April 6, 2011
U.S History Period 2
Homework;
Quote ACE Response
Quote;
“The Negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and in some sense, the freest people in the world… The free laborer must work or starve. He is more of slave than the Negro, because he works longer and harder for less allowance than the slave.” George Fitzhugh, 1857
ACE Response;
This is a famous quote entitled “The Blessings of Slavery”. I feel that George Fitzhugh had a lot of purpose behind this quote. The point he is trying to get by is that although slaves had suffered for many years, all of their life necessities were handed to them. He compares the slaves to the “white man”, who he saw more as a slave then an actual slave. In his quote he says “The children and the aged and infirm work not at all, and yet have all the comforts and necessaries of life provided for them. Fitzhugh feels that the common white man has to work all of their life just to get what they need to survive. Because they are not black there is no demand for them in the work force, so therefore they have to work twice hard. Doing any type of job they can without anything being promised to them. In his quote he explains that the white man have restless nights while the slave works no longer than 9 hours a day and then a quiet sleep. I think that Fitzhugh says slaves are free because although they are forced to work but, it is only a few hours a day and they come home to a meal and a place to lay their head. George Fitzhugh says this is a luxury. The common white man must compete for jobs during this hard time and as he says in the quote above; they must work harder for less allowance than the slave. I feel that the only reason George Fitzhugh considers slaves free is because they have nothing to worry about in this world. There only responsibility is to do their work that is handed to them. They don’t have to worry about