James Rhodes 1880’s and 1890’s

 

Rhodes’ work focused on the political and legal history of slavery and is generally referred to as the nationalist view. Form his perspective, the end of slavery was a blessing to both the north and the south because it was evil. The Civil War in Rhodes’ interpretation forged a union between north and south which hadn’t previously existed. To Rhodes, slavery was immoral, brutalizing, and debasing to the entire nation. After the Civil War, Rhodes believed, the whites should deal with race as they saw fit. These last two points are characteristic of the time in which Rhodes worked: increasing nationalism and pride in the growth of America, and racism in that there was a so called “natural order” in which whites were superior to blacks. (In other words whites had no responsibility to create radical reforms for blacks)

 

 

Ulrich Bonnell Phillips: American Negro Slavery 1918

 

Phillips emphasized the social and economic aspects of slavery as opposed to the political legal interpretation of the previous era. Phillips believed that the plantation system was more than land and slaveowning but was an entire social system of paternalistic capitalism. Slavery provided a system of education for blacks who Phillips referred to as “docile and childlike”. Phillips also rejected the feelings of his own time of hatred and fear of blacks, and repudiated the view that slavery was cruel and inhumane by emphasizing the paternalistic relationship between the benign master and the racially inferior slave. He tended to focus on the areas of slave life that other historians had used: labor, food, clothing, shelter, care and profitability. His view fails to account for the various slave revolts which occurred because if slaves accepted their place in the benign institution, why would they revolt?? Also, Phillips studied slavery on large plantations while most slaves lived and labored on small farms. His view is typical of progressive historians in the emphasis on social and economic factors.

 

Kenneth Stampp:  The Peculiar Institution 1956

 

Stampp rejected the idea that slaves were inferior to whites and thus challenged Phillips’ assumptions about slavery. He pointed out that Phillips chose to ignore travel literature from the time period which painted a very different picture of slavery than that which Phillips was creating. Stampp emphasized that slavery was not harmonious but was a system based on the use of force. He argued that without force and punishment, the system would have failed. He used many of the same categories as Phillips but took the northern abolitionist view as opposed to the southern planter view (as written by Phillips). One criticism of Stampp is that he failed to view slavery from the perspective of the blacks and instead viewed slavery from the perspective of northern anti-slavery whites. To quote Stampp: “the only generalization that can be made with relative confidence is that some masters were harsh and frugal, others were mild and generous, and the rest ran the whole gamut in between”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stanley Elkins: Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life 1959

 

Elkins refocused the debate over slavery to new issues which were spurred somewhat by the emerging civil rights movement which challenged the relationship between whites and blacks. Elkins pointed out that the emancipation of slaves in Latin America

did not create the kinds of racial problems that occurred in America after emancipation.  He also pointed out that in America, there was an “absence of countervailing institutions” (such as a national church which existed in Latin America) which allowed slavery to grow in America basically unhindered. He stressed the harshness of American slavery and compared it to the harshness of the Nazi concentration camp system. Both, he concluded, were dehumanizing and reduced the victims to “childlike dependency”. In Elkins’ view, slavery stripped Africans of their culture, made them dependent on whites, and prevented them from forming family connections. Elkins therefore undermined the racist ideology of slavery and emphasized its effect on the human character. He placed the blame of racial problems of his own day on the shoulders of whites and supported programs that were intended to undermine the effects of slavery. Elkins linked history with other social sciences and focused his work on blacks as opposed to the institution of slavery. His work spurred others to undertake comparative studies to answer some of the questions he raised in this work. Major criticisms included his overemphasis on the Sambo stereotype, his use of few primary documents, and the absence of a “usable past” for blacks in the civil rights movement. Where were the achievements of blacks in all of this??

 

George P. Rawick: From Sundown to Sunup:The Making of the Black Community

 

Rawick’s work was typical of post Elkins research in that it began using black sources and documents in his research as opposed to older studies which focused on mainly white documentation. Rawick described the considerable interaction between blacks and white which occurred in the south. He emphasized the fact that slaves were not passive, and that they fused African and American cultural elements (of the south) together. He argued that slaves accepted the belief that one deserved to be a slave yet they also showed anger which served to protect the slaves from infantilization and dependency on whites. To Rawick, slaves created an independent community and culture which formed the slave personality.

 

John Blessingame The Slave Community: Plantation Life and the Antebellum South 1972

 

To Blessingame, slaves used a variety of methods to circumscribe white authority. He also argued that slaves created family ties which protected slaves from over dependence on white authority. He maintained that slaves kept myths and religion which allowed them some autonomy within the slave system

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fogel and Engerman: Time On the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery

1974

 

Fogel and Engerman argued that slave agriculture was a highly efficient system. They argued that slaves were hard-working and that they internalized capitalist views which they learned through their contacts with whites. The slave, according to this view, learned to work their way up in the slave hierarchy by working hard, and achieving material rewards. According to Fogel and Engerman, owners encouraged family life for slaves, rejected the use of indiscriminate force, provided adequate shelter and clothes and did not sexually exploit women. The consciously attempted to dispel the notion that blacks lacked culture and development during the time they were slaves. They also argued that for the first 100 years after abolition that whites degraded, deprived and segregated blacks as they redefined the relationship between the races.

 

Eugene Genovese: Roll Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made

 

Genovese de-emphasized the capitalistic view and emphasis on the paternalistic aspects of slavery. He viewed slavery as a mutual set of duties and responsibilities which created a system much like feudalism in Europe (labor exchanged for protection). Genovese argued that blacks could create culture by taking the concessions of the white man and molding them for their own use. He also wrote that religion in the slave quarters allowed for the slave’s personal survival and the price they paid for this limited autonomy was adopting a “non-revolutionary consciousness”.

 

Herbert G Gutman: The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom 1750 to 1925

 

Gutman denied that slavery debilitated blacks and black culture and stressed instead the adaptations that slaves made to oppressive circumstances. He rejected outright the capitalistic/paternalistic views of Genovese and Fogel/Engerman. Gutman argued that slaves survived and created culture not by molding the concessions of their white masters but by developing  a kinship/family network and transmitting African-American culture and heritage from generation to generation. He reasoned that the family cushioned the shock of being uprooted from Africa the cruelties of slavery, and the family formed the basis of the slave community.

 

Lawrence Levine: Black Culture and Black Consciousness: African American Folk Thought From Slavery to Freedom

 

Levine studied the songs, folk tales and games instead of the standard historical records to view slavery much more from the slave perspective. He concluded that blacks preserved their values and culture amid the harsh restrictions of slavery.

 

Ira Berlin: Three Different Types of Slavery (must consider the time and place factors)

 

Northern Non plantation: acculturation with consciousness of black identity

Chesapeake Bay Region: paternalism created African-American culture

Carolina/Georgia Low Country: urban areas pressed for incorporation into society

                                          plantation: estranged/aloof from white society