THE FORGOTTEN CAUSE OF THE
CIVIL WAR: A NEW LOOK AT THE
SLAVERY ISSUE
BY LAWRENCE R. TENZER
Book, paper, 5-1/2'' x 8-1/2'', 273 pp., Scholars' Publishing
House, Manahawkin, New Jersey, 1997. Price: $16.95.
Lawrence R. Tenzer has devoted a great
deal of time and energy to studying what he believes is a sadly overlooked aspect of the
slavery issue and its impact on the minds of Northerners and Southerners alike. This
is the topic of white slavery. Tenzer argues that many contemporaries knew it
existed and were deeply shocked. This helped to lead them to oppose the extension
of slavery into the western territories and thus was a significant cause of the Civil War.
White slavery resulted from the strict laws and social practices
of the South. There was so little tolerance of racial mixing and such a desperate
effort to protect slavery that the South strove to ensnare all people of even slightly
dark blood in the institution. Anyone who had at least one eighth black blood in
their veins was defined as a negro or a mulatto. If the mother was a slave then the
offspring was defined as a slave regardless of how little black blood they may have.
Observers often noted seeing slaves with facial features and skin color that were
indistinguishable from whites.
Tenzer assembled a great deal of evidence. He surveyed personal
accounts, travel literature, published essays, census data, the activities of the illegal
slave trade after 1808, and abolitionist newspapers and pamphlets to amass a mountain of
proof that Northerners and Southerners (including Abraham Lincoln) discussed white slavery
at length. He points out that the 1840 census data was skewed to make it appear that
mulattoes were physiologically inferior to either whites or blacks, that they died at a
faster rate than their pure-blooded counterparts. Tenzer analyzes the prevailing
scientific defenses of slavery and notes that people like Josiah Nott tried to argue that
mulattoes would become progressively |
sterile the more they reproduced. There was
no end to which the opponents of racial mixing did not go to curb what they believed was a
diluting of the South's racial stock.
Tenzer is fully aware of the differences in language used in this
issue. He points out that Northerners feared the curtailment of their economic
opportunities if slavery spread to the territories. But he also notes that they
truly believed slavery might literally enslave white people all across the land as
well. By the middle of the 1850s fear of a slaveowner's conspiracy to nationalize
slavery had developed. Such measures as the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, and the Dred Scott Decision of 1857 were the inspiration for
this theory. The writings of George Fitzhugh, who argued that slavery was a natural
foundation of all prosperous societies and called for a form of white slavery in the
North, struck fear into their hearts.
Tenzer deserves much credit for thoroughly researching this issue and
providing the reader with wonderful passages from the primary sources. He is right
to point out the significance of white slavery as a theme in the sectional conflict,
something few other historians have done. The only point of criticism to make is the
tone of his study. He becomes rather shrill in his almost desperate effort to
convince the reader that the issue of white slavery was a major cause of the Civil
War. The title of his book illustrates that obsession. He also sent a sizeable
packet of photocopied primary sources with highlighted passages to the review editor of
this journal to bolster his thesis. He has splendidly proved that white slavery was
a significant subtheme of the larger slavery issue, secondary in importance to the threat
the institution posed to white economic and political opportunity. Tenzer's book
does a valuable job of rounding out our understanding of slavery in America and deserves a
wide readership, but it does not upset prevailing interpretations of how slavery caused
the Civil War.
Earl J. Hess
Lincoln Memorial University |