Fatal self-deception : slaveholding paternalism in the Old South / Eugene D. Genovese, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Genovese, Eugene D., 1930-2012, author.

Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth, 1941-2007, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slavery--Southern States--History--19th century.

Slavery.

Plantation owners--Southern States--History--19th century.

Plantation owners.

Paternalism--Southern States--History--19th century.

Paternalism.

Enslaved persons--Southern States--Social conditions--19th century.

Enslaved persons.

Plantation workers--Southern States--History--19th century.

Plantation workers.

White people--Southern States--Social conditions--19th century.

White people.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 232 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Slaveholders were preoccupied with presenting slavery as a benign, paternalistic institution in which the planter took care of his family and slaves were content with their fate. In this book, Eugene D. Genovese and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese discuss how slaveholders perpetuated and rationalized this romanticized version of life on the plantation. Slaveholders' paternalism had little to do with ostensible benevolence, kindness and good cheer. It grew out of the necessity to discipline and morally justify a system of exploitation. At the same time, this book also advocates the examination of masters' relations with white plantation laborers and servants - a largely unstudied subject. Southerners drew on the work of British and European socialists to conclude that all labor, white and black, suffered de facto slavery, and they championed the South's 'Christian slavery' as the most humane and compassionate of social systems, ancient and modern.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. 'Boisterous passions'; 2. The complete household; 3. Strangers within the gates; 4. Loyal and loving slaves; 5. The blacks' best and most faithful friend; 6. Guardians of a helpless race; 7. Devotion unto death.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-139-15304-8

1-107-22231-1

1-283-34115-8

9786613341150

1-139-16060-5

0-511-99475-3

1-139-16160-1

1-139-15603-9

1-139-15779-5

1-139-15955-0

OCLC:

767502516