Fitzhugh and Hammond. Wrong.

While comparing the views presented by George Fitzhugh and <<<< Mr. Fitzhugh actually believed that slavery was preferable to the life left in Africa, where he imagined cannibalism rampant and life threatening, but made no allowances for life threatening conditions the holds of slave ships. He viewed the African forced immigration as good for these people who were child like, of limited intellect and needing protection or supervision to stop their inferior thinking from doing themselves in, or from starving as they were not self sufficient enough to provide for themselves. The only acknowledgement which borders on accuracy was that the slavery system was necessary to maintain the progress (wealth) of white society. More frightening that he actually espoused these thoughts in two books, which were circulated to spread this poison thought throughout society.

Fitzhugh writes (as noted at http://webct.dvc.edu/SCRIPT/HIST120_5594_SP08/scripts/student/serve_page.pl?1151027847+content/html_pages/readings120_onlinea.htm+OFF+content/html_pages/readings120_onlinea.htm) : The negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest people in the world. The children and the aged and infirm work not at all, and yet have all the comforts and necessaries of life provided for them. They enjoy liberty, because they are oppressed neither by care nor labor. The women do little hard work, and are protected from the despotism of their husbands by their masters. The negro men and stout boys work, on the average, in good weather, not more than nine hours a day. The balance of their time is spent in perfect abandon.

Hammond agrees with Fitzhugh, In a speech to the Senate in 1858, he states: the status in which we have placed them is an elevation. They are elevated from the condition in which God first created them, by being made our slaves. None of that race on the whole face of the globe can be compared with the slaves of the South. They are happy, content, unaspiring, and utterly incapable, from intellectual weakness, ever to give us any trouble by their aspirations.

And in some respects, not every slave experience was as bad as the worst. The experiences of slaves varies greatly. A primary source on slavery, The WPA Slave Narrative, (http://webct.dvc.edu/SCRIPT/HIST120_5594_SP08/scripts/student/serve_page.pl?1151027847+content/html_pages/readings120_onlinea.htm+OFF+content/html_pages/readings120_onlinea.htm)

several hundred first hand accounts of those who had experienced slavery first hand list remarkable variances in the existence of slaves. In its introduction, this phenomena is detailed:

In addition to the substantial number of life histories it contains, the most compelling feature of the collection is the composition of the sample of people who made up its informants. Although not a representative sample of the slave population, they were a remarkably diverse and inclusive cross-section of former slaves. Those whose voices are included in the collection ranged in age from one to fifty at the time of emancipation in 1865, which meant that more than two-thirds were over eighty when they were interviewed. Almost all had experienced slavery within the states of the Confederacy and still lived there. They represented all the major slave occupations. Moreover, the size of the slave units on which respondents reported living varied considerably, from plantations with over a thousand slaves to situations in which the informant was his or her owner's only slave. The treatment these individuals reported ran the gamut from the most harsh, impersonal, and exploitative to work and living conditions and environments that were intimate and benevolent.

From the slaves’ own accounts, there were intimate and benevolent relationships to be found between slaves and their owners. Many slaves were taught to read, many treated as family members, and even some provided with remuneration and eventual freedom. Not every account was full of cruelty deprivation and fearful intimidation with commensurate beatings. These remarks seem to agree with some of the base thinking of Fitzhugh and Hammond.

However, what they cannot be forgiven for is the limited scope of their beliefs. Although able to condemn barbarism in Africa, they were unable to recognize the American version. The life aboard the slave ships, the numbers which perished on the voyage, the arrivals of the sick and weak slaves as though on death’s door. It is not as though this information could have completely escaped them. And if they were aware of some benevolent arrangements for some slaves’ experience, they would also have to be aware of the beatings, mistreatment; sexual assault and complete disregard for the family units of the Africans brought into slavery. They both paid short shrift to these details.

How is it that both of these men were unable to think along the lines of James Otis, who wrote: Can any logical inference in favor of slavery, be drawn from a flat nose, a long or short face? … It is a clear truth that those who every day barter away other mens liberty will soon care very little for their own.

(Ironically today, we find ourselves in a war where those very words should resonate powerfully. In the name of the War on Terror, we have given up our civil rights without a peep, under the guise of the Patriot Act. The right not to be wire tapped, the right not to be lied to or supplanted with false intelligence which leads us to war, the subjection of air travelers to racial profiling for unreasonable search. We have bartered the liberty of Iraqi civilians, and in the name of saving our own liberty, have lost a large part of it instead. )

Also, the alternative to a life in slavery for many Africans may not have been appealing. Writes in …… that life for those whose slave days were behind them found many longing for at least part of their previous lives. To consider, from a passage in LIFE AMONG THE CONTRABANDS.

A letter to MR. Garrison from Harriet Jacobs, “Life Among the Contrabands.” The Liberator, September 5, 1862

Jacobs describes her relief work among the fugitives from slavery who had fled to Washington, D.C. "

Next morning, I went to Duff Green's Row, Government head-quarters for the contrabands here. I found men, women and children all huddled together, without any distinction or regard to age or sex. Some of them were in the most pitiable condition. Many were sick with measles, diptheria, scarlet and typhoid fever. Some had a few filthy rags to lie on; others had nothing but the bare floor for a couch. There seemed to be no established rules among them; they were coming in at all hours, often through the night, in large numbers, and the Superintendent had enough to occupy his time in taking the names of those who came in, and of those who were sent out. His office was thronged through the day by persons who came to hire these poor creatures, who they say will not work and take care of themselves. Single women hire at four dollars a month; a woman with one child, two and a half or three dollars a month. Men's wages are ten dollars per month. Many of them, accustomed as they have been to field labor, and to living almost entirely out of doors, suffer much from the confinement in this crowded building. The little children pine like prison birds for their native element. It is almost impossible to keep the building in a healthy condition. Each day brings its fresh additions of the hungry, naked and sick. In the early part of June, there were, some days, as many as ten deaths reported at this place in twenty-four hours. At this time, there was no matron in the house, and nothing at hand to administer to the comfort of the sick and dying. I felt that their sufferings must be unknown to the people. I did not meet kindly, sympathizing people, trying to soothe the last agonies of death. Those tearful eyes often looked up to me with the language, "Is this freedom?"

nother place, the old school-house in Alexandria, is the Government head-quarters for the women. This I thought the most wretched of all the places. Any one who can find an apology for slavery should visit this place, and learn its curse. Here you see them from infancy up to a hundred years old. What but the love of freedom could bring these old people hither? One old man, who told me he was a hundred, said he had come to be free with his children. The journey proved too much for him. Each visit, I found him sitting in the same spot, under a shady tree, suffering from rheumatism. Unpacking a barrel, I found a large coat, which I thought would be so nice for the old man, that I carried it to him. I found him sitting in the same spot, with his head on his bosom. I stooped down to speak to him. Raising his head, I found him dying. I called his wife. The old woman, who seems in her second childhood, looked on as quietly as though we were placing him for a night's rest. In this house are scores of women and children, with nothing to do, and nothing to do with. Their husbands are at work for the Government. Here they have food and shelter, but they cannot get work.

Fitzhugh and Hammond may have had a few threads which were accurate. Life could be pretty horrific outside the boundaries of slavery as well. What they did not think through was how united the choice would have been, could it have been made to every indentured worker, to let them fare for themselves altogether. The change would need to be gradual, to build in protection and phase out legally ignored cruelty. However, the decision still should have been arrived at in a much more expedient fashion.