Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life

329 Pages·1976·11.093 MB·English

by  Stanley M. Elkins

Slavery

STANLEY M. ELKINS
Slavery
A Problem in
American Institutional and
Intellectual Life
Third Edition, Revised
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
To
DOROTHY
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 1959, 1968, 1976 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Third Edition Published 1976
Printed in the United States of America
17 16 15 14 13 12 n 10 09 9 10 11 12 13 14
isBN-13: 978-0-226-20477-2
ISBN-10: 0-226-20477-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in -Publication Data
Elkins, Stanley M.
Slavery: a problem in American institutional and
intellectual life.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Slavery in the United States. 2. Slavery in the
United States—Condition of slaves. I. Title
E441.E44 1976 3oi.44'93'o973 76-615
ISBN 0-226-20477-4 pbk.
© The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of the American National Standard for
Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Preface to the Third Edition vii
I. An Introduction: Slavery as a Problem in
Historiography
i. The Old Debate 2
2. The Problem of "New Viewpoints" 24
II. Institutions and the Law of Slavery
1. Institutional Breakdown in an Age of
Expansion 27
2. The Dynamics of Unopposed Capitalism 37
3. Slavery in Capitalist and Non-Capitalist
Cultures 52
III. Slavery and Personality
1. Personality Types and Stereotypes 81
2. The "African Culture" Argument 89
3. Shock and Detachment 98
4. Adjustment to Absolute Power in the
Concentration Camp 103
5. Three Theories of Personality 115
6. Mechanisms of Resistance to Absolute Power 133
IV. Slavery and the Intellectual
1. Institutions and Insights 140
2. Intellectuals without Responsibility 147
[v]
3« Sin, Guilty Innocence, and Reform 157
4. The Transcendentalist as Abolitionist 164
5. The Abolitionist as Transcendentalist 175
6. Choices 193
7. Postscript: Slavery, Consensus, and the
Southern Intellect 206
V. Slavery and Ideology 223
VI. The Two Arguments on Slavery 267
Appendix. Essay on Materials and Method 303
Acknowledgments 311
Index 313
[vi]
Preface to the Third Edition
The original edition of this work has not been altered here, in that
its text remains as it was when first published in 1959. But two new
parts have been added to the original four, thus extending the text
by some forty per cent, in recognition that the subject itself has
grown immensely during the intervening years. A word or two on
these additions may be called for.
By the late i96o's a substantial body of critical commentary on
my book had accumulated, and Professor Ann J. Lane undertook
at that time to assemble some leading examples of it in a collection
to which she invited me to contribute. I did so, and the resulting
volume, under her editorship, was published in 1971 as The Debate
over Slavery: Stanley Elfins and his Critics by the University of
Illinois Press. The essay I prepared for that occasion, "Slavery and
Ideology," reappears as Part V of the present edition.
In that essay I had two objects. One was to give due recognition
to what had been written about my own work, and to amplify at
certain points some of my original intentions. The other was to
attempt a prediction on the form which future discussion of the
subject might take. Work by such scholars as David Brion Davis,
George Fredrickson, Winthrop Jordan, and Eric Foner has given
substance to my guess that at least one major realm of interest
would be that of ideology. But as things turned out, it was hardly
the only one. By the end of 1974lt was apparent that another area—
black culture—had come to predominate over all other concerns
in the study of American slavery.
This absorption with culture, and my belief that it was approach
ing a kind of climax, provided the occasion for the other addition
[vii]
to this book. It seemed to me that the work published on slavery in
the i97o's was of sufficient importance and impact, and had so
modified the shape of the subject since I myself first wrote about it,
that some attempt on my part to assess what had happened was
imperative. The resulting essay, "The Two Arguments on Slav
ery," prepared during the summer of 1975 and published in the
December 1975 *ssue °^ Commentary, appears herein as Part VI.
The entire subject of slavery, judging from the intense interest
of scholars and public alike, is presently in a state of extraordinary
vitality. I am aware that there are aspects of it which I have left
largely untouched here. The American abolition movement, for
example, is almost certain to receive some penetrating new scrutiny
in the time just ahead. Although I have given some attention to
abolitionism in Part V, others will soon be giving it far more, and
at some point a major consideration of their work will certainly
be in order.
The Appendixes that were added to the Second Edition (1968)
have been dropped from the present one, as has Appendix B ("The
'Profitability' of Slavery"), which appeared in the First. Only the
"Essay on Materials and Method" has been retained from the
Appendixes of the original edition. A new Index has been compiled
to accommodate the material in Parts V and VI.
Northampton, Massachusetts
November 1975
[ viii ]
I
An Introduction: Slavery as a Problem
in Historiography
Despite the vast amount of writing on American Negro slavery
and the great variety of temperaments and talents that have been
brought to the work, the very spiritual agony inherent in the sub
ject itself imposes on the result a certain simplicity of organiza
tion and a kind of persistent rhythm. The primary categories of
organization for over a century have continued to be those of
right and wrong. To the present day, the rhythm of "right" and
"wrong" which characterized ante-bellum discourse on the sub
ject of slavery has retained much of its original simplicity and
vigor. Certain inhibitions, moreover, have stood guard through
out. There is a painful touchiness in all aspects of the subject; the
discourse contains almost too much immediacy, it makes too
many connections with present problems. How a person thinks
about Negro slavery historically makes a great deal of difference
here and now; it tends to locate him morally in relation to a
whole range of very immediate political, social, and philosophical
issues which in some way refer back to slavery. It may be just as
well that one does not move capriciously in matters of conscience.
But that is what makes it so difficult to recognize the point of
diminishing returns in a discourse which has been carried on for
so long by so many distinguished advocates. The urgency, be
yond any doubt, is still there. But is there anything more to say
that has not been said already?
There is a coerciveness about the debate over slavery: it con
tinues to be the same debate. The same tests for the rightness or
wrongness of slavery remain in use year in and year out. Al
though few inquiries, from the viewpoint of sheer research, have
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