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Pro-slavery and the Classics in Antebellum America, 1840 – 1860: Thomas Cobb, Louisa McCord, George Frederick Holmes, George Fitzhugh, and James Henry Hammond under Scrutiny. Jared Jodoin Doctorate of Philosophy The University of Edinburgh March 2019 Signed Declaration I hereby declare that that this thesis is entirely my own composition and work. It contains no material previously submitted for the award of any other degree or professional degree. Jared A. Jodoin 2 Table of Contents Abstract / 4 Acknowledgments / 6 1 / Two Worlds Collided: Greco-Roman Antiquity and the Antebellum United States / 7 2 / The Pro-Slavery Argument / 36 3 / As the Greeks and Romans “Did”: Thomas R. Cobb’s Black Slaves of Antiquity with a Twist of Southern Jurisprudence / 59 4 / Classical Erudition and Pro-slavery: Louisa McCord’s Journey through Southern “Womanhood” / 87 5 / The Unmitigated White Southerner: George Frederick Holmes, Pro- slavery, and Classicism / 110 6 / Slavery According to the Philosopher King of the Old South: George Fitzhugh’s Southern Utopia / 135 7 / Pro-Slavery in James Henry Hammond’s Cotton Kingdom: Agriculture and the Classical Ideal / 157 8 / Conclusion: Reconsidering the Pro-Slavery Argument / 182 Appendix / 200 Works Cited / 204 3 Abstract In their important contributions to the study of American history, Eugene Genovese and Michael O’Brien noted the significant intellectual culture that existed in the South prior to the Civil War. Scholars such as Caroline Winterer, Michael O’Brien, Eugene Genovese, and others have already offered important contributions which bridge the gap between the ancient world and antebellum America. My research addresses this particular gap because it examines both American (specifically Southern) pro-slavery in the two decades leading up to the Civil War through the lens of pro-slavery intellectual culture and classicism. By directly exploring individuals associated with this period, and their literary output, this study deepens this connection further. Caroline Winterer’s 2002 work constituted a major contribution to the study of the Classics in American intellectual life between 1780 and 1910 more broadly. By addressing how five white Southerners used classicism to develop sophisticated arguments to defend black slavery, my thesis constitutes a fresh contribution to this aspect of the study of American history. The chapters in this thesis will examine pro-slavery literature produced by Thomas Cobb, Louisa McCord, George Frederick Holmes, George Fitzhugh, and James Henry Hammond. This thesis will show that the ancient societies of Greece and Rome emerged as an essential support base for the development of pro-slavery arguments. Cobb, McCord, Holmes, Fitzhugh, and Hammond utilised classicism to overall strengthen their pro-slavery literature. In my view, the utilisation of the Greco-Roman world by these authors makes “historical” sense, because classicism partially bridges the gap between a time when societies widely accepted servile labour and a period when it underwent heavy scrutiny. My thesis will argue that had they not utilised classicism, their literature would look significantly different. Essentially classicism permeated the antebellum South, and this provided white Southern authors of pro-slavery with a strong source of inspiration. Each of the five authors examined in this thesis used classicism in significant ways. My aim will show that this group of antebellum intellectuals provides modern historians with a new platform to discuss classicism in relation to American pro- slavery. Cobb, McCord, Holmes, Fitzhugh, and Hammond believed in their utilisation of classicism, and from an intellectual viewpoint, thought their arguments would foster the 4 growth of Southern pro-slavery. My research demonstrates a varied and crafty use of classical sources, ranging from philosophical treatises to agricultural manuals, to the Roman legal sources and more. Studying these individuals separately would provide little weight to the modern debate on pro-slavery, but when examined together, the work of the five individuals examined in this work helps us to see that the Classics did significantly influence their pro-slavery arguments. This remains important for many reasons, but for the purposes of this study, it sheds new light on pro-slavery during the antebellum period and its relationship with classicism in Southern intellectual life. Moreover, my thesis shows that by utilising the Classics, the pro-slavery argument can be shown to have a strong basis in critical thinking. In sum, this thesis will demonstrate that the Classics, in relation to the American South, historically has been used to support a form of “white supremacy”. Very few works have endeavoured to provide analysis of this particular aspect of American classicism; by situating my own work at this crossroad, the thesis will start bridging the gap more broadly between the study of pro- slavery, the Classics, and American intellectual culture. 5 Acknowledgements Several people have helped me in the production of this thesis, and without their support, this work, in its current form, would not exist. First, I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr. Ulrike Roth and Dr. David Silkenat. The guidance, suggestions, and motivation from both of these individuals has helped me greatly in succeeding to complete this Ph.D project. For all of their support, I am, and always will be extremely grateful. Second, I would like to extend gratitude to Dr. Frank Cogliano and Dr. Caroline Winterer. Both of whom provided much valuable input during the viva presentation – for this I give you both my eternal thanks! Close friends and family have also offered their own forms of guidance along the way. My flatmate, Shane Horgan, and part-time flatmate, Melissa Akoral, who have suffered with me through the trials and tribulations brought on by postgrad life. Melissa and Shane are also Ph.D candidates, so we had the opportunity to experience the highs and lows together (late night bantering in the kitchen over a beverage is probably one of my favourite memories). Jordan Bellinger for Hamburg (and everything else)! Despite having returned to Canada during the summer months between 2015-2017 for personal reasons, I look very fondly on the time spent with my good friend. Plus, all of the laughs shared over late-night FaceTime sessions have kept me sane. Other members of my clan that have offered their support include Alaina Kelsey, Joey Gordon, Nick Seebruch, Brendan “Flanders” Nolan, Joseph Liptrap, Declan Falconer, Christopher Bowling, Charles Doyle, Rachel Murray, Claire Forkes, Gavin Rowan, and many others (you know who you are)! Without the friendships (and banter) of these folks, my postgrad life would have been devoid of fun and random adventures – so my friends, thank you! Lastly, I would like to thank my parents, Jacqeline and Steven, for all of their love and support, because without this, this thesis would literally not exist. I came to Edinburgh five years ago still green from my undergraduate degree without a clue about my future direction. After completing an MSc in Classics, I decided that pursuing a Ph.D was a good idea – this perception has not changed, yet without their support, this life path would have been closed to me. Thus, for that, I will always be eternally appreciative – this thesis is dedicated to you (even if the topic is bleak and, on the whole, discusses a terrible social institution, the nod is still fairly remarkable). 6 1 Two Worlds Collided: Greco-Roman Antiquity and the Antebellum United States The importance of maintaining a large middle class is recognised by every writer on constitutional government. The absorption of real estate by a small portion of the community, which grew smaller from generation to generation, ultimately ruined the fortune of Sparta, as the sage oracle of Delphi predicted. The rise of the plantation system, and the gradual extinction of yeomanry, were agencies which went hand with the creation of an aristocracy of money and the increase of a penniless rabble to further the disintegration of the Roman commonwealth. We of the South have thus far been preserved from these pernicious extremes, and the perpetuity of our institutions depends on the care with which we avoid the errours which, in other republics, have first divided society into opposing factions and then restored the unity by a common servitude. Of all of these errours, the most fertile of mischief is unwise taxation; and when our legislators approach the Gordian knot of financial reform, let them beware of following the example of ALEXANDER, and of cutting in twain the rope which is to draw the car of State.1 On the evening of April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. John Wilkes Booth shot and killed Abraham Lincoln. During the ensuing pandemonium, Booth fled on horseback and retreated to southern Maryland. Shortly after the assassination, Booth wrote in his journal that as he shot Lincoln he shouted “sic semper tyrannis” (translated as “thus ever for tyrants”): the same phrase that some argue originated with Marcus Junius Brutus after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC.2 Booth, a trained stage actor, played Marcus Antonius in a New York production of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in 1864.