THE
IMPENDING CRISIS
OF
THE SOUTH:
HOW TO MEET IT.
BY
HINTON ROWAN HELPER,
OF NORTH CAROLINA.
| Countrymen! I sue for simple justice at your hands, Naught else I ask, nor less will have; Act right, therefore, and yield my claim, Or, by the great God that made all things, I’ll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hack’d!—Shakspeare. The liberal deviseth liberal things, And by liberal things shall he stand.—Isaiah. |
14TH THOUSAND.
NEW YORK:
A. B. BURDICK, PUBLISHER,
No. 8 SPRUCE STREET.
1859.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1857, by
HINTON ROWAN HELPER,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.
J. J. Reed, Printer and Stereotyper,
43 Centre Street.
To
HENRY M. WILLIS,
OF CALIFORNIA,
FORMERLY OF MARYLAND,
WOODFORD C. HOLMAN,
OF OREGON,
FORMERLY OF KENTUCKY,
MATTHEW K. SMITH,
OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY,
FORMERLY OF VIRGINIA,
AND TO THE
NON-SLAVEHOLDING WHITES OF THE SOUTH
GENERALLY,
WHETHER AT HOME OR ABROAD
THIS WORK IS MOST CORDIALLY
DEDICATED
BY THEIR
SINCERE FRIEND AND FELLOW-CITIZEN,
THE AUTHOR.
If my countrymen, particularly my countrymen of the South, still moreparticularly those of them who are non-slaveholders, shall peruse thiswork, they will learn that no narrow and partial doctrines of political orsocial economy, no prejudices of early education have induced me to writeit. If, in any part of it, I have actually deflected from the tone of truepatriotism and nationality, I am unable to perceive the fault. What I havecommitted to paper is but a fair reflex of the honest and long-settledconvictions of my heart.
In writing this book, it has been no part of my purpose to cast unmeritedopprobrium upon slaveholders, or to display any special friendliness orsympathy for the blacks. I have considered my subject more particularlywith reference to its economic aspects as regards the whites—not withreference, except in a very slight degree, to its humanitarian orreligious aspects. To the latter side of the question, Northern writershave already done full and timely justice. The genius of the North hasalso most ably and eloquently discussed the subject in the form of novels.Yankee wives have written the most popular anti-slavery literature of[Pg vi] theday. Against this I have nothing to say; it is all well enough for womento give the fictions of slavery; men should give the facts.
I trust that my friends and fellow-citizens of the South will read thisbook—nay, proud as any Southerner though I am, I entreat, I beg of themto do so. And as the work, considered