George Fitzhugh
(1806-1881), SOCIOLOGY FOR THE SOUTH (1854).
Domestic slavery in the Southern States has produced the same results in elevating the
character of the master that it did in Greece and Rome. He is lofty and independent in his
sentiments, generous, affectionate, brave and eloquent; he is superior to the Northerner
in every thing but the arts of thrift. History proves this. . . . Seipio and Aristides,
Calhoun and Washington, are the noble results of domestic slavery. Like Egyptian obelisks
‘mid the waste of time--simple, severe, sublime,--they point ever heavenward, and
lift the soul by their examples. . . .
But the chief and far most important enquiry is, how does slavery affect the condition
of the slave? One of the wildest sects of Communists in France proposes not only to hold
all property in common, but to divide the profits, not according to each man’s input
and labor, but according to each man’s wants. Now this is precisely the system of
domestic slavery with us. We provide for each slave, in old age and in infancy, in
sickness and in health, not according to his labor, but according to his wants. The
master’s wants are more costly and refined, and he therefore gets a larger share of
the profits. A Southern farm is the beau ideal of Communism; it is a joint concern, in
which the slave consumes more than the master, of the coarse products, and is far happier,
because although the concern may fail, he is always sure of a support; he is only
transferred to another master to participate in the profits of another concern; he marries
when he pleases, because he knows he will have to work no more with a family than without
one, and whether he live or die, that family will be taken care of; he exhibits all the
pride of ownership, despises a partner in a smaller concern, "a poor man’s
negro," boasts of "our crops, horses, fields and cattle;" and is as happy
as a human being can be. And why should he not?--he enjoys as much of the fruits of the
farm as he is capable of doing, and the wealthiest can do no more. Great wealth brings
many additional cares, but few additional enjoyments. Our stomachs do not increase in
capacity with our fortunes. We want no more clothing to keep us warm. We may create new
wants, but we cannot create new pleasures. The intellectual enjoyments which wealth
affords are probably balanced by the new cares it brings along with it.
There is no rivalry, no competition to get employment among slaves, as among free
laborers. Nor is there a war between master and slave. The master’s interest prevents
his reducing the slaves’ allowance or wages in infancy or sickness, for he might lose
the slave by so doing. His feeling for his slave never permits him to stint him in old
age. The slaves are all well fed, well clad, have plenty of fuel, and are happy. They have
no dread of the future--no fear of want. A state of dependence is the only condition in
which reciprocal affection can exist among human beings--the only situation in which the
war of competition ceases, and peace, amity and good will arise. A state of independence
always begets more or less of jealous rivalry and hostility. A man loves his children
because they are weak, helpless and dependent. He loves his wife for similar reasons. When
his children grow up and assert their independence, he is apt to transfer his affection to
his grandchildren. He ceases to love his wife when she becomes masculine or rebellious;
but slaves are always dependent, never the rivals of their master. Hence, though men are
often found at variance with wife or children, we never saw one who did not like his
slaves, and rarely a slave who was not devoted to his master. "I am thy
servant!" disarms me of the power of master. Every man feels the beauty, force and
truth of this sentiment of Sterne. But he who acknowledges its truth, tacitly admits that
dependence is a tie of affection, that the relation of master and slave is one of mutual
good will. Volumes written on the subject would not prove as much as this single
sentiment. It has found its way to the heart of every reader, and carried conviction along
with it. The slaveholder is like other men; he will not tread on the worm nor break the
bruised reed. The ready submission of the slave, nine times out of ten, disarms his wrath
even when the slave has offended. The habit of command may make him imperious and fit him
for rule; but he is only imperious when thwarted or crossed by his equals; he would scorn
to put on airs of command among blacks, whether slaves or free; he always speaks to them
in a kind and subdued tone. We go farther, and say the slaveholder is better than
others--because he has greater occasion for the exercise of the affections. His whole life
is spent in providing for the minutest wants of other, in taking care of them in sickness
and in health. Hence he is the least selfish of men. Is not the old bachelor who retires
to seclusion, always selfish? Is not the head of a large family almost always kind and
benevolent? And is not the slaveholder the head of the largest family? Nature compels
master and slave to be friends; nature make employers and free laborers enemies.
The institution of slavery gives full development and full play to the affections. Free
society chills, stints and eradicates them. In a homely way the farm will support all, and
we are not in a hurry to send our children into the world, to push their way and make
their fortunes, with a capital of knavish maxims. We are better husbands, better fathers,
better friends, and better neighbors than our Northern brethren. The tie of kindred to the
fifth degree is often a tie of affection with us. First cousins are scarcely acknowledged
at the North, and even children are prematurely pushed off into the world. Love for others
is the organic law of our society, as self-love is of theirs.
Every social structure must have its substratum. In free society this substratum, the
weak, poor and ignorant, is borne down upon and oppressed with continually increasing
weight by all above. We have solved the problem of relieving this substratum from the
pressure from above. The slaves are the substratum, and the master’s feelings and
interests alike prevent him from bearing down upon and oppressing them. With us the
pressure on society is like that of air or water, so equally diffused as not any where to
be felt. With them it is the pressure of the enormous screw, never yielding, continually
increasing. Free laborers are little better than trespassers on this earth given by God to
all mankind. The birds of the air have nests, and the foxes have holes, but they have not
where to lay their heads. They are driven to cities to dwell in damp and crowded cellars,
and thousands are even forced to lie in the open air. This accounts for the rapid growth
of Northern cities. The feudal Barons were more generous and hospitable and less
tyrannical than the petty land-holders of modern times. Besides, each inhabitant of the
barony was considered as having some right of residence, some claim to protection from the
Lord of the Manor. A few of them escaped to the municipalities for purposes of trade, and
to enjoy a larger liberty. Now penury and the want of a home drive thousands to towns. The
slave always has a home, always an interest in the proceeds of the soil. . . .
In France, England, Scotland and Ireland, the genius of famine hovers o’er the
land. Emigrants, like a flock of hungry pigeons or Egyptian locusts, are alighting on the
North. Every green thing will soon be consumed. The hollow, bloated prosperity which she
now enjoys is destined soon to pass away. Her wealth does not increase with her numbers;
she is dependent for the very necessaries of life on the slaveholding States. If those
States cut off commercial intercourse with her, as they certainly will do if she does not
speedily cease interference with slavery, she will be without food or clothing for her
overgrown population. She is already threatened with a social revolution. . . .
At the slaveholding South all is peace, quiet, plenty and contentment. We have no mobs,
no trades unions, no strikes for higher wages, no armed resistance to the law, but little
jealousy of the rich by the poor. We have but few in our jails, and fewer in our poor
houses. We produce enough of the comforts and necessaries of life for a population three
or four times as numerous as ours. We are wholly exempt from the torrent of pauperism,
crime, agrarianism, and infidelity which Europe is pouring from her jails and alms houses
on the already crowded North. Population increases slowly, wealth rapidly. . . . Wealth is
more equally distributed than at the North, where a few millionaires own most of the
property of the county. (These millionaires are men of cold hearts and weak minds; they
know how to make money, but not how to use it, either for the benefit of themselves or of
others.) High intellectual and moral attainments, refinement of head and heart, give
standing to a man in the South, however poor he may be. Money is, with few exceptions, the
only thing that ennobles at the North. We have poor among us, but none who are over-worked
and under-fed. . . .
EOD |
