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Line 3: + + − ==The "Slave Power" (often called the "'''Slaveocracy'''") was in common use in the United States 1840-1865 as a pejorative to identify and denounce the political power of the [[Slavery|slaveholding]] class in the South. The argument was that this small group of rich men had seized control of their own states and was trying to take over the national government in illegitimate fashion to use it to expand and protect slavery. + − − Line 13:
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The [[American Civil War]] destroyed the "slave power" and the Republican policies during [[Reconstruction]] were specifically designed to totally erase its influence.
The [[American Civil War]] destroyed the "slave power" and the Republican policies during [[Reconstruction]] were specifically designed to totally erase its influence.
==Ante-bellum==
The "Slave Power" (often called the "'''Slaveocracy'''") was in common use in the Ante-Bellum era 1840-1860 as a pejorative to identify and denounce the political power of the [[Slavery|slaveholding]] class in the South. The argument was that this small group of rich men had seized control of their own states and was trying to take over the national government in illegitimate fashion to use it to expand and protect slavery.
The issue was not the treatment of slaves. It was fear of slave oligarchs. Men and women could differ on scores of issues, hate blacks or like them, denounce slavery as a sin or promise to guarantee its protection in the Deep South, and still attack the "Slaveocracy." It mattered not where one stood on the other issues. One could still hate the slavemasters with a passion. <ref> Leonard L. Richards, ''Slave Power: The Free North and Southern Domination, 1780-1860'' (2000) p. 3)</ref>
The issue was not the treatment of slaves. It was fear of slave oligarchs. Men and women could differ on scores of issues, hate blacks or like them, denounce slavery as a sin or promise to guarantee its protection in the Deep South, and still attack the "slaveocracy." It mattered not where one stood on the other issues. One could still hate the slavemasters with a passion. <ref> Leonard L. Richards, ''Slave Power: The Free North and Southern Domination, 1780-1860'' (2000) p. 3)</ref>
The term was popularized by antislavery intellectuals such as John Gorham Palfrey, Josiah Quincy, Horace Bushnell, James Shepherd Pike, and, after the war, [[Horace Greeley]] and Henry Wilson. They showed through a combination of emotive argument and hard statistical data that the South had long held a disproportionate level of power within the nation. Did the slave power really exist? Millions in the North thought so, and acted upon it. However the notion was ridiculed by Southerners at the time, and rejected as false by historians of the 1920s and 1930s, who stressed that the South was internally divided before 1850.<ref> See Chauncey S. Boucher, "In Re That Aggressive Slavocracy," ''The Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' Vol. 8, No. 1/2 (Jun., 1921), pp. 13-79; Craven (1936) </ref> The idea that the Slave Power existed has partly come back at the hands of [[neoabolitionist]] historians since 1970, and there is no doubt that it was a powerful factor in the beliefs of Northerners.
The term was popularized by antislavery intellectuals such as John Gorham Palfrey, Josiah Quincy, Horace Bushnell, James Shepherd Pike, and, after the war, [[Horace Greeley]] and Henry Wilson. They showed through a combination of emotive argument and hard statistical data that the South had long held a disproportionate level of power within the nation. Did the slave power really exist? Millions in the North thought so, and acted upon it. However the notion was ridiculed by Southerners at the time, and rejected as false by historians of the 1920s and 1930s, who stressed that the South was internally divided before 1850.<ref> See Chauncey S. Boucher, "In Re That Aggressive Slavocracy," ''The Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' Vol. 8, No. 1/2 (Jun., 1921), pp. 13-79; Craven (1936) </ref> The idea that the Slave Power existed has partly come back at the hands of [[neoabolitionist]] historians since 1970, and there is no doubt that it was a powerful factor in the beliefs of Northerners.
==Threat to republicanism==
==Threat to republicanism==
The problem posed by slavery, it was argued by opponents of the Slave Power was not so much the mistreatment of slaves (a theme that abolitionists emphasized), but rather the political threat to American [[Republicanism, U.S.|republicanism]], and more generally to American standards of liberty. The [[Free Soil Party]] first raised this warning in 1848, arguing that the annexation of Texas as a slave state was a terrible mistake. Their strong rhetoric became a central theme in the new anti-slavery [[U.S. Republican Party, history|Republican party]], especially in the election of 1856.
The problem posed by slavery, it was argued by opponents of the Slave Power was not so much the mistreatment of slaves (a theme that abolitionists emphasized), but rather the political threat to American [[Republicanism]], and more generally to American standards of liberty. The [[Free Soil Party]] first raised this warning in 1848, arguing that the annexation of Texas as a slave state was a terrible mistake. Their strong rhetoric became a central theme in the new anti-slavery [[U.S. Republican Party, history|Republican party]], especially in the election of 1856.
The Republican argument was that slavery was economically inefficient, compared to free labor, and was a deterrent to the long-term modernization of America. Worse, said the Republicans, the Slave Power was systematically seizing control of the White House, the Congress, and the Supreme Court. Senator and governor [[Salmon P. Chase]] of Ohio was an articulate enemy of the Slave Power, as was Senator [[Charles Sumner]] of Massachusetts and Republican party leader [[Abraham Lincoln]] of Illinois. The Southerns replied that they were committed to democracy and republicanism, and that assaults on their "peculiar institution" (slavery) was an illegitimate effort to make them second class citizens. By 1850 they talked of secession.
The Republican argument was that slavery was economically inefficient, compared to free labor, and was a deterrent to the long-term modernization of America. Worse, said the Republicans, the Slave Power was systematically seizing control of the White House, the Congress, and the Supreme Court. Senator and governor [[Salmon P. Chase]] of Ohio was an articulate enemy of the Slave Power, as was Senator [[Charles Sumner]] of Massachusetts and Republican party leader [[Abraham Lincoln]] of Illinois. The Southerns replied that they were committed to democracy and republicanism, and that assaults on their "peculiar institution" (slavery) was an illegitimate effort to make them second class citizens. By 1850 they talked of secession.
==House divided==
==House divided==
In his "House Divided" speech of June 1858, [[Abraham Lincoln]] charged that Senator [[Stephen A. Douglas]], President [[James Buchanan]], his predecessor, [[Franklin Pierce]], and Chief Justice [[Roger Taney]] were all part of a plot to nationalize slavery, as proven by the Court's ''[[Dred Scott]]'' decision of 1857.
In his "House Divided" speech of June 1858, Lincoln charged that Senator [[Stephen A. Douglas]], President [[James Buchanan]], his predecessor, [[Franklin Pierce]], and Chief Justice [[Roger Taney]] were all part of a plot to nationalize slavery, as proven by the Court's ''[[Dred Scott]]'' decision of 1857.
Other Republicans pointed to the [[Bleeding Kansas|violence in Kansas]], the brutal [[Charles Sumner#Antebellum career and attack by Preston Brooks|assault on Senator Sumner]], attacks upon the abolitionist press, and efforts to take over [[Cuba]] as new slave territory, as evidence that the Slave Power was violent, aggressive, and expansive.
Other Republicans pointed to the [[Bleeding Kansas|violence in Kansas]], the brutal [[Charles Sumner|assault on Senator Sumner]] on the floor of the Senate, attacks upon the abolitionist press, and efforts to take over [[Cuba]] as new slave territory, as evidence that the Slave Power was violent, aggressive, and expansive.
The only solution, Republicans insisted, was a new commitment to free labor, and a deliberate effort to stop any more territorial expansion of slavery. Northern Democrats answered that it was all an exaggeration and that the Republicans were paranoid. Their Southern colleagues spoke of secession, arguing that the John Brown raid of 1859 proved that the Republicans were ready to attack their region and destroy their way of life.
The only solution, Republicans insisted, was a new commitment to free labor, and a deliberate effort to stop any more territorial expansion of slavery. Northern Democrats answered that it was all an exaggeration and that the Republicans were paranoid. Their Southern colleagues spoke of secession, arguing that the John Brown raid of 1859 proved that the Republicans were ready to attack their region and destroy their way of life.
In congratulating President-elect Lincoln in 1860, Salmon P. Chase exclaimed, "The object of my wishes and labors for nineteen years is accomplished in the overthrow of the Slave Power", adding that the way was now clear "for the establishment of the policy of Freedom" — something that would come only after four destructive years of [[American Civil War|Civil War]].
In congratulating President-elect Lincoln in 1860, [[Salmon P. Chase]] exclaimed, "The object of my wishes and labors for nineteen years is accomplished in the overthrow of the Slave Power", adding that the way was now clear "for the establishment of the policy of Freedom" — something that would come only after four destructive years of [[American Civil War|Civil War]].
==Wartime==
The Republicans believed that the Confederacy was created by and for the benefit of the Slave Power, and that destroying one involved destroying the other.
In August, 1861, he supported the first law attacking slavery, the Confiscation Act that said owners would forfeit any slaves they allowed to help the Confederate war effort. By December he was the first Congressional leader pushing for emancipation as a tool to weaken the rebellion. He called for total war on January 22, 1862:
<blockquote>
"Let us not be deceived. Those who talk about peace in sixty days are shallow statesmen. The war will not end until the government shall more fully recognize the magnitude of the crisis; until they have discovered that this is an internecine war in which one party or the other must be reduced to hopeless feebleness and the power of further effort shall be utterly annihilated. It is a sad but true alternative. The South can never be reduced to that condition so long as the war is prosecuted on its present principles. The North with all its millions of people and its countless wealth can never conquer the South until a new mode of warfare is adopted. So long as these states are left the means of cultivating their fields through forced labor, you may expend the blood of thousands and billions of money year by year, without being any nearer the end, unless you reach it by your own submission and the ruin of the nation. Slavery gives the South a great advantage in time of war. They need not, and do not, withdraw a single hand from the cultivation of the soil. Every able-bodied white man can be spared for the army. The black man, without lifting a weapon, is the mainstay of the war. How, then, can the war be carried on so as to save the Union and constitutional liberty? Prejudices may be shocked, weak minds startled, weak nerves may tremble, but they must hear and adopt it. Universal emancipation must be proclaimed to all. Those who now furnish the means of war, but who are the natural enemies of slaveholders, must be made our allies. If the slaves no longer raised cotton and rice, tobacco and grain for the rebels, this war would cease in six months, even though the liberated slaves would not raise a hand against their masters. They would no longer produce the means by which they sustain the war."<ref>Woodburn 178-179</ref></blockquote>
One of the key reasons for Lincoln's announcement of the [[Emancipation proclamation]] in September, 1862, was to reassure the North that the destruction of the Slave Power was indeed a war goal.
==Reconstruction==
In [[Reconstruction]], one of the main objectives of the U.S. Congress, especially the [[Radical Republicans]] like Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens was to guarantee that the Slavery Power was permanently dead. They decided the only way to achieve this was to give Freedmen (freed slaves) the right to vote, while stripping the vote away from leavers of the Confederacy. Despite widespread doubts in the North, in fact the white South unanimously agreed that slavery was dead and there were no efforts whatever to resurrect it.
==Activists==
==Activists==
* McInerney, Daniel J. "'A State of Commerce': Market Power and Slave Power in Abolitionist Political Economy." ''Civil War History'' 1991 37(2): 101-119. Issn: 0009-8078
* McInerney, Daniel J. "'A State of Commerce': Market Power and Slave Power in Abolitionist Political Economy." ''Civil War History'' 1991 37(2): 101-119. Issn: 0009-8078
* Richards, Leonard L. ''Slave Power: The Free North and Southern Domination, 1780-1860'' (2000), the standard scholarly history; [http://www.amazon.com/Slave-Power-Southern-Domination-1780-1860/dp/0807126004/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195730674&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
* Richards, Leonard L. ''Slave Power: The Free North and Southern Domination, 1780-1860'' (2000), the standard scholarly history; [http://www.amazon.com/Slave-Power-Southern-Domination-1780-1860/dp/0807126004/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195730674&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
* Trefousse, Hans L. ''Thaddeus Stevens: Nineteenth-Century Egalitarian'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=97209778 online version]
* Woodburn, James Albert. ''The Life of Thaddeus Stevens: A Study in American Political History, Especially in the Period of the Civil War and Reconstruction''. (1913) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=3161778 online version]
===Primary sources===
===Primary sources===
* Cairnes, John Elliott. ''The Slave Power: Its Character, Career, and Probable Designs'' (1862), British political tract [http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AFN8980 online text of the second edition]; [http://books.google.com/books?id=VWoFAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:%22slave+power%22&num=30&as_brr=1 complete text online]
* Cairnes, John Elliott. ''The Slave Power: Its Character, Career, and Probable Designs'' (1862), British political tract [http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AFN8980 online text of the second edition]; [http://books.google.com/books?id=VWoFAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:%22slave+power%22&num=30&as_brr=1 complete text online]
* Lowance Jr., Mason I. ed. ''House Divided: The Antebellum Slavery Debates in America, 1776-1865'' (2003)
* Lowance Jr., Mason I. ed. ''House Divided: The Antebellum Slavery Debates in America, 1776-1865'' (2003) [http://www.amazon.com/House-Divided-Antebellum-Slavery-1776-1865/dp/0691002282/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230544251&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Thompson, C. Bradley ed. ''Anti-Slavery Political Writings, 1833-1860: A Reader'' (2003)
* Thompson, C. Bradley ed. ''Anti-Slavery Political Writings, 1833-1860: A Reader'' (2003)
* Henry Wilson, ''History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America'' (in 3 volumes, 1872 & 1877) [http://books.google.com/books?id=iG4FAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:%22slave+power%22&num=30&as_brr=1 vol 2 online]; [http://books.google.com/books?id=tG4FAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:%22slave+power%22&num=30&as_brr=1 vol 3 online]
* Henry Wilson, ''History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America'' (in 3 volumes, 1872 & 1877) [http://books.google.com/books?id=iG4FAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:%22slave+power%22&num=30&as_brr=1 vol 2 online]; [http://books.google.com/books?id=tG4FAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:%22slave+power%22&num=30&as_brr=1 vol 3 online]
* [[Charles Sumner]]
* [[Charles Sumner]]
===Notes===
===Notes===
[[Category:Reconstruction]]
[[Category:Reconstruction]]
[[Category:Slavery]]
[[Category:Slavery]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Black History]]