A History Paper

2 Pages 375 Words

Hinton Rowan Helper and George Fitzhugh both had strong feelings regarding slavery and Northern and southern society. George Fizhugh believed that the north’s definition of equality of rights, and liberty was somewhat altered. George Fitzhugh believed that the north “enslaved” more people than the south in the sense that people that had money and land were the “new masters” of the poor, and were crueler than any southern slave owner.
Fitzhugh, furthermore stated that the slaves in the south experienced numerous more rewards than any free white land worker that were over worked and under paid. Fitzhugh’s argument was that slaves didn’t have to worry about where they were to sleep, or about raising enough money to feed his family, as many white land workers in the north had to do. In the south all these things were provided for the slaves. Another argument was that the slave owners cared more about their slaves than the employers in the north, even through old age of the slave.
Hinton Rowan Helper’s views on the north and south were somewhat different. He felt that the north was smart to have employees rather than slaves working in the field. Although Helper was a proud southern citizen, he felt that the south was being very nieve about how well the north was doing. Although southerners didn’t pay their slaves as the north did their field hands, the north was doing far better agriculturally than the south. The statistics from 1850 prove that the free states were making double, if not more, the amounts of wheat bushels and oats than the south. On top of doing better agriculturally they also had the best industry in the nation. All of the south went north for everything from books to clothing, and Helper knew that this put the south in a huge disadvantage. Helper wanted the south to keep it’s money circulating in the south, not given to the north. He felt that the only way for the south to get out of it’s...