Slavery - Activism v. Reality
Abolitionists were activists, not moderates or historians.
~ Aristotle Sabouni
Created: 2022-10-07 |
| 💭 Activism v. Reality |
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| Remember, Abolitionists were activists, not moderates or historians.
They'd write fantastical books, or tell sensationally exaggerated stories about how bad slavery was, and it would inflame both sides. They wanted change, and weren't above lying or propaganda to do it (they were progressives, and the sales pitch / exaggerations are part of that). So they'd show one slaves whip scars in every newspaper, and pretend that was the norm. Or wrap up every sensational story they heard, in exaggerated form, into some propaganda book. And those fictions and exaggerations infuriated people in the South who lived side-by-side with slaves (may have been raised by them), and knew that the stories being told were rare exceptions, exaggerations, or those that did those things had been convicted of crimes and punished. (Like the perpetrator of the scarred back that was so popular). There was a patriarchal symbiosis -- and as condescending as it is today, the slaves were valuable property. Beating your slave would be like beating your horse that was exhausted -- it was highly frowned on, and wasn't good business. The same with splitting up families unnecessarily, or the exaggerations about breeding programs and so on. Doing those things demoralized the slaves, which harmed output, and that just wasn't good business. Field work sucked, and the stereotype of slaves or blacks being "lazy", was because it was common in economics of the day that you could pay field hands and get far more work done than with an equal amount of slave labor. Like in socialism, when you aren't getting to keep the profits, you work less hard. A way to compensate for that was many slaves were allowed to work one day a week, and keep those profits for themselves (that's how so many slaves became freemen). The idea was that free day set the pace for the rest of the week. (The irony is keeping 1 day of 7 means economically, you were taxed at 86%, or less than Bernie Sanders and others who think we should have a 90% top tax rate. Economically, they're advocate making people more slaves today, than the real slaves were, where's the outrage at that?). That's not to say there weren't problems in the South, or that slavery wasn't a vile institution, or there weren't abuses. Slavery was vile, and some owners were bad people! So there's zero apologism intended. But the point is that majority in the south would have been appalled by the excesses, so implying it was the norm (as the Northern abolitionists and their followers did), was driving a cultural wedge between the regions: the North's caricature of the slave South didn't fit the reality, so the two sides became more polarized. If an accuser starts with a fiction, then even if the rest is true, both side's have a valid grievance -- and the North was too arrogant to consider the possibility that their overstating things might not be helping. |
The economic reality was that slaves were more valuable than immigrants: thus often treated better. The supply of slaves was constrained by outlawing importation. While immigration at the time was a near infinite supply coming across the Atlantic. It's part of why the North won the war -- they did it on the backs of near valueless immigants (that fluffed up their side, and they didn't care if they lost). While the South was losing either their neighbors, family, or late in the war (in small quantities) -- valuable slaves.
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Tags: Slavery Slavery and the New Deal
