Actually, of the 6,184,477 white folk in the slave States, only 347,525 were listed by the census of 1850 as owners, and even this number gave an exaggerated impression of the facts." Adding members of slave owning families and other involved individuals, Nevins increases the figure, but retains the emphasis, concluding that the number of whites directly involved in slavery probably "did not exceed 2,000,000. Allan Nevins states in his distinguished history of the Civil War era that "from the terms used in the angry discussion of slavery, it might have been supposed that almost the whole Southern population had a direct interest in it.
For generations historians have been almost unanimous in emphasizing that black slaves were owned by a surprisingly small minority of whites. A symbol of such convenience obviously would invite distortion that it has, in fact, done so is suggested by the persistence of certain questionable assumptions about the nature of slave ownership in the antebellum South. It epitomized evil and became a symbol that has been used to define and justify the social conditions and history of a capitalist, free labor society. Then and since, slavery has served as a convenient and perfect enemy. Olsen In a recent brief and thoughtful volume, David Brion Davis has directed attention to what he calls a "paranoid style" affecting the antebellum debate over slavery in the United States.1 Encouraged by insecurities as well as convictions, this style has remained a lasting as well as distorting force in American thought and its influence upon the posture of the victorious "free" society has had enduring consequences. Historians and the Extent of Slave Ownership in the Southern United States Otto H.
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
0 kommentar(er)
