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David Roediger recounted the rise of slavery comparison in the rhetoric of dissatisfied white workers during the 1830s and 1840s. The anxiety experienced by oppressed white laborers shared a close linkage with the increasing attention paid to abolition in this time period. Interestingly, the same laborers who fought against what they considered “White Slavery” (Roediger) argued for enslaving blacks. Only fear can explain such a striking hypocrisy.
In their attempts to gain more rights, white laborers compared their situation to Southern slavery, and even went as far as to claim their situation was worse than slavery (349). Embedded in their rhetoric were the paternalistic views of slavery employed by Southern slaveholders. As Roediger pointed out, “Chattel slavery stood as the ultimate expression of denial of liberty” (343). Clearly, whites must have felt severe oppression in order to draw this comparison.
White laborers demands for freedom from a system they likened to slavery notably did not extend to actual slaves. Their proslavery view stemmed from a fear of replacing or being replaced by African-American slaves. Abolition threatened the job market for poor white workers. In addition, it challenged the inherent sense of superiority felt by whites. As ALKAROUT mentioned in her post on 9/18, colonial whites “forged … a sense of racial pride” to unite planters and common men against slaves. Roediger addressed “the continuing desire not to be considered anything like an African-American” (344-345). Fear of equality with blacks was a longstanding concern for lower class whites, explaining their hypocritical proslavery stance.
Dee Dee Joyce observed the same fears and proslavery responses among Irish-Americans in the South. The Irish wholeheartedly served the Confederacy during the civil war. This support for the Confederacy does not indicate Irish support for the practice of slavery itself, but rather the protection of their identity and inclusion in society. Shaped by a history of marginalization, Irish-Americans desperately longed for inclusion and a sense of superiority, and maintaining slavery offered the best way to attain these goals.
Both works revealed an interesting perspective on both workers’ rights and abolition. In addition, they both demonstrated the complex ties every social group had to the institution of slavery.