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Francis Lieber's Attitudes on Race, Slavery, and Abolition
HARTMUT KEIL
ON JANUARY 9, 1836, only a few months after having moved from Philadelphia to Columbia, South Carolina, in order to assume the chair for History and Political Economy at South Carolina College, Francis Lieber and his wife bought their first two slaves. Seeing Betsy and her daughter seated on a bench in front of the courthouse and being attracted by Betsy's "good looks" and Elsa's "healthy, cheerful, and bright appearance," Lieber asked the slave dealer for their price and then went away. The same day Betsy, in the company of another slave girl, came by Lieber's home and asked him if he did not want to buy her, praising her domestic skills and pointing out to him that she did not want to be separated from her daughter. Having consulted with both his colleague David McCord and the physician Dr. Gibbes, who attested to the slave women's good health, having procured the necessary amount of money—Lieber paid $1,150 for them—with McCord's help, and after elaborate negotiations with Elsa's new owner, who agreed to sell the girl to Lieber so that mother and daughter could work in the same household, Lieber finally completed the purchase. Lieber and his wife Mathilda, however, seem to have had a bad conscience afterwards; for Mathilda, "though absolutely convinced that we did right under the given circumstances,...had a severe headache Friday night; she was very much moved by the matter," while Lieber felt compelled to write down the "reasons why we bought them" in his diary:
- Where slavery exists, it is far better to own slaves than to hire them. They feel attached to the master, because they are entirely dependent upon him, and the master not only feels more interest in them but can also do something for them, habituate them to good manners etc., whereas he has no influence over hired slaves.
- It is no injustice to have slaves where slavery exists and emancipation does not happen. We know that we want to be good to them, and they shall be treated as kindly as anywhere. Alas, to whom, and whereto, might the mother have been sold!
- We want to make them into good servants, and encourage them to cleanliness.
- There is a constant turnover with hired slaves, and they themselves by far prefer to be with their master than elsewhere. A good slave hates to be sold or hired out.
- We believe it will be cheaper for us.
- Math[ilda] wants to thoroughly educate the slave wom[e]n.1
Lieber ended this rationalization by pointing out that he had stated his views on slavery in his book, Letters to a Gentleman, published the previous year, and he emphatically reasserted that the institution "is and remains a great evil and misery in our time. Absolute power when granted will often be abused. The horrible shows in so many details!"2 |
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This incident raises a host of questions. How can we account for the shocking fact that Lieber—a German liberal intellectual who had served time in jail for his political convictions when repression set in under the impact of the Holy Alliance in the 1820s and who had barely escaped from Prussia, had become an American citizen and integrated into the mainstream of American society, and was highly respected as initiator and editor of the Encyclopaedia Americana and renowned as political scientist and philosopher—became a slaveholder himself during his long tenure, from 1835 to 1856, in Columbia? Why, as an opponent of slavery, did he move to South Carolina, the leading slave state, which steadfastly defended the southern tradition of slavery and states rights, and to an intellectual and political environment where he was seen as an outsider and confronted with misgivings and mistrust? How did Lieber cope with this situation during his long sojourn of more than twenty years? Did he compromise his views, as his former friend Charles Sumner claimed? Why did Lieber write a series of letters to John C. Calhoun in which he condemned the institution of slavery—and then not actually mail them to this eminent statesman? Was he finally relieved of a personal and moral burden when he vacated his position and moved north again in the mid-1850s, where he became an outspoken critic of the slavocracy, mended the soured relationship with Charles Sumner, and became an adviser to Republican politicians as well as public speaker for emancipation and the Union? |
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