Cannibals all! or, Slaves without masters

In Short

This polemical work of nineteenth-century political theory argues that northern free-labor society is a disastrous failure, reducing the working class to a state of desperate "wage slavery" without any of the protections guaranteed to traditional laborers. Drawing upon European social critics, British Parliamentary reports, and radical abolitionist literature, the author contends that capital naturally exploits labor in competitive economies. He presents Southern plantation slavery as a humane, paternalistic alternative that provides lifelong security for workers, maintaining that true societal harmony requires strong authority, restricted market forces, and the open acknowledgment that man naturally holds property in man.

The Story

The text constructs a sweeping critique of modern liberal democracy and free-market economics, seeking to invert the moral arguments against Southern slavery. It opens by examining the fundamental relations of labor, skill, and capital, asserting that white-collar enterprise and market competition inevitably result in the exploitation of the weak by the strong. The author surveyed European reform movements—including socialists and communists—noting that while their constructive remedies fail, their diagnostic analysis of modern industrial misery is unanswerable. Free trade, unregulated commerce, and the pursuit of individual wealth are shown to strip workers of basic security, reducing the laboring population to a condition far worse than domestic servitude.

Moving deeper into historical and philosophical grounds, the argument attacks the Enlightenment concept of the "social contract" and the natural liberty theories of John Locke. Grounding its political philosophy in Aristotle, the text asserts that humans are inherently social and hierarchical creatures rather than autonomous individuals. The narrative contrasts the systemic poverty, child labor, and urban squalor reported in industrial Great Britain and Western Europe with the structural stability of slaveholding societies. It cites extensive documentation of English paupers, factory children in rags, and ruined hand-weavers to demonstrate that free-market societies abandon their vulnerable elderly and young the moment their immediate labor utility ceases.

The argument then addresses Northern American society, targeting abolitionists, land reformers, and social radicalism. The author argues that northern reform movements—from women's rights to agrarian re-distribution—are involuntary reactions to the internal collapse of free society itself. True Christian morality and practical benevolence, the text insists, cannot function in a cutthroat competitive economy where every transaction is a battle of wits. They can only flourish within a patriarchal family structure where the master has total control over, and responsibility for, his dependents.

In its closing movements, the text warns Northern conservatives that their commitment to total liberty and "consent government" will inevitably lead to agrarian revolution, lawlessness, and ultimate social collapse. To avert total anarchy, the author urges a reunion between Northern conservative elements and the South, advocating for a societal structure that embraces authority, curbs predatory moneyed interests, and accepts servitude as the universal foundation of civilized order.

How It Unfolds

Analyzing capital's exploitation The argument opens by dissecting free-market economics, maintaining that profit and capital represent the uncompensated labor of others. It highlights European socialist critiques to show that unbridled competition ruins the laboring masses.

Rejecting natural liberty The text repudiates John Locke's political philosophy, declaring that human beings are naturally gregarious and subject to social authority from birth. It revives Aristotelian doctrine, arguing that society requires hierarchical rank and patriarchal power to survive.

Documenting European misery To prove that free society fails the working class, the narrative presents voluminous evidence from English poor laws and Parliamentary reports. It details the squalor, ignorance, and child labor rampant in industrial manufacturing centers like Manchester and Wolverhampton.

Confronting Northern radicalism The author directly addresses Northern abolitionists and reformers, claiming their numerous "isms" are desperate symptoms of an unstable economic model. He argues that political equality inevitably degrades into radicalism, anti-rentism, and social chaos.

Exalting the patriarchal ideal The argument concludes by proposing Southern plantation slavery as the only stable, humane social system. It asserts that true benevolence requires total administrative control over dependents, offering working people lifelong security against the cruelties of market competition.

The People

• George Fitzhugh — The Virginia lawyer and author who frames the book's central defense of Southern slavery. He seeks to convince both Northern and Southern readers that free-market capitalism is inherently predatory, attempting to build a unified conservative front against liberal individualist philosophy.
• The European Philosophers and Socialists — A collective body of thinkers, including Fourierists, communists, and political economists, whom the author treats as key analytical witnesses. They successfully expose the terminal flaws of industrial capitalism, though their proposed Utopian remedies fail.
• The British Industrial Working Class — The impoverished factory operatives, coal miners, and destitute children documented in official reports. They serve as the author's primary evidence that unregulated free labor reduces human beings to starving, unprotected "slaves without masters."
• Northern Reformers and Abolitionists — Figures such as William Lloyd Garrison, Horace Greeley, and Gerrit Smith. They represent the logical conclusion of free-society doctrines, pushing liberal democracy toward what the author considers social anarchy and the breakdown of traditional family institutions.

In Its Own Voice

"There is no such thing as natural human liberty, because it is unnatural for man to live alone and without the pale and government of society."

The author grounds his social theory on the principle that human independence is an illusion, arguing that human beings are born into mandatory social hierarchies.

"Money is the great weapon in free, equal, and competitive society, which skill and capital employ in the war of the wits, to exploitate and oppress the poor, the improvident, and weak-minded."

Here the text outlines its critique of modern commerce, identifying monetary exchange as an instrument of class coercion.

"Abolition ultimates in 'Consent Government;' Consent Government in Anarchy, Free Love, Agrarianism, &c., &c., and 'Self-elected despotism,' winds up the play."

This statement encapsulates the book's reactionary warning regarding the catastrophic political trajectory of Northern political reform.

What It's Really About

Underneath its aggressive defense of Southern slaveholding, the book is a foundational critique of laissez-faire capitalism and classical liberalism. It raises fundamental questions about whether an unbridled market economy can ever adequately protect its weakest citizens. By comparing industrial wage labor to domestic servitude, the author argues that modern economic systems merely disguise their exploitation under the rhetoric of personal freedom. The text asserts that without strong, coercive institutions and personal obligations between employer and worker, competitive societies naturally deteriorate into predatory individualism, moral decay, and eventual political collapse.

Why Read It Today

This text remains one of the most provocative and uncompromising intellectual defenses of human servitude ever written in the United States. Readers interested in Antebellum history, political philosophy, and the intellectual history of capitalism will find it a fascinating, if deeply unsettling, historical document. The prose is aggressive, direct, and unsparing, completely unburdened by modern liberal consensus.

Reading the book requires confronting mid-nineteenth-century pro-slavery ideology, class bias, and authoritarian political thought in its unadulterated form. What makes the work remarkable—and challenging—is how deftly it borrows the anti-capitalist arguments of European radicals to attack Northern industrial society. The author's vivid citations of nineteenth-century British industrial poverty present a grim historical portrait that lingers long after finishing the text. It serves as a stark reminder of how deeply contested the ideas of liberty, labor, and economic justice were on the eve of the American Civil War.

<ElicitationsGroup message="To explore the historical and theoretical context of this work:"> <Elicitation label="Examine the intellectual debate between George Fitzhugh and Northern abolitionists" query="Analyze the intellectual debate and correspondence between George Fitzhugh and Northern abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison in the 1850s."/> <Elicitation label="Compare Fitzhugh's critique of wage labor with European socialist theory" query="Compare George Fitzhugh's pro-slavery critique of industrial wage labor with contemporary 19th-century European socialist critiques of capitalism."/> </ElicitationsGroup>