Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Prologue
- PART ONE CRADLED IN THE STORMS OF REVOLUTION
- PART TWO THE INESCAPABLE PAST
- PART THREE ANCIENT LEGACIES, MEDIEVAL SENSIBILITY, MODERN MEN
- 8 In the Shadow of Antiquity
- 9 Coming to Terms with the Middle Ages
- 10 The Chivalry
- 11 Chivalric Slave Masters
- 12 Chivalric Politics: Southern Ladies Take Their Stand
- PART FOUR A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE DEFEND THE FAITH
- PART FIVE AT THE RUBICON
- Epilogue: King Solomon's Dilemma
- Supplementary References
- Index
11 - Chivalric Slave Masters
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Prologue
- PART ONE CRADLED IN THE STORMS OF REVOLUTION
- PART TWO THE INESCAPABLE PAST
- PART THREE ANCIENT LEGACIES, MEDIEVAL SENSIBILITY, MODERN MEN
- 8 In the Shadow of Antiquity
- 9 Coming to Terms with the Middle Ages
- 10 The Chivalry
- 11 Chivalric Slave Masters
- 12 Chivalric Politics: Southern Ladies Take Their Stand
- PART FOUR A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE DEFEND THE FAITH
- PART FIVE AT THE RUBICON
- Epilogue: King Solomon's Dilemma
- Supplementary References
- Index
Summary
If I could reconcile it to myself I should be very much disposed to act upon your suggestion and sell all my negroes except enough for servants. But I cannot bring myself to [consider] them merely as property. They are human beings – placed under my control, and for whose welfare I am to some extent responsible.
—Rep. David Outlaw of North Carolina“It is wise, too, in relation to the civilized world around us,” wrote Chancellor William Harper of South Carolina, “to avoid giving occasion to the odium which is so industriously excited against ourselves and our institutions. For this reason, public opinion should, if possible, bear down even more strongly on masters who practise any wanton cruelty on their slave.” Harper issued a warning heard across the South: “The miscreant who is guilty of this not only violates the law of God and of humanity, but as far as in him lies, by bringing odium upon, endangers the institutions of his country, and the safety of his countrymen.”
The slaveholders did not see themselves as many contemporaries or most historians have seen them. As their diaries and letters attest, they could hardly believe it when, during the War, thousands of presumably loyal and contented slaves deserted to the Yankees and told horror stories. To be a gentleman, James Holcombe told the State Agricultural Society of Virginia in 1858, meant to be a kind master. The Christian South refused to view slaves as mere chattel, and Holcombe believed public opinion would provide a guarantor against cruelties.
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- The Mind of the Master ClassHistory and Faith in the Southern Slaveholders' Worldview, pp. 365 - 382Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005