Description: 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.
Brief description: Elizabeth Fox-Genovese (1941-2007) was Eleonore Raoul Professor of the Humanities at Emory University, where she was founding director of Women's Studies. She served on the Governing Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities (2002-2008). In 2003, President George Bush awarded her with a National Humanities Medal; the Georgia State senate honored her with a special resolution of appreciation for her contributions as a scholar, teacher, and citizen of Georgia; and the fellowship of Catholic Scholars bestowed on her its Cardinal Wright Award. Among her books and published lectures are: The Origins of Pysiocracy: Economic Revolution and Social Order in Eighteenth-Century France; Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South; and Feminism without Illusions: A Critique of Individualism.
Review Quotes: "In a study as brilliant as it is provocative, Fox-Genovese and Genovese make the case that many, if not most defenders of slavery in the late antebellum South defended the institution "in the abstract," which is to say, as the proper condition for propertyless laborers regardless of race. Based on the authors' unparalleled command of the sources, Slavery in White and Black will compel all students of the antebellum South to rethink their views. A magisterial work by two truly great historians." -Peter A. Coclanis, Albert R. Newsome Professor of History, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill