Fatal self-deception : slaveholding paternalism in the Old South / Eugene D. Genovese, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese

Author:: Genovese, Eugene D., 1930-2012
Published:: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Physical Description:: xvii, 232 pages ; 24 cm
Additional Creators:: Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth, 1941-2007

Availability

Finding items...

Contents:

1. 'Boisterous passions' -- 2. The complete household -- 3. Strangers within the gates -- 4. Loyal and loving slaves -- 5. The blacks' best and most faithful friend -- 6. Guardians of a helpless race -- 7. Devotion unto death.

Summary:

"Slaveholders perpetuated and rationalized a romanticized version of plantation life. However, masters' relations with white plantation laborers and servants remains a largely unstudied subject. Southerners drew on the work of British and European socialists to conclude that all labor, white and black, suffered de facto slavery, and they championed the South's 'Christian slavery' as the most humane and compassionate of social systems, ancient and modern"--Provided by publisher.
"Slaveholders were preoccupied with presenting slavery as a benign, paternalistic institution in which the planter took care of his family, and slaves were content with their fate. In this book, Eugene D. Genovese and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese discuss how slaveholders perpetuated and rationalized this romanticized version of life on the plantation. Slaveholders' paternalism had little to do with ostensible benevolence, kindness, and good cheer. It grew out of the necessity to discipline and morally justify a system of exploitation. At the same time, this book also advocates the examination of masters' relations with white plantation laborers and servants, a largely unstudied subject. Southerners drew on the work of British and European socialists to conclude that all labor, white and black, suffered de facto slavery, and they championed the South's 'Christian slavery' as the most humane and compassionate of social systems, ancient and modern"--Provided by publisher.

Subject(s):

Slavery—Southern States—History—19th century
Slaveholders—Southern States—History—19th century
Plantation owners—Southern States—History—19th century
Paternalism—Southern States—History—19th century
Enslaved persons—Southern States—Social conditions—19th century
Plantation workers—Southern States—History—19th century
White people—Southern States—Social conditions—19th century

ISBN:

9781107011649 (hardback)
1107011647 (hardback)
9781107605022 (paperback)
1107605024 (paperback)

Bibliography Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 147-210) and index.

View MARC record | catkey: 8049736