Name/Title
The Slaveholders' Dilemma: Freedom and Progress in Southern Conservative Thought, 1820-1860Entry/Object ID
2010.002.097Description
In antebellum times slaveholders perceived themselves as thoroughly modern and moral men who were protecting human progress against the perversions spawned by the more radical aspects of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. The slaveholders insisted that, in resisting the religious heresies, infidelity, ultra-democratic politics, and egalitarian dogmas then sweeping the North and Western Europe, they were proving themselves the firmest carriers of genuine progress itself. Surprisingly, they accepted the widespread idea that freedom generated the economic, social, and moral progress they embraced as their own cause. But they nonetheless increasingly took higher ground in defense of their slave system. In consequence, they plunged into an intellectual and political cul de sac. Genovese, in exploring their efforts to fight their way out of this dilemma, argues that proslavery Southerners--theologians, political theorists, economists, sociologists, and moral philosophers--simultaneously formed part of a broad trans-Atlantic conservative movement and yet advanced a distinct position that set them apart from their Northern and European counterparts. He also holds that the spokesmen for Southern slavery demonstrated a much higher level of intellectual talent than has been generally recognized and that they will no longer be subject to the obscurity into which they have fallen.
xviii, 116 p. ; 23 cm.Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation LibraryAcquisition
Accession
2010.002.Source or Donor
New Library Catalog Records (2010)Acquisition Method
Found in CollectionLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
BookNomenclature Sub-Class
Other DocumentsNomenclature Class
Documentary ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsSearch Terms
Slavery--Southern States--Justification, Slaveholders--Southern States--Intellectual lifeBook Details
Author
Genovese, Eugene D., 1930-Series
Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt Lecture SeriesPublisher
University of South Carolina PressDate Published
1992Call No.
E449 .G3725 1992ISBN
0872497836LCCN
91026735Location
Category
PermanentDate
February 7, 2023Category
PermanentGeneral Notes
Note
Notes: By Eugene D. Genovese.
Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt lecture series ; no. 1.
Includes bibliographical references and index.Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
December 29, 2010Updated By
kemmonsUpdate Date
December 29, 2010