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Southern Classics
The Slave Power: Its Character, Career, & Probable Designs: Being an Attempt to Explain the Real Issues Involved in the American Contes
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
330 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
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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.
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