Thesis on "Slavery and Economy According to Elkins"

Thesis 5 pages (1592 words) Sources: 1+ Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Slavery and Economy According to Elkins and McPherson

To Elkins' way of thinking, one of the primary stumbling blocks in

allowing us to truly understand why slavery occurred, why it was so

uniquely durable in the United States and how it impacts us today is the

unchanging rancor of the discourse on this subject. Elkins makes the case

that our reflection on the subject has become to deeply entrenched in

kneejerk ways of understanding the subject that a greater illumination of

slavery's roots and its persistence has been obscured. His text remarks

that "there is a painful touchiness in all aspects of the subject; the

discourse contains almost too much immediacy, it makes too many connections

with present problems. How a person thinks about Negro slavery

historically makes a great deal of difference here and now; it tends to

locate him morally in relation to a whole range of very immediate

political, social, and philosophical issues which is some way refer back to

slavery." (Elkins, 1) The text concedes to understand why individuals make

such concerted emotional connections but suggests that these connections

have presented us from moving into more reflective consideration of our

history of slavery.

This differs fundamentally from the McPherson article, which succeeds

in characterizing the slave-holding South according to its economic

imperatives without appearing to forgive it its ethical trespasses. Where

Elkins contends that it is necessary to dispatch with the moralizing and

emotional connotation often connected to the present-day discourse in order

to understand the practical implications of slavery in its time and place,

McPherson argues that in fact, the mores of slavery were inherently

impractical. By framing his discussion according to the implications of

the Civil War, McPherson denotes that economic realities sufficiently

illustrate the core irrationality of the so-called 'peculiar institution'

known as slavery.

This also points us to a core similarity between the two texts.

Though they differ fundamentally in their willingness to address the moral

implications of slavery, Elkins and McPherson agrees that the rhetoric of

racial superiority would largely function as a distraction in a discussion

laden with more pressing economic implications. To this end, McPherson

explains that in the divide leading up to the Civil War, "the Republicans

became the party of reformist, antislavery Protestantism. They also became

the party of dynamic, innovative capitalism. . . Southerners and Catholics

returned the hostility. Their epithets of 'Black Republicans,' 'Yankees,'

and the 'Puritan party' summed up in turn a host of negative symbols

associated with the Republicans: abolitionism and racial equality, material

acquisitiveness and sharp practice, hypocrisy, bigotry, and an offensive

eagerness to reform other people's morals or to interfere with their

property." (McPherson, 101)

It is ironic in this aspect of the discussion that in fact there would

be this perception of ethical righteousness by slaveholders, who perceived

federal regulation abolishing slavery as a fundamental violation of

individual rights. Elkins makes the argument that a way of better

understanding this irony would be to remove the ethical implications which

frame debates over slavery. In a certain regard, no debate exists as

slavery is both abolished and unconditionally accepted as not viable in

modern society for practical and humanitarian reasons. Therefore, to frame

the ongoing discussion over slavery as a debate such as that which

persisted in the ante-bellum period of American history is, Elkins

contends, to overlook an opportunity for greater illumination of the

subject. To this end, he points out the value of historiographical reports

on slavery from all array of perspectives, and not just those that have

condemned slavery. As Elkins states of those committed to documentation

the history of slavery, "although the writers and compilers were themselves

by no means free from polemical intentions (indeed, they were for the more

part inspired by them) the requirements of fact operated upon them in such

a way that they left a number of works which are still of great value. The

two leading examples were produced by men whose commitments to the subject

itself were at opposite poles. Thomas R.R. Cobb's Inquiry into the Law of

Slavery was the work of a Georgia jurist, and John Codman Hurd's Law of

Freedom and Bondage that of a New Englander of strong abolitionist

leanings. They are equally useful and equally dependable today." (Elkins,

3)

It is thus that in a certain respect, the Elkins may be seen as the

more effective text where an examination of everyday slave life is

concerned. The willingness of the historian to explore the subject without

prejudicial interest in the perspective of the author would allow him to

understand the variant of experiences in slave life that help to reduce the

value of sweeping assumptions pertaining thereto. For instance, Elkins

remarks upon the wide spectrum of levels of autonomy experienced by slaves,

depending largely upon the selective orientation of slave-owners and the

size of the estate on which such slaves toiled. On larger plantations,

where whole communities of slaves lived, they would have a relative degree

of autonomy in their lives with respect to the fact that it would fall upon

the slaves to maintain order and activity within these communities.

Elkins' text is the more useful in elucidating these experiences, as it

reports upon slavery from the wider array of documented perspectives. This

points to Elkins' argument that we should enter into a period of academic

evaluation of such contradicting sources so as to better understand the

matter-of-fact position of those existing within the system now relegated

properly to the past.

This also makes the Elkins text a reliable source for understanding

the nuance of the role played by Christianity and the church in the

institution of slavery. This would have the dual effect of providing

slaves with a channel for the manifestation of hope and of providing their

masters with a way to manipulate obedience and a sense of acceptance for

the established order. Again, the degree to which the Elkins text

dedicates itself to removing the debate permeating the discussion of

slavery is manifested here as a balanced recognition of slavery as playing

a part in sustaining slavery and simultaneously of providing asylum from

its hardship.

Ultimately though, the Elkins text works too aggressively to

undermine the emotional permanence of the issue of slavery, discrediting

the text as perhaps given over to its own historical prejudices. The

McPherson text succeeds in framing the discussion over slavery without

requiring a massive shift in perspective. Instead, the text more

effectively connects the end of slavery with the interceding economic and

humanistic requirements of modernization. As the McPherson text would

argue, "in short, slavery and modernizing capitalism were irreconcilable."

(McPherson, 50)

It is thus that the McPherson text goes into great detail about the

manner in which the spread of industrial growth and economic expansion in

the north would ultimately make slavery an impossible institution to

sustain. Though it would be the slaveholder who would vociferously claim

the importance of limited government as a cause for the maintenance of the

system of slavery, McPherson illustrates that it would actually be the

inherent nature of capitalism that would ensure the ultimate end of the

type of economy which called for and sustained the practice of slavery. To

this point, McPherson reports that "heavy investment in social overhead

capital, which transforms a localized subsistence economy into a nationally

integrated market economy; rapid increases in output per capita, resulting

from technological innovation and the shift from labor-intensive toward

capital-intensive production; the accelerated growth of the industrial

sector compared with other sectors of the economy; rapid urbanization, made

possible by an increase in agricultural productivity that enables farmers

to feed the growing cities; an expansion of education, literacy, and mass

communications; a value system that emphasizes change rather than

tradition; an evolution from the traditional, rural, village-oriented

system of personal… READ MORE

How to Reference "Slavery and Economy According to Elkins" Thesis in a Bibliography

Related Thesis Papers:

Slavery Is a Much Discussed Matter Essay

Slavery is a much discussed matter in the modern society, with people looking back at the horrors that man has performed. A large number of authors have written on the… read more

Essay 3 pages (921 words) Sources: 2 Style: APA Topic: African-American / Black Studies

---

Slavery and the Slave Economy Thesis

Slavery in Colonial America

Slavery and the Slave Economy

Modern observers likely know in general terms that many Africans were enslaved through the 17th to 19th Centuries, but few probably… read more

Thesis 7 pages (2716 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: African-American / Black Studies

---

Economy of the BRIC Countries Case Study

Economy of the BRIC countries

The term BRIC is an acronym used to describe economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. These countries are described as emerging markets because of… read more

Case Study 10 pages (2753 words) Sources: 10 Topic: Economics / Finance / Banking

---

Economies Planned and Unplanned Economies Capitalism Discussion Chapter

Economies

Planned and unplanned economies

Capitalism and socialism are differentiated with certain unique ingredients such as central planning, market regulations and the types of resource ownership. Pure capitalism is, therefore,… read more

Discussion Chapter 2 pages (647 words) Sources: 5 Topic: Economics / Finance / Banking

---

Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional Term Paper

Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life by Stanley Elkins, and Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction by James M. McPherson.

Specifically it will contain a… read more

Term Paper 5 pages (1724 words) Sources: 1 Style: APA Topic: African-American / Black Studies

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>