From: morphy@cco.caltech.edu (Jones Maxime Murphy)
Subject: Re: Benefits of slavery to non-slaveholders (was a fresh sta
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 03:47:25 GMT

KARLIN@BNLCL6.BNL.GOV (P.L. Cowan) writes:


>: I agree with Jones on the point that non-slaveowning 
>: southern whites gained psychological comfort from slavery.  
>: ... [much good stuff deleted] ...

>Thank you for your excellent post. The original point that I was trying to make
>was that equating the motivations the majority of Southerners with Hitler's
>(or the Nazis's) is inappropriate.

That never happened. I in fact pointed out that African slavery was much longer-
lived, far more widespread, and took many more lives than Hitler's brief but
brutal reign.

> Perhaps I should have gone on to make the
>analogy that the Southerners were duped (as P. Dunn points out), just as the
>German populas was. The difference seems to be that after losing their
>respective wars, the South (as a whole) remained racist (probably more so) in
>the immediate aftermath, while the German's (at least) professed guilt for 
>what happened.

Yes, in a sense the real war re-started after the (relatively minor) Civil War
ended. Returning rebel soldiers vented their murderous frustration at defeat
on the hapless blacks just emerging from the centuries-long nightmare of
enslavement in the "land of the free and home of the brave". Returning Union
soldiers, curiously enough, also went on rampages in cities such as New York,
where blacks were killed in racial rioting. I suppose they were frustrated in
victory.:)

>: One 
>: southerner recognized this in the 1850's.  His name was Hinton Rowan Helper, 
>: and in a book entitled -Impending Crisis in the South- he stated almost exactly 
>: the same things as I have.  The planter elite severely censored this book, of 
>: course.
>: 

>I have read that selling his book in some states was a capital offense. Does
>anyone know whether this was literally true (i.e. did State laws exist in
>violation of the 1st Amendment) or just figuratively (though threat of
>lynching)?

Is this a trick question? It was thoroughly illegal to publish reports of
slave revolts in many areas of the South, a flagrant violation of the first
Amendment. In any event, the scale of constitutional violation at the time
renders this issue rather academic. For instance, it was also a capital offense
for a white to teach a black to read and write, and many blacks were killed
for such things as reading the Bible.

>: Finally, as far as the opinions of African-Americans regarding the war, they
>: are quite appropriate for this group.  I created this group, and I kept the
>: charter intentionally broad.  There are many topics which are discussed on
>: this group, and all that are relevant should be welcomed (including whether or 
>: not R. E. Lee buttoned his coat or not).  I personally welcome such
>: discussions such as this, which I think are important to the understanding of
>: the war and are not discussed frequently enough in a rational manner.  What I
>: don't want to see is a racial flame war, instigated by anyone, and I am not
>: pointing any fingers here.  When or if that happens, the parties will go into 
>: my kill file.

>I second this. Could you please re-post the charter (or mail me a copy)?

Yeah, repost it. I think that the conventional definition of the "Civil War" is
essentially racist. It singles out a relatively minor and short-lived conflict
which is really a subplot to a much more widespread civil war in which white
Americans desperately fought to keep their black countrymen as cattle.

Back to the issue of psychological comfort, it needs to be pointed out that
non-slaveholding whites enjoyed numerous social perks at the expense of blacks.
Blacks were legally compelled to be deferential to whites in humiliating ways,
such as being forced to step aside to allow white people the right of way on
the street. Whites could commit the most brutal crimes against blacks without
fear of legal penalty. Blacks, on the other hand, were subject to drastic 
punishment for crimes such as "acting white", etc. It is this social structure
that was so jealously guarded by non-slaveholding whites.
Jones
-- 
Jones M Murphy Jr                                        (212) 602-4375
NatWest Investment Bancorp, National Westminster Bank PLC
100 Wall Street, New York, NY10005                   FAX (212) 269-0113
Newsgroups: alt.war.civil.usa