For those inclined to minimize the violence inherent to
slavery, it is well to ask "what motivates a slave to work?"

For those of us who take a realist perspective of human
nature, it surely is not altruism or benevolence on the part
of the slave that inspires them to do all the hard work that
their masters expected them to do.

Since slavery removes most positive incentives to get work
done, the primary motivation for most slaves most of the time
to work was that they were afraid.  Fear is a good motivator,
if applied judiciously and in moderation.  There were several
ways of applying fear open to Virginia masters.  You could
threaten to sell your slave south, to the cotton fields.  Or
perhaps worse, you could threaten to sell members of your
slave's family.  Or, if these "kinder and gentler" forms of
coercion did not do the trick, you could threaten to beat them
up.  The slave narratives are full of exemplary beatings,
"beaten" into the minds of the young people who witnessed
them, and vivid to their memories 70 years later.

Slavery was based on coercion and violence.  The ideology of
slavery degraded the human dignity of the slave.  The slave
narratives provide plenty of examples of this reality.

Some classical liberals might easily argue that capitalism,
especially capitalism whose worst excesses have been
restrained by the state, is superior to slavery precisely
because the motivations to work in a capitalist society are
not anywhere near so degrading as those in a slave society. If
you believe in capitalism, you surely have to agree that
slavery was a pretty vile institution. 

All best,
Kevin
Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University

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