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
The wife has also a legally recognized property in the husband's
services. He is her property, but not her slave.
The father has property in the services and persons of his children till
they are twenty-one years of age. They are his property and his slaves.
Children have property, during infancy, in the services of each parent.
Infant negroes, sick, infirm and superannuated negroes, hold most
valuable property in the services and capital of their masters. The
masters hold no property in such slaves, because, for the time, they are
of no value.
Owners and captains of vessels own property in the services of sailors,
and may control their personal liberty. They (the sailors) are property,
and slaves also.
The services and persons, lives and liberty of soldiers and of officers,
belong to the Government; they are, whilst in service, both property and
slaves.
Every white working man, be he clerk, carpenter, mechanic, printer,
common laborer, or what else, who contracts to serve for a term of days,
months, or years, is, for such term, the property of his employer. He is
not a slave, like the wife, child, apprentice, sailor or soldier,
because, although the employer's right to his services be equally
perfect, his remedy to enforce such right is very different. In the one
case, he may resort to force to compel compliance; in the other, he is
driven to a suit for damages.
Again: Every capitalist holds property in his fellow men to the extent
of the profits of his capital, or income. The only income possibly
resulting from capital, is the result of the property which capital
bestows on its owners, in the labor of other people. In our first three
chapters we attempt to explain this.
All civilized society recognizes, and, in some measure, performs the
obligation to support and provide for all human beings, whether natives
or foreigners, who are unable to provide for themselves. Hence
poor-houses, &c.
Hence all men hold valuable property, actual or contingent, in the
services of each other.
If, Mr. Garrison, this be the only difficulty to be adjusted between
North and South, we are sure that your little pet, Disunion, "living
will linger, and lingering will die."
When Mr. Andrews and you have quite "expelled human nature," dissolved
and disintegrated society, and reduced mankind to separate, independent,
but conflicting monads, or human atoms--then, and not till then, will
you establish the 'sovereignty of the individual,' and destroy the
property of man in man.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE "COUP DE GRACE" TO ABOLITION.
The Abolitionists are all willing to admit that free society has utterly
failed in Europe, but will assign two reasons for that failure--"Excess
of population, and want of equality and liberty."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account