Slavery in White and Black

Class and Race in the Southern Slaveholders' New World Order

Eugene D Genovese author Elizabeth Fox-Genovese author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:27th Oct '08

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Slavery in White and Black cover

This book asks to what extent Southern slaveholders believed the doctrine that enslavement was the best possible condition for all labor.

In the Old South a doctrine emerged - 'Slavery in the Abstract', which declared enslavement the best possible condition for all labor regardless of race. They joined the Socialists in believing that the free-labor system, wracked by worsening class warfare, was collapsing. This book asks, to what extent did the people of the several social classes of the South accept so extreme a doctrine?Southern slaveholders proudly pronounced themselves orthodox Christians, who accepted responsibility for the welfare of the people who worked for them. They proclaimed that their slaves enjoyed a better and more secure life than any laboring class in the world. Now, did it not follow that the lives of laborers of all races across the world would be immeasurably improved by their enslavement? In the Old South but in no other slave society a doctrine emerged among leading clergymen, politicians, and intellectuals - 'Slavery in the Abstract', which declared enslavement the best possible condition for all labor regardless of race. They joined the Socialists, whom they studied, in believing that the free-labor system, wracked by worsening class warfare, was collapsing. A vital question: to what extent did the people of the several social classes of the South accept so extreme a doctrine? That question lies at the heart of this book.

'By forcing us to confront the historical ubiquity of slavery and the revolutionary novelty of wage labour, the Genoveses invite us to see the Civil War as a struggle over capitalism at least as much as a struggle over slavery.' London Review of Books

ISBN: 9780521721813

Dimensions: 235mm x 156mm x 21mm

Weight: 560g

332 pages