num_pages: 256
description: Three of the most famous books on slavery ever written are here edited by Professor Harvey Wish.The two books of George Fitzhugh (Sociology for the South, 1854, and Cannibals All!, 1857) are powerful defences of slavery on humanitarian grounds. He points to the hideous condition of the "free" industrial laborers in the North and contrasts their insecure, miserable state with that of the Negro slaves of the South, who are cared for and sustained by their paternal owners. The Impending Crisis (1857) by Hinton Rowan Helper is a tremendous, resounding attack on the institution of slavery, couched in uncompromising terms of scorn and fury, but backed by some exceedingly solid and convincing facts and statistics. Helper's book caused riots in Congress ad throughout the country when it appeared in 1857, and any man caught with a copy in some places in the South was liable to be publicly whipped for the first offense, and hanged for the second. Its effects on the temper of the North were matched only by that of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and in some circles it was even more influential because of its solidity and its powerful air of conviction.
language: English
title: Ante-Bellum: Writings of George Fitzhugh and Hinton Rowan Helper on Slavery
titlecomplete: Ante-Bellum: Writings of George Fitzhugh and Hinton Rowan Helper on Slavery
genres: History
ratings_count: 3
publisher: Capricorn Books