Why Did George Fitzhugh Support Slavery?

George Fitzhugh was like your typical southern man at the time. He was a “descendant of an old southern family that had fallen on hard times.” Genovese, E. D. (n.d.). George Fitzhugh, 1806-1881 (C. R. Wilson & W. Ferris, Eds.). Retrieved September 08, 2017, from http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/fitzhughcan/bio.html. He, like the other people around him, “struggled as a small planter.” Genovese, E. D. (n.d.). George Fitzhugh, 1806-1881 (C. R. Wilson & W. Ferris, Eds.). Retrieved September 08, 2017, from http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/fitzhughcan/bio.html. Unlike the typical southern planter, he didn’t just rely on his plantation to bring him income. He practiced law in some of his time and also was a writer. He “made a reputation with two
In that book, he made several points that supported slavery. “It is the interest of the capitalist and the skillful to allow free laborers the least possible portion of the fruits of their own labor, for all capital is created by labor, and the smaller the allowance of the free laborer, the greater the gains of his employer. To treat free laborers badly and unfairly, is universally inculcated as a moral duty, and the selfishness of man’s nature prompts him to the most rigorous performance of this cannibalish duty.” Fitzhugh, G. (n.d.). Cannibals All. In America in Class. National Humanities Center. Retrieved September 8, 2017, from http://americainclass.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Fitzhugh-excerpt.pdf. He believes it is his moral duty to treat his slaves badly. He feels as if society expects him to do what he does to his slaves in order to get the slaves to perform their duty effectively. After all, that’s what his parents did when he was around them on their plantatiation. He knows no other effective way to get the slaves to cooperate with
He stated “He the Negro is but a grown up child, and must be governed as a child, not as a lunatic or criminal. The master occupies toward him the place of parent or guardian. We shall not dwell on this view, for no one will differ with us who thinks as we do of the negro's capacity, and we might argue till dooms-day in vain, with those who have a high opinion of the negro's moral and intellectual capacity. The negro is improvident; will not lay up in summer for the wants of winter; will not accumulate in youth for the exigencies of age. He would become an insufferable burden to society. Society has the right to prevent this, and can only do so by subjecting him to domestic slavery. In the last place, the negro race is inferior to the white race, and living in their midst, they would be far outstripped or outwitted in the chaos of free competition. Gradual but certain extermination would be their fate. We presume the maddest abolitionist does not think the negro's providence of habits and money-making capacity at all to compare to those of the whites. This defect of character would alone justify enslaving him, if he is to remain here. In Africa or the West Indies, he would become idolatrous, savage and cannibal, or be devoured by savages and cannibals. At the North he would freeze or starve.” Fishel, L. H. (n.d.). "The