Cannibals all! or, Slaves without mastersFitzhugh, George
General
Cannibals all! or, Slaves without masters
Fitzhugh, George
Slave labor; Slavery -- Justification; Slavery -- United States; Working class
We are, all, North and South, engaged in the White Slave Trade, and he
who succeeds best, is esteemed most respectable. It is far more cruel
than the Black Slave Trade, because it exacts more of its slaves, and
neither protects nor governs them. We boast, that it exacts more, when
we say, "that the _profits_ made from employing free labor are greater
than those from slave labor." The profits, made from free labor, are the
amount of the products of such labor, which the employer, by means of
the command which capital or skill gives him, takes away, exacts or
"exploitates" from the free laborer. The profits of slave labor are that
portion of the products of such labor which the power of the master
enables him to appropriate. These profits are less, because the master
allows the slave to retain a larger share of the results of his own
labor, than do the employers of free labor. But we not only boast that
the White Slave Trade is more exacting and fraudulent (in fact, though
not in intention,) than Black Slavery; but we also boast, that it is
more cruel, in leaving the laborer to take care of himself and family
out of the pittance which skill or capital have allowed him to retain.
When the day's labor is ended, he is free, but is overburdened with the
cares of family and household, which make his freedom an empty and
delusive mockery. But his employer is really free, and may enjoy the
profits made by others' labor, without a care, or a trouble, as to their
well-being. The negro slave is free, too, when the labors of the day are
over, and free in mind as well as body; for the master provides food,
raiment, house, fuel, and everything else necessary to the physical
well-being of himself and family. The master's labors commence just when
the slave's end. No wonder men should prefer white slavery to capital,
to negro slavery, since it is more profitable, and is free from all the
cares and labors of black slave-holding.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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