The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

The Truths About Slavery

One of the seminal works of slavery in the Anti-Bellum South is "The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South" by Kenneth M. Stampp. Professor Stampp is a winner of the 1993 Lincoln Prize from Gettysburg College's Civil War Institute for his lifetime contributions to Civil War studies. This is a non-fiction book about slavery published in 1956 by academic Kenneth M. Stampp of the University of California, Berkeley, and other universities. The book describes and analyzes multiple facets of slavery in the American South from the 17th through the mid-19th century, including demographics, lives of slaves and slaveholders, the Southern economy and labor systems, the Northern and abolitionist response, slave trading, and political issues of the time. Professor Stampp's classic study of American slavery demonstrates that slavery was a deliberately chosen practical system of controlling and exploiting labor, and it is one of the most important and influential works of American history written in our time. As noted historian Bruce Catton has stated, "A thoughtful and deeply moving book. . . . Mr. Stampp wants to show specifically what slavery was like, why it existed, and what it did to the American people." For all those who wish to understand American slavery in all its aspects, this should be the first book that you should read.

Although this book was written many decades ago, its scholarship is still pertinent. It is not possible to read this book without feeling horror, revulsion, and anger about the institution and perpetuation of slavery in America. In this book, Professor Stampp describes the common experiences of life as a slave as:

• Disease contraction and transmission, disease deaths, occupational injuries, disabilities, early mortality rates, and premature infant deaths were much higher for slaves in comparison to the white population.
• Nihilism and despair amongst the slaves.
• No slave economically nor socially advances themselves or their families.
• Liberty and Freedom are only obtained by a few slaves, and mostly by fleeing bondage.
• Slaves receive only a basic provision of food and clothing for their labor.
• The destruction of the family unit of the slaves through the separate sale of spouses and children and infrequent child-raising by parents.
• The education of slaves was forbidden, resulting in illiteracy and the inability of slaves to rise above their circumstances.
• The inferiority of all slaves to white persons, and the cajoling of non-slaveowners to accept slavery as natural and moral.
• Unhealthy, unsafe, broken down, and dilapidated housing for slaves was common.
• Violence, intimidation, and fear against slaves to maintain and retain slavery.

All these experiences of a slave were deprivations of their Natural Rights as a person. Only by regarding a slave as less than a human could they be tolerated. And this regarding of slaves as less than human was commonplace in slaveholding States, and thus slavery was tolerated in these States. These slaveholding States also regarded slaves as property more than persons, and they treated slaves more as property than as persons. This property mentality allowed for the more horrendous abuses of slaves in the punishment of slaves that exhibited contrary behavior to the will of the slaveowner. This self-delusion that slaves were less than human and to be regarded as property is the biggest stain on American history and antithetical to the Ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

There are many myths regarding slavery that were perpetuated primarily by the pro-slavery forces, but some by the anti-slavery forces. When examining these myths, it is important to remember my saying:

"There are three sides to every story: one side, the other side, and the truth. And it is always best to determine the truth before voicing an opinion."
- Mark Dawson

This book examines the myths of both sides and reveals the facts on both sides, thus determining the truth about slavery in the Ante-Bellum South. But a most revealing quote about the myths of slavery is a quote by a former slave in the final paragraph of the book:

"Tisn't he who has stood and looked on, that can tell you what slavery is – Tis he who has endured. I was black but I had the feelings of a man as well as any other man."

Professor Stampp also had a follow-up book, "The Era of Reconstruction 1865-1877", which is also an interesting read about the radical failure to achieve equality for blacks and of the effect that establishmentarian rule had on the subsequent development of the South. This book was a classic work that offered a revisionist explanation for the radical failure to achieve equality for blacks, and of the effect that Conservative rule had on the subsequent development of the South. Refuting former schools of thought, Stampp challenges the notions that slavery was somehow just a benign aspect of Southern culture, and how the failures during the reconstruction period created a ripple effect that is still seen today.   

A more modern history book that examines the pre-Civil war tensions, the Civil War, and the Reconstruction era in this manner is “Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction” by Allen C. Guelzo. The Civil War is the greatest trauma ever experienced by the American nation, a four-year paroxysm of violence that left in its wake more than 600,000 dead, more than 2 million refugees, and the destruction (in modern dollars) of more than $700 billion in property. The war also sparked some of the most heroic moments in American history and enshrined a galaxy of American heroes. Above all, it permanently ended the practice of slavery and proved, in an age of resurgent monarchies, that a liberal democracy could survive the most frightful of challenges.

In Fateful Lightning, two-time Lincoln Prize-winning historian Allen C. Guelzo offers a marvelous portrait of the Civil War and its era, covering not only the major figures and epic battles, but also politics, religion, gender, race, diplomacy, and technology. And unlike other surveys of the Civil War era, it extends the reader's vista to include the postwar Reconstruction period and discusses the modern-day legacy of the Civil War in American literature and popular culture. Guelzo also puts the conflict in a global perspective, underscoring Americans' acute sense of the vulnerability of their republic in a world of monarchies. He examines the strategy, the tactics, and especially the logistics of the Civil War and brings the most recent historical thinking to bear on emancipation, the presidency and the war powers, the blockade and international law, and the role of intellectuals, North and South.

Written by a leading authority on our nation's most searing crisis, Fateful Lightning offers a vivid and original account of an event whose echoes continue with Americans to this day.

Too many current Americans, this history is the basis for their feelings that 'Reparations' are necessary to atone for this stain on our history. However, as I have written in my article, "Reparations Are Immoral", I do not believe that reparations are appropriate. Rather, a rededication to the principles of "Freedoms, Liberties, Equalities, and Equal Justice for All" is the better alternative.