George Fitzhugh's defense of Southern slavery and antebellum social hierarchy

¶ … defense of Southern society, George Fitzhugh argues that Southern culture is cohesive and that slavery is an integral part of social stability. For example, the author claims that income disparity is higher in the North than in the South. Fitzhugh also mentions that the Southern lifestyle was generally more peaceful and civilized than living in Northern urban centers was. However, his point-of-view is most obviously biased by the fact that he lived as a landholding white man, not as a slave. Fitzhugh was also passionately attached to the South. His views reflect his affection for the atmosphere he was familiar with. Especially as ties between North and South grew tenous, his writing reads like political propaganda. Had Fitzhugh put himself in the shoes of slaves he might not so passionately defend the peculiar institution. Still, the document illustrates many of the core logical arguments used by Southerners to defend slavery.

In 1960, Daniel Hundley wrote about the yeomen of the South. The poor white farmers living in the South are given relatively little treatment in history texts because they were out-shadowed by their plantation- and slave-owning counterparts. Hundley was more personally familiar with plantation life than with yeoman life, as he was born on a plantation. However, his familiarity with Southern ways of life enables him to write clearly about the role yeomen played in shaping American history. His document illuminates the nuances of social and economic class in the antebellum South.