R
At 05:40 PM 9/18/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>R,
>
>This was an area I was interested in for awhile as well (still am, sort
>of). You're right: apologists of slavery in the South often defended the
>institution by pointing out the cruelty of 'free' Northern
>wage labor. Eric Foner's _Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of
>the Republican
>Party Before the Civil War_ delves a bit into these polemics: "Your whole
>class of manual laborers and operatives, as you call them, are slaves," S.
>Carolina Senator James Hammond, a Fire-eater, stated.
>
>Doing searches on the Fire-eaters, the apologists of slavery, might turn
>up useful info. George Fitzugh is perhaps the most well-known of these,
>who often criticized capitalism while arguing for a slave society.
>
>"The pro-slavery argument was not merely a defense or rationalization of
>slavery. It was also a critique of northern society, and especially of its
>materialism and individualism. In Fitzhugh's analysis, the cause of the
>North's social problems was the 'whole moral code of Free Society,' which
>he summed up as 'every man for himself.' Free competition, lauded by the
>classical economists and advocates of the self-made man, was the means by
>which capital exercised its mastery over labor. It fostered selfishness
>and greed, arraying the two classes against one another in unceasing
>combat. ... In place of the acquisitive materialism of the North, Fitzhugh
>held up the patriarchal values of the South, with their stress on the
>responsibilities of the planter to the entire community, as the model of
>social ethics." (from Foner's Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, p.66-67)
>
>Hope this helps.
>
>
>Brian
>
>On Wed, 18 Sep 2002, R wrote:
>
> > the anti-Bellum south did a pretty good job "defending" its slavery by
> > pointing out that the north was populated with wage slaves. any
> > historians out there conversant with the wage slave dialogue -- then or
> > now? can't find much on it since, evidently, it hits to close to home in
> > our mercantile society.
> >
> > R
>
>---
>
>"And Mr. Block thinks he may / Be President some day." - Joe Hill, "Mr.
>Block"