stretching for decades; in slave trade the owners paid once and they had a labor for life. Fitzhugh and Hammond undoubtedly placing themselves above the other race:
What is Race? When some people use the "race" they attach a biological meaning, still others use "race" as a socially constructed concept. It is clear that even though race does not have a biological meaning, it does have a social meaning which has been legally constructed (Haney)
Yet the argument about superiorly of one race versus other certainly resonates with us today. We divided world to the countries, nations, races, classes. People live in communities that might not be willing to accept the others, different, “not like us” people. You would not hear anywhere in civilized world the pro-slavery speech maybe; but the acceptance of one race to another is all over the place. Gated communities in our state, guarded armed vacation resorts in Egypt, ghettos in South Africa, reservations of Indians here in America; all of these are subjects to rejection of one person by another. The lower class might not be a slave per se but a very well accepted “help” to a higher one.
Cited Works:
Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. The University of North Carolina Press; 1 ed.; 1989, ISBN-13: 978-0807818237
Fitzhugh, George. Sociology for the South, or the failure of the free society.., Ayer Co Pub, 1988, ISBN-13: 978-0833711410
Haney Lopez, Ian F. The Social Construction of Race: Some Observations on Illusion, Fabrication, and Choice, 29 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 1-62, 6-7, 11-17 (Winter, 1994) http://academic.udayton.edu/race/01race/race.htm
