The slaveholders' dilemma: Freedom and progress in southern conservative thought, 1820-1860

by Eugene D. Genovese

In antebellum times slaveholders perceived themselves as thoroughly modern and moral men who were protecting human progress against the perversions spawned by the more radical aspects of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. The slaveholders insisted that, in resisting the religious heresies, infidelity, ultra-democratic politics, and egalitarian dogmas then sweeping the North and Western Europe, they were proving themselves the firmest carriers of genuine progress itself. Surprisingly, they accepted the widespread idea that freedom generated the economic, social, and moral progress they embraced as their own cause. But they nonetheless increasingly took higher ground in defense of their slave system. In consequence, they plunged into an intellectual and political cul de sac. Genovese, in exploring their efforts to fight their way out of this dilemma, argues that proslavery Southerners--theologians, political theorists, economists, sociologists, and moral philosophers--simultaneously formed part of a broad trans-Atlantic conservative movement and yet advanced a distinct position that set them apart from their Northern and European counterparts. He also holds that the spokesmen for Southern slavery demonstrated a much higher level of intellectual talent than has been generally recognized and that they will no longer be subject to the obscurity into which they have fallen.

Genres: History, Politics, Philosophy, American History

116 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1991

About the author

Eugene Dominic Genovese was an American historian of the American South and American slavery. He has been noted for bringing a Marxist perspective to the study of power, class and relations between planters and slaves in the South. His work Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made won the Bancroft Prize. He later abandoned the Left and Marxism, and embraced traditionalist conservatism.

Reviews

[Drew Norwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why read of the "slaveholders' dilemma"? Is there a dilemma that could possibly be less relevant? The book’s subtitle suggests an answer—especially when you know that the “freedom” relates to economic freedom and to different labor systems/social order and “progress” has in view material progress primarily, its obvious benefits and hidden dangers—but Genovese addresses the question directly in his introduction: "we could, if we would, profit greatly from a reasoned engagement with the thought of Calhoun, Dew, Bledsoe, Thornwell, and others as we grapple today with the staggering problems of a world in headlong transition to the Lord knows what. The finest aspects of their thought, shorn of the tragic commitment to slavery and racism, constitute a searing critique of the most dangerous tendencies in modern life."

The books consists of a robust introduction and three sections: (1) The Dilemma—focusing primarily on the writings of Thomas Roderick Dew and James Henley Thornwell; (2) The Struggle for a Way Out—John Calhoun, Albert Taylor Bledsoe, Henry Hughes, William J. Grayson, and Henry Timrod; and (3) Adventurism and Paralysis—William Trescott and James Henry Hammond.

[Oolalaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

9/20

[Mike Emett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Required for American History 1787-1877 reading seminar P.h.D. course