August 6, 2009
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Why Didn't the Poor Whites in the South Oppose Slavery?
I do enjoy my history, and like drawing parallels from today's news to old stories. Recently, while thinking about employment, I got side-tracked and started thinking about slavery in the American South in the 1800's. There's no question that slavery helped the plantation owners grow rich; they had access to a ready supply of hardworking, free labor. However, the free labor naturally made it harder for the whites who were poor or middle-class to find jobs. Without slaves, the plantation owners would have had to hire poor white men and women to pick their cotton.
I wonder, then, why did the poor whites never rebel against slavery as taking money out of their pockets and food out of their mouths? Lately I've been pondering how culture tends to stay the same unless some revolution or crisis point interrupts the natural order. Was it just that the poor whites were so used to their status that they would not talk back? Were they that wedded to racist tales of their superiority, that dedicated to the status quo?
(For proof of the poverty in slavery-dominated regions, read this quote). There were a few exceptions. In a fascinatingly-titled book by David Williams titled "Rich Man's War", he quotes a planter as saying "If the poor whites realized that slavery kept them poor, would they not vote it down?" Also, Hinton Rowan Helper, a former poor Southerner, wrote a book titled "The Impending Crisis of the South" that pointed out that slave owners were, by their actions, intentionally keeping poor whites illiterate and degenerate. But why did so few poor whites in the South realize this? It seems so obvious now.
Comments (18)
wow...interesting. Im going to have to email this for a discussion amoung my friends.
There's a fascinating analogy to be made to the Sexual Revolution of
the 1960's that came to mind as I was writing this...I saved it for the
comment section because it would have been distracting. The Sexual Revolution legitimized a few men and women
having very many partners, and, in my opinion, heightened inequality in
sexuality (e.g., uglier or poorer people have a much harder time of finding a constant partner
than before the sexual revolution). So why haven't such people stood up
and said "Enough's enough?" The current system makes it much harder for unattractive people to find partners, and promotes instability and free sex over commitment and responsibility.
It's a
tortured analogy in some ways, I'll admit, but think about it.
i haz kno idia thay kep us ignerent.
@TheTheologiansCafe - Heh, in your joking you make a great point--if you're ignorant, you have a much harder time realizing you're ignorant!
It's entirely obvious.
It's better to have a higher status than a slave than to end up competing with them for jobs. Duh...
I've read case studies about this, it's quite sad & pathetic really.
@Luvlystarr - Yeah
That's really the only possibility to explain it. I hope that by people asking themselves "Why", they realize just how awful and counter-intuitive that reasoning was.
@CiaoBella810 - Thanks
There's also a great discussion to be had about the things our culture accept that are evils not just in theory, but also by the spillover evils that they inspire and cultivate in every day life.
And the abolitionists tended to be upper class and educated. One sadly finds that the poorly educated pretty much do what they are told to do and believe what they are told to believe. One thing I believe may also have something to do with it, but I can't really prove it, those at the bottom need to think someone is lower than they are.
Poor white trash needed to think there was a lower class than they were in.
@GreekPhysique - If you haven't blogged about your points re the Sexual Revolution, I suggest you do so. If you do, please send a PM with the link. I think it would make a fascinating read!
I will try to remember to read the book you mentioned in this. If you are interested in slavery I also recommend "The White Slave" by Fanny Howe. It's a novel, but is a true story.
@lonelywanderer2 - It's almost ready--I just can't decide whether I prefer post or video form to deliver it. I'll let you know whenever it's finally done.
My family had poor southern farmers in Missouri and we had an ancestor that was a plantation owner in Tennesee. When the civil war started in Missouri they weren't fighting to protect the rich plantation owners right to keep their slaves or for slaves at all. They were fighting in Missouri because the Union "jayhawkers" came and burnt their homes down and killed the men. My family fought in the civil war to protect their homes.
I had union family members that fought in the civil war too, they weren't fighting to free slaves though. They were pretty racist according to diary accounts we have. They fought because they were merely in their minds fighting to keep the union together.
Most of the time, people won't change unless they're in significant pain. The pain of change needs to overarch the pain of staying the same. I think that's why very often, as you noted, we stay stagnant ... or repeat the mistakes of past generations, because we haven't had "enough" of that pain to justify a radical overhaul of the current system. I'm not sure I fully understand or agree with your sexual revolution argument - but you might be onto something. Regardless - very good thoughts.
Either way, the focus back then would have been wrong.
The issue wasn't about the labor problems...it was about respect for black people...key word: people. White people deserved to be able to find paying jobs just as much as black people deserved to get paid for the work they were doing.
But more than that, both the poor whites and the blacks were in slavery. Blacks were forced to work against their will and poor whites were forced into poverty. Oh, definitely, many resisted and tried to fight back. It's not like all of them just did nothing. But both sides faced a very real slavery.
Probably for the same reason that most second or third generation welfare recipients don't realize that they are being kept down. They are too busy just trying to survive day by day. They wake up each day hoping to get through the day alive and with a full belly. Our current welfare system punishes anyone who tries to get out of it. So it's easier just to learn to work the system to the best of your abilities and get by one day at a time than it is to fight the system. I imagine it was much the same for poor people throughout history.
From was my experience working in a restaurant in the 80's and early 90's, I witnessed poor whites that needed jobs not willing to wash dishes or bus tables for $3.35 an hour but an illegal alien would be willing. The illegals were not stealing jobs from anyone, it was just that the poor whites were not willing to do the work for that small wage.
The analogy isn't perfect of course but I believe that in Slave South, the poor whites would rather scrape by some other way than working in the fields sun up to sundown for a small wage.
Greek, hi.. a lot of the White Southerners were fiercely independent people that were basically dis-interested in the Plantation slave-ocracy.. they were too focused & distracted with their own struggle to survive, to be interested in the morality & economics of the Plantation.. a lot of White Southerners lived isolated lives (ie- Appalachia, etc) where they were very self-sufficient, and not worried about Plantation owners.. which is why so many rushed to defend the South, bcuz they believed that the North was going to intrude on their isolation & destroy their self-sufficient/agrarian lives.. In my opinion, they just weren't really thinking about slavery.. it was the wealthy Plantation owners who were fiercely digging in to protect slavery, and since they controlled the power structure, it seemed as if their ideas reflected the ideas of the entire South (which they didn't) Most poor White Southerners (in my opinion) were just too indifferent to rebel, and just wanted to exist unmolested on their own small farms.. who knows. peace.
I wish i was at home and could grab my "Civil War and Reconstruction" history class notes, because I *know* some reasons as to why but I want to make sure I say them right. HOpefully I remember to bounce back to this when I'm home again, and can relate what I learned.
Insightful.
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