AskEssays.com - Discover essay samples

Slave Ownership in the Southern United States

4.9 of 5.0 (132 reviews)

Contains
990 words
Category
History

Slave Ownership in the Southern United States Page 1
Slave Ownership in the Southern United States Page 2
Slave Ownership in the Southern United States Page 3
The above thumbnails are of reduced quality. To view the work in full quality, click download.

Slave Ownership in the Southern United States


Critical Review: "Historians and the Extent of Slave Ownership in the Southern United States" "Only a minority of the whites owned slaves," "at all times nearly three-fourths of the white families in the South as a whole held no slaves;" "slave ownership in the South was not widespread;" "not more than a quarter of the white heads of families were slave owners, and even in the cotton states the proportion was less than one-third;" "in 1850, only one in three owned any Negroes; on the eve of the Civil War, the ration was one in four;" and slave owners "probably made up less than a third of southern whites." From the US History textbooks in an elementary school to the Civil War journals of a major university, these lines are reprinted and repeated in an attempt to shape the perception of the public and to ease the insecurities of a nation embarrassed by slavery, an institution that supposedly marred its glorious history, or so says Otto H. Olsen. In an article that appears in the journal of Civil War History of 1972 entitled, "Historians and the Extent of Slave Ownership in the Southern United States" Olsen attempts to challenge the widely accepted notion that slave ownership was confined to only a few southern white plantation owners and that most of the white population was unaffected by it. The author spends nearly half of his thirty-seven paragraph article displaying the past and present attitudes of the general population through several case studies which he lists chronologically and explains in brief detail. He tries to discredit a handful of them while, at the same time, injecting his own views. In an attempt to persuade the reader he sets up his side of the debate by citing a few case studies that promote his hypothesis and concludes by relating some of his own opinions and findings including a study where he makes a seemingly strong comparison between those of the population who invested in the slave labor market in 1850 and those who invested in the stock market in 1949. In the first half of the article Olsen sets up the arguments he is going to challenge by showing what historians from the antebellum US through the present, believed the distribution of slaves in the South to be, and also by showing the supposed economic and political effects of this distribution. He focuses heavily on the numbers and percentages of white slave owners and the sometimes relaxed, even incorrect manner in which they were accepted. He cites a study done by Allan Nevins in which Nevins says that, "of the 6,184,477 white folk in the slave States, only 347,525 were listed by the census of 1850 as owners." Nevins then adds family members of slave owning families and other workers involved and states that the final number of whites directly involved with slavery probably "did not exceed 2,000,000. If so, not one-third of the population of the South and border States had any direct interest in slavery as a form of property." Olsen uses two more studies to show that these numbers, or very slight variations, are widely accepted and concedes that they are probably correct, but he disagrees with the treatment these statistics have been given. In what could easily be his thesis statement he says, "Although the constant conclusion has been that the number of whites owning slaves was remarkably small and that the South was therefore an unusually oligarchical society, the comparative basis for such a judgment has never been firmly established. Instead, that judgment appears to have rested primarily upon a moral repugnance toward slavery." He then begins to investigate the prevailing attitude toward slavery in the past as well as the attitude of historians in the 20th century. Olsen blames the antebellum antislavery movement for the origin of the accusations that southern slavery was politically and economically oligharchical. A prime example is the viewpoint of the Republican party. In a speech to the people of the United States in 1856 the address asserted that non-slaveholders in the South "were reduced to a vassalage little less degrading than that of the slaves themselves'although the white population of the slaveholding States is more than six million, of whom but 347,525, or less than one-seventeenth, are the owners of slaves." From the numbers given in previous studies we can see that these numbers do not include all who were directly involved and thusly agree with Olsen when he says that facts were often distorted in the past and still are today in an attempt to promote a negative view of slavery. He lists several other studies by prominent historical figures such as Karl Marx, John Elliott Cairnes, and Woodrow Wilson in which facts were distorted for the sake of antislavery sentiment. Olsen begins to construct one of his main topics of debate when he challenges a statement made by Civil War historian James Ford Rhodes. Rhodes states, "the political system of the South was an oligarchy under the republican form. The slave-holders were in a disproportionate minority in every State." To that Olsen replies, "Rhodes, a very wealthy stockholder, failed to note that similar comments were being made by some social critics about nineteenth century capitalists." With the studies the author has given thus far, including those revealing the percentages of southern slave owners and those showing the distorted manner in which they were used by the antislavery movements, Olsen has done well in showing the reader the argument he is about to take on. One can easily see the weaknesses in the way statistics were distorted and can also begin to see the approach Olsen will take in trying to disprove them. Before moving into his personal findings the author looks at a handful of studies that agree with his own theories and attempt to show the opposite of what we have already examined. They are, for the most part, ...

You are currently seeing 50% of this paper.

You're seeing 990 words of 1980.

Keywords: slave owning states in the union, slave owners meaning

Similar essays


Sedition Act Of 1798

For the first few years of Constitutional government, under the leadership of George Washington, there was a unity, commonly called Federalism that even James Madison (the future architect of the Republican Party) acknowledged in describing the Republican form of government-- ' And according to the degree of pleasure and pride we feel in being repu...

131 reviews
Download
Kamicaze pilots 2

Kamikaze Pilots During World War II in the Pacific, there were pilots of the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy who made suicide attacks, driving their planes to deliberately crash into carriers and battle- ships of the Allied forces. These were the pilots known as the Kamikaze pilots. Because right-wing organizations have used the Kamikaze pil...

101 reviews
Download
Origins Of Communism

Throughout the history of the modern world, man has sought out the perfect government. An invincible system of order. And in our search for this ideal system, the idea of holding property in common has been a reoccurring thought. From early Christian communities to modern Marxist states, socialism and more specifically, communism has had an importa...

146 reviews
Download
Oklahoma History

In most cases, territories that want to become states are divided out by the Government. In exceptions like Oklahoma territory where the land was auctioned off and sealed bids, land runs gave the land to settlers. The other half was Indian territory, so it wanted to be a separate state. White men wanted both territories that they had the...

91 reviews
Download
How adolf hitler got to the to

With great pride, 35- year-old Sirhan describes the way in which he shot and killed his 16-year old sister, Suzanne. Cheerful and at ease, he is completely contented to tell his story. He shot Suzanne in the head four times last March, three days after she reported to the police that she had been raped. Sirhan fully believes that the rape wa...

129 reviews
Download
Biography of eugene victor deb

Eugene Victor Debs Eugene Victor Debs was the most well known as a leader of the American Socialist Party. Eugene Debs had no executive positions but he was most popular leader of the socialist movements in American history. He was a revolutionary and he wanted to establish a socialism in America. Eugene V. Debs was born on fifth of the N...

128 reviews
Download
Vincent van Gogh

By: Phil In present time, is probably the most widely known and highly appreciated person of postimpressionism. During his brief lifetime, Vincent's work went almost unknown to this world. His work now hangs in countless museums throughout the world and is considered priceless. His work became an important bridge between the 19th and 20th...

3 reviews
Download
Labor Unions

Since the foundation of the American Federation of Labor(AFL) in 1886, most unions in the United States have displayed a pragmatic out look, largely compatible with that of business. The general purpose of unions has been to protect and advance the well being of workers, while that of business has been to promote the interests of stockholders....

23 reviews
Download
Declaration of independce

Rights of the People A democracy is a system of government controlled by the people, not by one certain group or individual. In the Declaration of Independence it states that 'all men are created equal,' an idea which leads to the concept that all citizens should have the same rights, responsibilities, and influence in the governing of t...

173 reviews
Download
French revolution 3

French Revolution, cataclysmic political and social upheaval, extending from 1789 to 1799. The revolution resulted, among other things, in the overthrow of the monarchy in France and in the establishment of the First Republic. It was generated by a vast complex of causes and produced an equally vast complex of consequences. For more than a...

112 reviews
Download
Panama Canal

United States vs. Colombia for the land of Panama The United States government used several covert activities to acquire the land for the , such as the Spooner Act. The United States wanted the land of Panama to build a Canal but first the United States need the land from Colombia. The United States became vitally interested i...

189 reviews
Download
Civil Disobedience in American History

Throughout American history, it is clear that many individuals have fought for justice in a society that has often denied it. We know this information from documents written by these individuals expressing their feelings on a certain subject. On the subject of human rights, two specific men have expanded their thoughts to make a...

101 reviews
Download
Centralization Of Control In M

Medieval times were shaped greatly by religious and secular motives to form centralized power and control. The religious leaders, in particular, were very influential in this process of centralization. The methods used to attain this power were directed at various aspects of their influence in order to realize the greatest control possible. The c...

78 reviews
Download
Capitalistic Punishment

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"...so says the Old Testament of the Judeo-Christian Bible. Throughout history, different societies have incorporated this principle into their legal and cultural lives. In today's context in the United States, this traditional form of retributional theory has taken the form of state-sponsored capital punish...

160 reviews
Download
Atsisiųsti šį darbą