The impending crisis of the South; how to meet it

by Hinton Rowan Helper

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published Burdick Brothers in 1857 in 431 pages; Slavery; Southern States; Southern states; History / United States / General; History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877); History / United States / State & Local / South; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies; Social Science / Slavery;

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Sociology

Nook

First published January 1, 1857

About the author

Hinton Rowan Helper (December 27, 1829 – March 9, 1909) was an American Southern critic of slavery during the 1850s. In 1857, he published a book which he dedicated to the "nonslaveholding whites" of the South. The Impending Crisis of the South, written partly in North Carolina but published when the author was in the North, argued that slavery hurt the economic prospects of non-slaveholders, and was an impediment to the growth of the entire region of the South. Anger over his book due to the belief he was acting as an agent of the North attempting to split Southerners along class lines led to Southern denunciations of 'Helperism'.

Reviews

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book. The writing style and organization of the book were a bit amateurish, but the message was powerful and persuasive. Helper is very modern in the way that he uses statistics to make the case that slavery was far less profitable than free labor and actually impoverished the South instead enriching it. Everyone knows that the South was less populous and less industrialized than the North, but I hadn't realized until reading this book that the North actually hugely surpassed the South even in agriculture. And he shows how the gap between North and South had widened by a large margin from the time of the Revolution. Another thing that I had only vaguely realized that this book brings home is how slavery diminished the lives of the non-slave owning white majority in the South. After the economic argument there are several chapters of testimony in the form of quotations against slavery, from the South, the North, the church, etc. This part of the book was a lot less compelling, at least to me. Then he goes back to the statistics, followed by a discussion of the over representation of slave interests in the national government, and wraps up with an interesting chapter in which he argues with some force that slavery retarded the educational and cultural development of the South and made it impossible in the antebellum period for the South to develop its own literature.

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Too long have we yielded a submissive obedience to the tyrannical domination of an inflated; too long have we tolerated their arrogance and self conceit; too long have we submitted to their unjust and savage exactions. Let us now wrest from them the sceptre of power, establish liberty and equal rights throughout the land, and henceforth and forever guard our legislative halls from the polutions and ursurpations form pro-slavery demagogues.

We have stated, in a cursory manner, the reasons, as we understand them, why the North has surpassed the south, and have endeavored to show, we think successfully, that the political salvation of the South depends upon the speedy and unconditional abolition of slavery.”

-Hinton Helper, The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet it

This was a hard book to read.

Helper's work is filled with rhetoric that stems from hate for the elite class. There are multiple quotes that do not have footnotes or sources. There is a whole chapter filled with full letters from mayors and governors telling what the estimated population growth is for their city or state. Helper even continues to state his opinion with a “we think” or “we believe.” When (as in the example above) it is continually annoying figuring out the context to know who the “we” is. This book is, without saying, difficult to keep reading.

***

Helper's “ The Impending Crisis” came out in 1857, in the height of the pre-war era, and sold over 140,000 copies through multiple different editions. It did more to flame the abolitionist fire than any other work besides Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Naturally I figured, since I am highly interested in this era, I would read it. What I got from did not necessarily surprise me.

***

Helper’s work makes the general argument that Slavery is an institution that has plagued the South, robbed it of its richness, and set up an oligarchy of elite Slaveholders. Oh yes, and it also is not a good institution because it oppressed blacks. Helper proposed that the Southern poor should save itself from this prison and overthrow the “demagogues” in control.

In his work, He proposes his idea of a post-abolition America. The Slave would be set free and be deported to some country such as Libya. They would colonize this area and live on it. The Abolitionists would destroy the “Oligarchy” and take over Southern society which would benefit from this. The common poor uneducated white would rule the society on freedom.

Compared to how people today view the times of the war and before the war, this book could come to be quite a surprise. This book is littered with language that could easily be considered racist by today's standards.

Talking of when the Southern states did not get rid of Slavery right after the revolutionary he states:

“We should have rid ourselves of not only African slavery, which is an abomination and a curse, but also of the Negroes themselves, who, in our judgement, whether viewed in their actual characteristics and condition, or through the strong antipathies of the whites, are, to say the least, an undesirable population.”

It becomes very apparent that, while Helper, every once in a while, may say something about equality, his main problem is slavery itself. He thought that the Slaveholder and their pushing for the importance of slavery had crumbled Southern society. In every economical production besides agriculture (and even somewhat in that one) the South was nothing compared to the North. I think he was right with this one point being a problem but, today, that would be unacceptable to say that was the biggest problem.

***

This book was an outrage in the south and it did not reach its intended audience (the poor uneducated white). Instead it became a bestseller in the north. It was republished in 1859 as a Compendium version to help the republic party in the election. Some of the harshest rhetoric was watered down and it was endorsed by 58 republicans in congress, which sparked such a controversy that the house did not work for a month.

While the rhetoric was rough to the Southern elite, the main reasons why it was banned and hated in southern society were a couple reasons. It argued for a poor white revolt and, when the abolition of slavery happened, the author proposed how to deal with the slaveholders:

“2nd. Ineligibility of Slaveholders - Never another vote to the trafficker of human flesh.
3rd. No cooperation with slaveholders in politics- No fellowship with them in religion-No affiliation with them in society.
4th. No patronage to Slaveholding merchants - No guests ship in Slave-waiting hotels-No Fees to Slaveholding lawyers-No employment of Slaveholding physicians-No audience to Slaveholding parsons.
5th. No recognition of Pro-Slavery Men, except as ruffians, outlaws, and criminals.”

He goes on to say that the pro-Slavery newspapers should be discontinued and that, for every slave owned, the Slaveholder should pay a sixty-five dollar tax.

Needless to say this book caused outrage in the South. The book was not circulated in any part of the South. Maryland Banned it, a minister caught handing out copies in North Carolina was put in prison for a year, and North Carolina promised to give Helper “a home in the bosom of his native soil” if he returned. Three residents of Arkansas were supposedly hung for owning copies.

The proposals presented make me understand better why such men who fought for the South, yet opposed slavery (Lee, Jackson), wanted gradual secession. Because the consequences of this book would have destroyed the society of the South, which, to be honest, with the Civil War, it inevitably did.

***

The big difference between the way the war played out and the way this book proposed was the post-slave society and the place of the freedmen. The book proposed Colonization, which had been practiced in Libya to some success. Lincoln favored this view highly and even deported a few thousand to their inevitable doom to disease. In fact, days before the signing of the Emancipation proclamation, he still was heavily considering this proposal. It must have been quite popular seeing that 58 republicans endorse the work and many anti-black laws were present in the North. Due to voices such as Frederick Douglass (who basically said “we have lived here and have a mind to live here”), Lincoln and the Republican senate backed off and emancipated the Slaves, proposed full freedom to the Freedman which still took years to actually be given.

***

The most interesting thing about this book is a twist that came out a few decades after the publishing. Hinton Helper basically stated that his intention was to get rid of the Blacks. He thought they had infected the South and challenged them to take over it, so he wanted the race destroyed but in a clever way. He aspired to the colonization method because it seemed to be more acceptable and reminded him of the Trail of Tears and how Jackson “cleverly” dealt with that situation. By separating the races.

The truth is this man was a white supremacist republican and, in many ways, even more racist than everyday Southerners. He saw the Civil war as a help more for the poor white in Southern society and must have been appalled when the freedman did not end up deported.

***
For many of the reasons above I have given this book a low rating. The racist agenda behind the argument and just the really bad proposals and argumentation (not to mention, again, the writing style).

The one good thing about this book is that it's a window into some of the feelings and views of this time. Considering again that the popular pre-war book, Uncle Tom's cabin is still read by millions today and yet this book has faded in obscurity, when it was arguably second in its promotion of the Abolitionist cause and sold many copies in the North. For this reason alone it should be read and studied for a better and truer understanding of the War.

[Andre Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most important books you have never heard of. It gives a great accounting of life for non-slave holding whites in the Antebellum South. It turns the typical Southern narrative on its head. It is a must read!!!!!

[Bert Sletten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very strange book. I had no idea that such a book existed - anti-slavery from the south arguing against slavery because of economics. It’s a collection of statistics, graphs and other data showing that the south would be richer and more like the north if there was no slavery..

It’s cool that such a book existed during slavery and that it survived. I have no idea whether the data and its conclusions are correct, but apparently others during that period thought it was such a danger that the author had to be anonymous and apparently faced death if he was found out. Apparently sellers/owners of the book were also subject to punishments up to death.

After a couple of hours of reading, I gave up on the book. It’s a cool idea, but I did not notice any moral reasons to give up slavery, just data about how the south could be as rich as the north.

Heather Cox Richardson, a historian, wrote (2024) this about the book:
In 1857, North Carolinian Hinton Rowan Helper wrote a book attacking enslavement. No friend to his Black neighbors, Helper was a virulent white supremacist. But in The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It, he used modern statistics to prove that slavery destroyed economic opportunity for white men, and assailed “the illbreeding and ruffianism of the slaveholding officials.” He noted that voters in the South who did not own slaves outnumbered by far those who did. "Give us fair play, secure to us the right of discussion, the freedom of speech, and we will settle the difficulty at the ballot-box,” he wrote.

In the North the book sold like hotcakes—142,000 copies by fall 1860. But southern leaders banned the book, and burned it, too. They arrested men for selling it and accused northerners of making war on the South. Politicians, newspaper editors, and ministers reinforced white supremacy, warned that the end of slavery would mean race war, and preached that enslavement was God’s law.

[Marbeth Skwarczynski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is mentioned in the history textbook I teach every other year to my 11-12th U.S. History class. This year I decided to read it. I'm glad I did, but wish I had read it sooner. It is easy to find and read pre-war anti-slavery materials from the North, but I'd never read any from the Southern point of view.
Helper was a Southern abolitionist who compiled this book with the specific purpose of presenting the case to his fellow Southerners that slavery was destroying their region, their morality, and even their intellect. He uses pages of information tables to prove that the South's pride in their agricultural achievements is misplaced. He gives a myriad of examples from sermons, Papal bulls, and Scripture that slavery is immoral. He presents the bald-faced truth that "Slavery tolerates no freedom of the press—no freedom of speech—no freedom of opinion" even among the free citizens of the South.

[Stephen W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thousands of fascinating facts and figures and plenty of passionate arguments upturn the conventional wisdom that slavery made the South rich. It made a small number of people rich and made the rest miserable. Prior to the Civil War, this book was second only to Uncle Tom’s Cabin in turning Northerners against slavery. It was illegal to read in the South. Some men were lynched for owning a copy of this book as it was designed to inform and prove to the poor whites that they were held down by slavery. It was designed to get them to overturn slavery. Unfortunately they were not allowed to read it and instead eventually sided with the plantation owners in the Civil War.

[Safoora Seyedi]

the University of North Carolina, has a copy of Helper's book that he himself owned, and in the margin, after the Civil War, he wrote: for proof that this book was not written on behalf of negroes, as is sometimes charged, but on behalf of white people, see pages blah, blah, blah.
Helper's critique is that slavery is bad for Southern whites. It has nothing, so he doesn't care particularly about the oppression of blacks, the institution degrades and makes impoverished Southern whites.
That is all you need to know before reading this book.

[Gregory Ashe · Rating 5 out of 5]

despite its 1857 publication date, the book is surprisingly relevant in its depiction of the South

[Stephen Power · Rating 5 out of 5]

Total banger. The WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS for the whole Confederacy. And sadly many attitudes haven't changed even with the end of slavery.

[Jerry Yang · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting perspective to consider. Important to learn about other opinions in politics

[wally · Rating 3 out of 5]

finished today 31st march 2021 three stars i liked it kindle owned heard about it somewhere i forget exactly where and wanted to read it. written around 1856...by a southerner opposed to slavery, loaded with facts and figures, apparently "statistics" was a relatively new...science? lots of info one might not otherwise know. exact figures for so much. cotton wasn't really king. anyway, he makes the argument against slavery, the argument for abolition. curious...the total populations, in detail...as well as the vote of 1850. i'd have to look at the numbers side by side, total pop, total vote count...they're not on the same page, and why would they be? but maybe that is one thing lacking here...he does present the idea that "poor white trash" is of less value that a slave...and he goes into detail about the small percentage of slave owners who by and large swayed the public, poor white among them. ironic, that an area of the country where "freedom" and its expression became thee place to be, johnny reb. curious, that industry didn't take root in the south, we've heard that before, all industry in the north. offshoot of slavery, cotton is king. but back to the population count...curious to know what percentage of voters voted? who? i do not believe anyone other than the "elite" could vote, but that's not part of the narrative. there's a lot of info here...pages and pages of detailed numbers from the 1850 census, populations, products, dollar amounts, the whole shebang. maybe that's the best part of this...the info available, do with it what you will, hard to argue numbers.

[Gerard Conway · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating and entertaining-sad and timely

Here’s a fascinating book written in the 1850s by a Southern writer attacking slavery and slaveholders—not just as a moral evil, but as an economic evil. The writing is archaic in style (but quite fun to read, especially when he’s describing the slave-holding oligarchy; to put it mildly, he’s not a fan) but the arguments are surprisingly and depressingly modern. He uses statistical analysis to show the institution of slavery was an economic and cultural drain on the South, and much of what he says here could be applied today to the economic and cultural attitudes that still dominate Southern thinking —which is why I found the book both fascinating and depressing. One hundred and sixty years later, the average Southerner is still in thrall to an oligarchic elite that actively undermines his and her economic and cultural well being for the elite’s benefit, using the same political ploys described here. This free book is worth a read (or a skim) for insight into just how intractable certain modes of thought can be. The author ends on a hopeful (and somewhat sadly naive) note, predicting the end of slavery through a repudiation by enlightened Southern non-slaveholders recognising they’ve been lied to and manipulated by their leaders. Almost two hundred years later, we’re still awaiting that recognition.

[Jessica Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Southern response to slavery..

Mr. Helper is one of the few Southern voices that rose up in protest against slavery. His reasoning is as racist as any slaveholder because he bewails the negative impact slavery had on nonslaveholding whites. But it cannot be denied, he was right. White liberties and economic advantages were reduced due to a small group of rich slave holders. It's an interesting point of view. Give it a read.