Quote#Work
The negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some sense,…
Quote byGeorge Fitzhugh · 1806–1881
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Cannibals All!, or Slaves Without Masters (1857), p. 29.
English (original)
The negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest people in the world. The children and the aged and infirm, work not at all, and yet have all the comforts and necessaries of life provided for them. They enjoy liberty, because they are opposed neither by care nor labor.
— George Fitzhugh
More from George Fitzhugh
A Southern farm is a sort of joint stock concern, or social phalastery, in which the master furnishes the capital and skill, and the slaves the labor, and divide the profits, not according to each one’s in-put, but according to each one’s …
all governments, in civilized countries, recognize the obligation to support the poor, and thus, in some degree, make all property a common possession.
Slavery relieves our slaves of these cares altogether, and slavery is a form, and the very best form, of socialism.
The capitalist cheapens their wages; they compete with and underbid each other, for employed they must be on any terms. This war of the rich with the poor and the poor with one another, is the morality which political economy inculcates.
Slavery protects the infants, the aged and the sick; nay, takes far better care of them of the healthy, the middle-aged and the strong.
Socialism proposes to do away with free competition; to afford protection and support at all times to the laboring class; to bring about, at least, a qualified community of property, and to associated labor. All these purposes, slavery …