Well, if you have ever reviewed Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938, that contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves you were probably surprised at the level of nostalgia expressed repeatedly for the good life back on the master's land where they had a roof over their heads and food on the table and didn't have to work all that hard. I found it to be a very illuminating project with first hand descriptions of the lives of slaves in the South.
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> Date: Wed, 9 May 2012 13:19:31 -0400
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: The Peculiar Institution's End Without The Intervention Of The Civil War
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> I understand what slavery was all about, unfortunately. Coercive means were indeed applied, and there were owners who were far better than others. One of the Eppes read his "Compact with the Slaves" where I grew up that detailed what he would provide and what they would be expected to provide. I would contrast that with the horrors of the sugar cane plantations that were a death sentence, period. But still, slavery was something no one should have had to endure, period.
>
> When there is no hope of improvement, there is no incentive to pick up the pace, hence the coercion. Add the fear factors, the superior attitude and all the other little psychological quirks to justify actions, and it was never a system that should have been allowed.
>
> I had no thoughts of inherent character flaws with my statement about passive-aggressive behavior. I see it as anyone's rational reaction to the situation that people find themselves enmeshed and powerless within, whether black, white or purple. It has been my distinct displeasure to have had to work with people (95% - 100% white) who felt undervalued and who "worked to rule" for those reasons and which in the long-term was the hagfish in an otherwise healthy organization. I had the option of leaving, which slaves did not.
>
> Equally unfortunately, learned helplessness over several generations can lead to a situation where the so-called stereotype becomes the actual. Part of that may be camouflage that gets one out of tight situations and part of it may be generated by something else. It seems that each side of the coin had a set of entrenched behavioral expectations that more or less governed the social interaction.
>
> Lyle
>
>
> On May 9, 2012, at 12:40 PM, Hardwick, Kevin - hardwikr wrote:
>
> > Lyle--
> >
> > Thank you for your constructive reframing of Mr. Southmayd's provocative comment.
> >
> > It may be useful to step back, and consider just what slavery is, at the most basic level. Slavery is an institutional means for extracting work from people. Unlike other means for accomplishing this, slavery offers no reward or contractual exchange for persons subject to it. Rather, in a slave regime, what motivates slaves to work is fear of being subject to coercive physical violence. Slavery is a "regime" because it is a political and legal institution--for it to work, the owners of slaves have to be exempted from the legal sanctions normally imposed for violence against other people (ie. the normal legal sanctions for battery, assault, rape, and murder).
> >
> > In a slave regime, its not just the "cool hand Lukes" who are subject to violence. Even in the absence of people who offer overt resistance, a slave regime has to enforce a constant, low level of exemplary violence in order to motivate the other slaves. As Fogel and Engerman demonstrated many years ago in their book TIME ON THE CROSS, there were surprisingly little sustained brutal whipping on 19th century plantations--on average, if I am remembering correctly "only" one or two per year. But that one or two whippings--or similar exemplary violence, was a necessary feature of slavery. The whole point of owning a slave is that you do not have to pay them.
> >
> > As you note, in practice, most slaves responded by doing only so much work as was necessary to avoid punishment--a kind of passive resistance. From the perspective of masters, this surely looked like laziness. Similarly, from the perspective of "Free Labor" Republicans in the North (here, read Eric Foner's superb book on the Republican ideology of the 1850s), one of the many problems with slavery was that it did not engender strong work habits in the slaves (the Republican critique of slavery was multithreaded). Because substantial numbers of 19th century people, including some people who had experienced slavery, thought this way, it is not difficult to locate 19th century sources which condemn slavery for (among many other things) inducing laziness in the slaves.
> >
> > I would argue, however, that under the circumstances, and considering the nature of the work incentives involved, the response of most slaves to their work situation was rational, and not indicative of a character flaw. I would argue this because, once these men and women secured their freedom, they were anything but lazy. When they confronted the same incentives to work as did most other American men and women, they worked just as hard, and for the same reasons.
> >
> > All best wishes,
> > Kevin
> > ___________________________
> > Kevin R. Hardwick
> > Associate Professor
> > Department of History, MSC 8001
> > James Madison University
> > Harrisonburg, Virginia 22807
> > ________________________________________
> > From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Lyle E. Browning [[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 6:56 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: The Peculiar Institution's End Without The Intervention Of The Civil War
> >
> > Mr. Southmayd has an "interesting" mode of expression and although provocative, it bears looking at more closely. Is there a kernel of truth or more than a kernel but a good percentage of truth in his statement? Managing property that didn't want to be property has long been a bone of contention. The photo of that one slave who had a terribly scarred back is always trotted out as an example of the worst behavior by the ownership side. There's always going to be a "Coolhand Luke" who will go that route despite the physical and mental pain just because…..
> >
> > Passive-aggressive behavior is what folks who have no power take up to "stick it to the man". I don't think there's any serious disagreement with that statement. And from personal observation, that sort of thing was the norm until the "Mexican Invasion" whereby the little buggers worked their backsides off and displaced the folks who had previously done that kind of labor. What I saw was that for the first time, there was active competition, leading to the definite up-tick in pace and response to where the passive-aggressive lessened to the point it was about invisible. I just mention that as an observation, not a judgment.
> >
> > Mr. Southmayd has identified the sale of northern Southern slaves southward to where manual labor was still needed. If I could somehow correlate that with the sales of McCormick reapers and similar equipment, I'd be a happy camper. My degree is in history, not economics, but I see the economic side of the equation as the 800lb gorilla in the corner of the room. Are there studies to show that the cost of human maintenance versus farm equipment purchase pays off on the human side? If one looks at areas where there were small farms in the greater Mississippi Valley west to the Great Plains and north to Canada, it is these folks who never owned slaves who are buying into mechanization. At least, that's what I think I am seeing from the limited info I have yet been able to accumulate.
> >
> > Let's not go all PC on Mr. Southmayd and throw out the baby with the bathwater, please. We are all mature enough to withstand a bit of silliness, surely. Gregg Kimball can draw that line as he so ably has in the past.
> >
> > Lyle Browning
> >
> >
> > On May 8, 2012, at 4:48 PM, EV Pace wrote:
> >
> >> "accounts of how lazy and shiftless many were" what is your source for your declarations? Source or not your racist leanings are in plain view.
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: Jeff Southmayd <[log in to unmask]>
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Sent: Tue, 08 May 2012 18:41:12 -0000 (UTC)
> >> Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] The Peculiar Institution's End Without The Intervention Of The Civil War
> >>
> >> I would think based on accounts of how expensive slaves were to purchase and provide for, and accounts of how lazy and shiftless many were, Southerners would be pleased to substitute technology for the problems and expense involved in keeping slaves in their work force. With a ready market like Brazil for the sale of their slaves, they would have an out to recoup what they had into their slaves. While there may not have been a widespread movement for emancipation in the South, there was a widespread discussion on what to do with the burgeoning slave population which was becoming more and more problematic, to the extent that the northern Southern states were moving away from slavery and selling them to the deep Southern states.
> >>
> >> SOUTHMAYD & MILLER4 OCEAN RIDGE BOULEVARD SOUTH
> >> PALM COAST, FLORIDA 32137
> >> 386.445.9156
> >> 888.557.3686 FAX
> >>
> >> [log in to unmask]
> >> **********************************************************
> >> THIS TRANSMISSION IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE ADDRESSEE SHOWN ABOVE. IT MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT IS PRIVILEGED, CONFIDENTIAL, OR OTHERWISE PROTECTED FROM DISCLOSURE. IF YOU ARE NOT THE INTENDED RECIPIENT, PLEASE DO NOT READ, COPY, OR USE IT, AND DO NOT DISCLOSE IT TO OTHERS. PLEASE NOTIFY THE SENDER OF THE DELIVERY ERROR BY REPLYING TO THIS MESSAGE AND THEN DELETE IT FROM YOUR SYSTEM. THANK YOU.
> >> ********************************************************
> >>
> >>> Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 10:44:50 -0700
> >>> From: [log in to unmask]
> >>> Subject: Re: The Peculiar Institution's End Without The Intervention Of The Civil War
> >>> To: [log in to unmask]
> >>>
> >>> much different set of facts. Indian removal involved about 30,000 persons, overland, over a period of time. Many self-removed before the infamous forced removals. Plus they provided their own transport.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ________________________________
> >>> From: "Kimball, Gregg (LVA)"
> >>> To: [log in to unmask]
> >>> Sent: Tuesday, May 8, 2012 1:24 PM
> >>> Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] The Peculiar Institution's End Without The Intervention Of The Civil War
> >>>
> >>> Where did the United States find the money to remove Native Americans to the West? As Bill Freehling has pointed out, it at least demonstrates that the national government had the political will to execute a removal program given the right incentives. I freely admit that there were many differences in the two circumstances, but it gave a certain veneer of plausibility to colonization.
> >>>
> >>> Gregg Kimball
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Finkelman, Paul
> >>> Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 1:05 PM
> >>> To: [log in to unmask]
> >>> Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] The Peculiar Institution's End Without The Intervention Of The Civil War
> >>>
> >>> Hard to imagine where would have found the ships and money for a mass exodus to Liberia.
> >>>
> >>> ========================================
> >>>
> >>> Paul Finkelman
> >>> President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
> >>> Albany Law School
> >>> 80 New Scotland Avenue
> >>> Albany, NY 12208
> >>>
> >>> 518-445-3386 (p)
> >>> 518-445-3363 (f)
> >>>
> >>> [log in to unmask]
> >>> www.paulfinkelman.com
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Craig Kilby
> >>> Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 12:34 PM
> >>> To: [log in to unmask]
> >>> Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] The Peculiar Institution's End Without The Intervention Of The Civil War
> >>>
> >>> I wrote that, and it was in connection Lincoln's initial plan to send freed slaves to Liberia. I clearly stated that that was veering off topic of this thread. Lincoln abandoned that plan due to vocal opposition from the black community.
> >>>
> >>> That sentence was part of a larger "conjecture" of how slavery would have ended had the South won, whenever it ended, if it would ever end (and it surely would.)
> >>>
> >>> Craig Kilby
> >>>
> >>> On May 7, 2012, at 11:53 PM, Finkelman, Paul wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> One post suggested that "hundreds of thousands of blacks" might have gone to Liberia? On what boats? How many ships were around to move them? Who would pay for it?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ______________________________________
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