George Fitzhugh (November 4, 1806 – July 30, 1881)
was an American social theorist who published racial and slavery-based sociological theories in the antebellum era.
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Fitzhugh
He thought slavery was good for whites or blacks...
Fitzhugh differed from nearly all of his southern contemporaries by advocating
slavery that crossed racial boundaries. In 1860 Fitzhugh stated that
"It is a libel on white men to say they are unfit for slavery" and suggested that if
Yankees were caught young they could be trained, domesticated and civilized to make "faithful and valuable servants".
[7] Writing in the
Richmond Inquirer on 15 December 1855, Fitzhugh proclaimed:
"The principle of slavery is in itself right, and does not depend on difference of complexion", "Nature has made the weak in mind or body slaves ...
The wise and virtuous, the strong in body and mind, are born to command", and "The Declaration of Independence is exuberantly false, and aborescently
To him Slavery was:
"Slavery," he wrote, "is a form, and the very best form, of socialism."
"Socialism," he continued: Proposes to do away with free competition; to afford protection and support at all times to the laboring class; to bring about, at least, a qualified community of property, and to associate labor. All these purposes, slavery fully and perfectly attains. ... Socialism is already slavery in all save the master ... Our only quarrel with Socialism is, that it will not honestly admit that it owes its recent revival to the failure of universal liberty, and is seeking to bring about slavery again in some form.[18]
He strikes again:
'It is the duty of society to protect the weak;' but protection cannot be efficient without the power of control; therefore, 'It is the duty of society to enslave the weak.'[28]
Snip...
https://reason.com/1974/02/01/slavery-and-socialism/
Fitzhugh's philosophy had its feet in "respectable" ground: he took Christianity seriously, believed that men were their brother's keepers, decried selfishness, and thought family relationships were the ultimate sort of moral bonds.
Laissez-faire society, he wrote, attempted "to banish Christian virtue, that virtue which bids us to love our neighbor as ourself, and substitute the very equivocal virtues proceeding from mere selfishness."
Fitzhugh insisted that equal freedom to strive towards similar ends assured mutually hostile relationships: "There is no love between equals, and the divine precept, 'love thy neighbor', is thundered vainly in the ears of men straining for the same object."
"What is the difference between the authority of a parent and of a master?" Fitzhugh asked. "Neither pays wages, and each is entitled to the services of those subject to him.…Look closely into slavery, and you will see nothing so hideous in it; or if you do, you will find plenty of it at home in its most hideous form."
Snip... doctrine
"Man is born a member of society, and does not form society," Fitzhugh maintained. "He has no rights whatever, as opposed to the interests of society; and that society may very properly make any use of him that will redound to the public good."
"All governments must originate in force, and be continued by force," he wrote. "The very term, government, implies that it is carried on against the consent of the governed…"
Nowhere is such a feeling stronger than at Fitzhugh's account of the reasons for the "inevitable" demise of capitalism. Examples:
• All competition is but the effort to enslave others, without being encumbered by their support. [C, p.40]
• Indeed, [free laborers] have not a single right or a single liberty, unless it be the right or liberty to die. [C, p.30]
• They [the poor] produce everything and enjoy nothing. [S, p.24]
• A beautiful system of ethics, this, that places all mankind in antagonistic positions, and puts all society at war. [S, p.24]
• We are not aware that anyone disputes the fact that crime and pauperism increased pari passu with liberty, equality, and free competition. [S, p. 36]
• Free laborers are little better than trespassers upon this earth.…[S, p. 249]
The article is long but a good read so read to get the rest of the story...
Link:
https://reason.com/1974/02/01/slavery-and-socialism/
