The Ideology of Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Antebellum South, 1830–1860

Preface

PREFACE The pages that follow attempt to portray the development, mature essence, and ultimate fragmentation of proslavery thought during the era of its greatest importance in the American South. Although recent years have witnessed an intensification of interest in the antebellum defense of slavery, students and scholars have not had convenient access to texts that could provide a basis for serious study of the proslavery argument. I have tried here to place some of the most significant nineteenth-century proslavery writings within a framework of twentieth-century scholarly understanding by providing an introduction, head notes, and a bibliography of relevant secondary material. The introduction establishes a context for the selections that follow by presenting both a history of the defense of slavery and a historiographical survey of writing on proslavery thought. The texts themselves have been reproduced with a minimum of abridgement, although some editing was necessary to make a one-volume anthology feasible. For the most part, I restricted my omissions to eliminating some of the interminable examples these nineteenth-century authors liked to offer in support of each assertion within their arguments. In several cases, I chose to include lesser-known works by standard authors because these could be reproduced without substantial editorial intervention. I felt that, insofar as possible, I should allow slavery's defenders to speak for themselves. Original spelling and punctuation , even when inconsistent, have been retained. The Selected Bibliography that closes the volume is designed to serve as a comprehensive guide to the historical literature on the proslavery theorists and their arguments. I have been aided in compiling this anthology by a variety of scholars and friends. Peter Kolchin, Larry Tise, and Bertram Wyatt-Brown generously provided me access to their unpublished work. Lewis Simpson and Beverly Jarrett of Louisiana State UniversityPress had the idea for the volume in the ix PREFACE first place, and helped shape the book with clear-headed and useful suggestions . Carolyn Kappes, Margaret Fisher Dalrymple, Marlene Heck, and Janet Tighe worked hard to keep the text free from error. Charles Rosenberg and Paul and Barbara Rosenkrantz set a scholarly tone that inspired me to come home from the beach and finish the project. To all I am grateful. x THE IDEOLOGY OF SLAVERY This page intentionally left blank ...