George Fitzhugh

For the Chancellor of Cambridge University and Dean of Lincoln, see George Fitzhugh (priest).
George Fitzhugh
Fitzhugh circa 1855
Born(1806-11-04)4 November 1806
Prince William County, Virginia, U.S.
Died30 July 1881(1881-07-30) (aged 74)
Huntsville, Texas, U.S.
OccupationLawyer
Notable workSociology for the South, or, the Failure of Free Society (1854)
Cannibals All!, or, Slaves Without Masters (1857)
SpouseMary Metcalf Brockenbrough
ChildrenRobert Hunter Fitzhugh (1836–1919)
Twins Augusta Fitzhugh Woodall (1839–1908)
Mariella Foster (1839–1919)
Rev. George Stuart Fitzhugh (1844–1925)
RelativesGeorge Fitzhugh (father)
Lucy Stuart Fitzhugh (mother)
Era19th century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
American philosophy
School
Main interests
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George Fitzhugh (November 4, 1806 – July 30, 1881) was an American social theorist who published racial and slavery-based social theories in the antebellum era. He argued that the negro was "but a grown up child"[2][3] needing the economic and social protections of slavery. Fitzhugh decried capitalism as practiced by the Northern United States and Great Britain as spawning "a war of the rich with the poor, and the poor with one another",[4] rendering free blacks "far outstripped or outwitted in the chase of free competition."[5] Slavery, he contended, ensured that blacks would be economically secure and morally civilized. Some historians consider Fitzhugh's worldview to be proto-fascist in its rejection of liberal values, defense of slavery, and perspectives toward race.[6][7][8]

Fitzhugh practiced law but attracted both fame and infamy when he published two sociological tracts for the South. He was a leading pro-slavery intellectual[9] and spoke for many of the Southern plantation owners. Before printing books, Fitzhugh tried his hand at a pamphlet, "Slavery Justified" (1849). His first book, Sociology for the South (1854) was not as widely known as his second book, Cannibals All! (1857). Sociology for the South is the first known English-language book to include the term "sociology" in its title.[10]

Fitzhugh differed from nearly all of his southern contemporaries by advocating a slavery that crossed racial boundaries. In Sociology for the South, Fitzhugh proclaimed, "Men are not 'born entitled to equal rights!' It would be far nearer the truth to say, 'that some were born with saddles on their backs, and others booted and spurred to ride them,' – and the riding does them good."; and that the Declaration of Independence "deserves the tumid yet appropriate epithets which Major Lee somewhere applies to the writings of Mr. Jefferson, it is, 'exhuberantly false, and arborescently fallacious.'"[11]

  1. ^ Leavelle, Arnaud B., and Thomas I. Cook. "George Fitzhugh and the Theory of American Conservatism." The Journal of Politics, vol. 7, no. 2, [University of Chicago Press, Southern Political Science Association], 1945, pp. 145–68, doi:10.2307/2125838.
  2. ^ Fitzhugh, George (1854). "Negro Slavery", Sociology for the South, Chap. V, A. Morris Publisher, p. 83.
  3. ^ "George Fitzhugh Advocates Slavery", The Black American: A Documentary History, Foresman and Company, Illinois, 1976, 1970.
  4. ^ Fitzhugh (1854), p. 22.
  5. ^ Fitzhugh (1854), p. 84.
  6. ^ Roel Reyes, Stefan (2019-12-17). "Antebellum Palingenetic Ultranationalism: The Case for including the United States in Comparative Fascist Studies". Fascism. 8 (2): 307–330. doi:10.1163/22116257-00802005. ISSN 2211-6257.
  7. ^ Wish, Harvey (1943). George Fitzhugh: Propagandist of the Old South. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. pp. viii, 188–192.
  8. ^ Roel Reyes, Stefan (2021-11-24). "'Christian Patriots': The Intersection Between Proto-fascism and Clerical Fascism in the Antebellum South". International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity. -1 (aop): 82–110. doi:10.1163/22130624-00219121. ISSN 2213-0624. S2CID 244746966.
  9. ^ Gilpin, Drew Faust (1977). A Sacred Circle: The Dilemma of the Intellectual in the Old South, 1840–1860, Johns Hopkins University Press.
  10. ^ Oakwood Cemetery, Walker County Historical Society website; accessed August 27, 2017.
  11. ^ Sociology for the South, or, the Failure of Free Society, pp. 179, 182.