The final entry in Edward Sebesta's Web page on Confederate Heritage Month cites some contemporary books offering defenses of Southern slavery. Apart from promoting a muddle-headed approach to history, I tend to think that the idea of defending slavery in this crowd is more a way to sneer at black Americans and promote racist notions than actual advocacy for slavery as such.
But actual slavery is not unknown in today's world. So I wouldn't want to give the neo-Confederates too much credit.
But if you're looking for defenses of antebellum slavery, you don't have to bother with contemporary crackpot versions. You can go to the real thing. Like Cannibals All! Or, Slaves Without Masters (1857) by George Fitzhugh, one of the South's most popular proslavery propagandists. Here, he explains patiently why defenders of slavery must argue that it is a positive good, not a necessary evil that will eventually pass away in some century or other:
To insist that a status of society, which has been almost universal, and which is expressly and continually justified by Holy Writ, is its natural, normal, and necessary status, under the ordinary circumstances, is on its face a plausible and probable proposition. To insist on less, is to yield our cause, and to give up our religion; for if white slavery be morally wrong, be a violation of natural rights, the Bible cannot be true. Human and divine authority do seem in the general to concur, in establishing the expediency of having masters and slaves of different races. The nominal servitude of the Jews to each other, in its temporary character, and no doubt in its mild character, more nearly resembled our wardship and apprenticeship, than ordinary domestic slavery. In very many nations of antiquity, and in some of modern times, the law has permitted the native citizens to become slaves to each other. But few take advantage of such laws; and the infrequency of the practice, establishes the general truth that master and slave should be of different national descent. In some respects, the wider the difference the better, as the slave will feel less mortified by his position. In other respects, it may be that too wide a difference hardens the hearts and brutalizes the feelings of both master and slave. The civilized man hates the savage, and the savage returns the hatred with interest.. Hence, West India slavery, of newly caught negroes, is not a very humane, affectionate or civilizing institution. Virginia negroes have become moral and intelligent. They love their master and his family, and the attachment is reciprocated. Still, we like the idle, but intelligent house-servants, better than the hard-used, but stupid outhands; and we like the mulatto better than the negro; yet the negro is generally more affectionate, contented and faithful. ...
Whilst, as a general and abstract question, negro slavery has no other claims over other forms of slavery, except that from inferiority, or rather peculiarity, of race, almost all negroes require masters, whilst only the children, the women, the very weak, poor, and ignorant, &c., among the whites, need some protective and governing relation of this kind; yet as a subject of temporary, but worldwide importance, negro slavery has become the most necessary of all human institutions. [This is from the University of North Carolina's invaluable Documenting the American South site.]
Modern defenders of slavery writing in the spirit of Confederate ideology usually borrow such justifications from the originals. This paper, Southern Slavery As It Wasn't, is a good analysis of one neo-Confederate defense of slavery. (Unfortunately, the *.pdf file for the paper is not currently available, so this HTML link is all I could find. It's easily readable, just a little annoying in the format.)
This is the last of the Confederate "Heritage" Month entries for 2004. I'll continue to post on other issues related to Southern history and the Lost Cause dogma. By all means, read the complete posts on Edward Sebesta's page on the subject which I've highlighted in these posts. His Temple of Democracy Web page is a good resource on this general topic. He also has a blog which he updates lately every couple of weeks.
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