Slaves Without Masters

Southern intellectual George Fitzhugh provides a passionate defense of slavery in this nearly 400-page volume published in 1857. Further developing ideas in his previous work Sociology for the South, Fitzhugh not only defends slavery but attacks the entire liberal tradition. Attacking Adam Smith, John Locke, Thomas Jefferson and others, Fitzhugh argues that free markets are harmful to society by forcing the lower classes into crushing labor and poverty. The answer, Fitzhugh argues, is slavery--not only for blacks, but for whites as well. "Slavery," he writes, "is a form, and the very best form, of socialism."