Sociology for the South; Or, the Failure of Free Society Paperback – September 12, 2013

Fitzhugh's work is no doubt a shocker to contemporary sensibilities, and not without reason. It is an apologetic for slavery as a system of labor, made by a Virginian who wrote for the benefit of the slave society of the ante-bellum South. But it is not merely that, nor must the indefensibility of slavery as a system entirely relegate to the dustbin Fitzhugh's work. It is important to understand - intellectually speaking - what was behind the system of slavery that permeated the South, but also its function in a much larger exchange of ideas that crossed over the Atlantic regarding the problems of labor and capital, and to what ends human labor belonged, and what obligations were brought upon those who employed and benefited from labor. Fitzhugh's work is also a demonstration that slavery cannot be reduced to matters of race and racism. Those were obviously and incontestably part of the system of slave labor as it developed in the American colonies, the Caribbean, and what became the United States after its war of secession from Britain, but they were not the whole of it, nor an adequate explanation in and of itself of how and why a slave society developed and flourished in these areas. Fundamentally, it's about labor.

So, this is a very important read for anyone who explores the pro-slavery apologetics of the South. Nobody is going to defend slavery anymore, as that is a closed question, and that is an unambiguously good thing. But for understanding on a historical and intellectual level much of what the issue of slavery revolved around - in terms of labor, capital, labor relations, race, concepts of freedom, cash economy, etc. - Fitzhugh's work is extremely important. His writings have been well analyzed by some historians of the American South, notably C. Vann Woodward and Eugene Genovese, and so having access to a reproduction of Fitzhugh's two primary texts is invaluable. Especially as some modern studies of slavery have turned to emphasize the relationship between the plantation economy of the South and capitalism as an politico-economic system, Fitzhugh's work is important to grasping the anti-capitalist critique in which proponents of a slave-labor society were often invested, and the centrality of the system of benevolent paternalism (care of the laborer "from the cradle to the grave") to both that critique and the rapprochement that was sought with socialist and early communist thought developing in Europe, especially during and after the 1848 revolts. To comprehend Fitzhugh's argument that slavery was the "beau ideal of communism" can be a mind-bender, both by virtue of being on "this" side of history that has categorically rejected slavery as a labor system, and on account of the deep anti-socialism and anti-communism of much American political thought. But those questions remain important and central to ongoing political thought and modes of social, economic, and political critique. Fitzhugh's work is an important chapter in the development of anti-capitalist critique, and an important moment in the unpredictable and complex process of working towards a resolution of some kind to the problems, as Fitzhugh put it, of "labor and capital."

That resolution has yet to be reached in contemporary political economy, or in much political thought of the last hundred and fifty years. The ending of slavery was undoubtedly necessary, and there are few who would dispute such a thing today. The means are another question, and a more complex issue - but not a question of primary importance in understanding Fitzhugh's work or why aspects of it still might matter more than simply being an issue of historical curiosity. Necessary as the ending of slavery was, the real "winner" of the bloodiest war in American history was unregulated capitalism, the use of race tensions to drive down wages and labor costs for both blacks and whites (and others), and the deployment of US gov't troops (and what we would now call private security firms, like the Pinkertons) to break the back of the labor movements by putting down strikes with considerable force. Government investment in private enterprise exploded during and after the war, banking systems were brought into place, and a currency invented and enforced that funded the unregulated capitalism of the so-called "Guilded Age" of "robber-baron capitalism." The level of militarization that accompanied the war was also mobilized in the Indian Wars (at times fought as wars of extermination), and then the development of open US imperialism and colonialism with the conquests of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Hence the ante-bellum work of Fitzhugh (and other Southern writers) demonstrates at least some aspects of the various levels of critical resistance to the triumph of capitalism, with its counterpart in expansionist and colonialist conflicts and policies. Some Southern pro-slavery writers were open advocates of expansionism and imperialism, but clearly not all, and likely not most. One need not embrace Fitzhugh's preferred solution to the problem of labor and capital (non-race-based slavery), nor accede to his portrayal of the system (in actuality) as benign paternalism, to come to understand the importance of his work as part of the trans-Atlantic struggle to articulate and realize a system of politics and economy that at least aspired to have humane ends, and aspired to resist and replace crude and abusive capitalist labor relations as they were then to be found in Europe as well as almost every Northern manufacturing area, and in some areas of the South. It was an attempt, at least, to place care for the whole of the human being and quality of life above the question of economic and political freedom that left persons vulnerable to capitalist predation, abuse, enforced dependency, and other forms of exploitation. His statement that "wage slavery is desultory to actual slavery" is not something that is defensible, but "wage slavery" is nonetheless a historical and contemporary reality that the concept of "freedom" often ignores and overlooks.

Again, Fitzhugh's arguments in favor of non-raced-based slavery as a solution to the problem of labor and capital are not defensible, but they are nevertheless important for their insights into the problems of labor and capital, and exemplary of some strands of trans-Atlantic political thought that sought to resolve the antinomy between labor and capital in favor of human quality of life and something resembling distributive justice of the kind that said "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs."

The problem with this book is that at least half a dozen pages are missing a line at the bottom. I had to look up a Kindle version to complete the pages. There are also a few OCR typos. It's nice to have the book for a reasonable price, but it is not perfect. (On the idea side, it's quite worth reading: Fitzhugh, who was a defender of slavery, argues against free trade and liberty in general: "Liberty is an evil which government is intended to correct." He was at least a consistent statist.)

The book has numerous typological errors. What I dont understand is that I was able to locate online the same book as an ebook, and it had none of the errors in the text that this version had. You can do better.

Purchased as a curiosity of hearing the other side of those who had debated / argued with the founders of America. Discovered his arguments were keen, intelligently articulated, and has illuminated how very much more educated they were. How do we create today a lifestyle where the middle class and the largest income earners doesn't have such a divide. Trade may only be good for the few, roads may have slowed developing communities inland with the loss of the brightest individuals manufacturing to the coast. What if being an indebted servant is better than what is available in the job market? What if the u.s military jobs today pay far more than most middle class jobs? Is wage slavery the normal today, and government pensions better than middle class 401k plans? Is it cheaper to replace Americans today, than to take care of them? This book is. Recommended