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Southern Classics
The Slave Power: Its Character, Career, and Probable Designs, Being an Attempt to Explain the Real Issues Involved in the American Contest
Excerpt from The Slave Power: Its Character, Career, and Probable Designs, Being an Attempt to Explain the Real Issues Involved in the American Contest
And these means would, in all probability, suffice for the object. To prevent the extension of slavery is, in the general opinion of slaveholders, to ensure its extine tion. It is, at any rate, the only means by which that object can be effected through the interest of the slaveholders themselves. If peaceful and gradual is preferable to sudden and violent emancipation (which we grant may in the present case be doubtful), this is the mode in which alone it can be effected. Further colonization by slaves and slave-masters being rendered impossible, the process of exhausting the lands fitted for slave cultivation would either continue, or would be arrested. If it continue, the prosperity of the country will progressively decline, until the value of slave property was reduced so low, and the need of more efficient labor so keenly felt, that there would be no motive remaining to hold the negroes in bondage.
If, on the other hand, the exhaustive process should be arrested, it must be by. Means implying an entire renovation, economical and social, of Southern society. There would be needed new modes of cultivation, processes more refined and intel lectual, and, as an indispensable condition, laborers more intelligent, who must be had either by the introduction of free labor, or by the mental improvement of the slaves. The masters must resign themselves to become efiicient men of business, personal and vigilant overseers of their own laborers and would find that in their new circumstances successful industry was impossible without calling in other mo tivsa than the fear of the lash. The immediate mitigation of slavery, and the edu cation of the slaves would thus be certain consequences, and its gradual destruction by the consent of all concerned, a probable one, of the mere restriction of its area: whether brought about by the subjugation of the Southern States, and their return to the Union under the Constitution according to its Northern interpretation, or by what Mr. Cairnes regards as both more practical and more desirable, the recognition of their independence, with the Mississippi for their western boundary.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
And these means would, in all probability, suffice for the object. To prevent the extension of slavery is, in the general opinion of slaveholders, to ensure its extine tion. It is, at any rate, the only means by which that object can be effected through the interest of the slaveholders themselves. If peaceful and gradual is preferable to sudden and violent emancipation (which we grant may in the present case be doubtful), this is the mode in which alone it can be effected. Further colonization by slaves and slave-masters being rendered impossible, the process of exhausting the lands fitted for slave cultivation would either continue, or would be arrested. If it continue, the prosperity of the country will progressively decline, until the value of slave property was reduced so low, and the need of more efficient labor so keenly felt, that there would be no motive remaining to hold the negroes in bondage.
If, on the other hand, the exhaustive process should be arrested, it must be by. Means implying an entire renovation, economical and social, of Southern society. There would be needed new modes of cultivation, processes more refined and intel lectual, and, as an indispensable condition, laborers more intelligent, who must be had either by the introduction of free labor, or by the mental improvement of the slaves. The masters must resign themselves to become efiicient men of business, personal and vigilant overseers of their own laborers and would find that in their new circumstances successful industry was impossible without calling in other mo tivsa than the fear of the lash. The immediate mitigation of slavery, and the edu cation of the slaves would thus be certain consequences, and its gradual destruction by the consent of all concerned, a probable one, of the mere restriction of its area: whether brought about by the subjugation of the Southern States, and their return to the Union under the Constitution according to its Northern interpretation, or by what Mr. Cairnes regards as both more practical and more desirable, the recognition of their independence, with the Mississippi for their western boundary.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
23 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
About the author
John E. Cairnes
66 books3 followersJohn Elliott Cairnes (26 December 1823 – 8 July 1875) was a political economist.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 28, 2021
Published in Britain in 1862, the second year of the U.S. Civil War, this book was meant to sway British opinion away from intervening on the side of the Confederacy. It refutes claims of southern diplomats that secessionists were just fighting for the self-determination that should be every nation's right. Instead, Cairnes shows clearly, with generous quotes from southern leaders themselves, that the South seceded to form a Slave Republic. And that despotic state would not merely protect slavery where it already existed, but would insist on continuing to expand the domain of slavery both west to the Pacific and into the Caribbean, aiming to annex Cuba or other European colonies.
With lots of detail about the economics of slavery and how it crowds out all other forms of industry except large-scale commodity agriculture, Cairnes's account has aged surprisingly well. His observations explain many things in the contemporary South, from low population density in some of the areas longest inhabited by Europeans and their descendants, to the persistence of a large class of poor white people with no prospects for advancement who were nonetheless willing to do the bidding of the planter oligarchy because it kept the poor whites above Black people.
Cairnes was also prescient in predicting the outcome of the war (Northern victory), the future of slavery (not promising) and the difficulty of reconstruction (high). Indeed, Cairnes thought it would be so difficult to integrate the Deep South back into the Union that he advised the United States to conclude a peace, in victory that would let it dictate terms, that would keep the upper South states of the border areas along with unsettled parts of Texas and Arkansas and the one lower South state of Louisiana (which would give the U.S. access to the Mississippi River down to the Gulf), but let the other lower South states secede. Cut off from any supply of new slaves either from their recent sources in border states or else from a new African slave trade that southerners hoped to re-start, the Deep South states would soon suffocate economically in their own exhausted soils, and would soon find that slaves were more expensive to keep than to free.
In the end, that's not what happened, but Cairnes did prove to be correct that Reconstruction was nearly impossible on terms of Black equality, and that the planters of the South would continue to find ways to oppress freedmen enough to grind them down back to a state as close to slavery as possible.
A fascinating look into a primary source of commentary from the middle of the fight. Unlike us, Cairnes didn't know how the Civil War would turn out. That gives his conjectures a certain tension that adds narrative suspense, making for entertaining reading.
With lots of detail about the economics of slavery and how it crowds out all other forms of industry except large-scale commodity agriculture, Cairnes's account has aged surprisingly well. His observations explain many things in the contemporary South, from low population density in some of the areas longest inhabited by Europeans and their descendants, to the persistence of a large class of poor white people with no prospects for advancement who were nonetheless willing to do the bidding of the planter oligarchy because it kept the poor whites above Black people.
Cairnes was also prescient in predicting the outcome of the war (Northern victory), the future of slavery (not promising) and the difficulty of reconstruction (high). Indeed, Cairnes thought it would be so difficult to integrate the Deep South back into the Union that he advised the United States to conclude a peace, in victory that would let it dictate terms, that would keep the upper South states of the border areas along with unsettled parts of Texas and Arkansas and the one lower South state of Louisiana (which would give the U.S. access to the Mississippi River down to the Gulf), but let the other lower South states secede. Cut off from any supply of new slaves either from their recent sources in border states or else from a new African slave trade that southerners hoped to re-start, the Deep South states would soon suffocate economically in their own exhausted soils, and would soon find that slaves were more expensive to keep than to free.
In the end, that's not what happened, but Cairnes did prove to be correct that Reconstruction was nearly impossible on terms of Black equality, and that the planters of the South would continue to find ways to oppress freedmen enough to grind them down back to a state as close to slavery as possible.
A fascinating look into a primary source of commentary from the middle of the fight. Unlike us, Cairnes didn't know how the Civil War would turn out. That gives his conjectures a certain tension that adds narrative suspense, making for entertaining reading.
Displaying 1 of 1 review