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I kind of forgot that Russel B. Nye wrote a 1946 article "The Slave Power Conspiracy: 1830-1860" in the journal Science and Society, which was later somewhat incorporated into his 1948 book Fettered Freedom: Civil Liberties and the Slavery Controversy 1830-1860 as chapter 8. Obviously it's not the latest scholarship on the subject, but it still may be of interest (probably more so than anything Charles Beard may have written on the subject, though Beard is the bigger name). His overall evaluation of the reality of the Slave Power is expressed more clearly in the article than the book: AnonMoos (talk) 09:35, 29 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Nye wrote in 1946;
"Was there a Slave Power, and were the abolitionists correct in ascribing to it the evil designs which formed so large and important a part of the abolitionist propaganda? In the sense of the term as used by Wilson, Goodell, Bailey, Garrison, and others -- a secret and highly-organized group with conscious aims of imposing restrictions on traditional liberties -- the Slave Power conspiracy probably had no real existence. ... However, it is clear that among Southern leaders there was unity of belief that slavery was a good system, probably the best, and that it should be retained and extended; the events of the period from 1830-1860 showed that in preserving and extending it the South was willing to infringe upon basic civil and personal rights, free speech, free press, free thought, and constitutional liberty. ... While the 'conspiracy' of which the abolitionists warned was no doubt a natural alliance of common political and economic interests, its threat to liberty, North and South, was more than idle. ...the abolitionists were not so far wrong in believing that its existence seriously jeopardized, for the first time since the founding of the republic, the American tradition."
This whole article, and the opening in particular, sounds like original research and analysis, with a point of view no less. The point of view feels like it is attempting to minimize the extent to which the slave interests in the U.S. South was extremely powerful and did promote slavery and undermine compromise at every turn. If the power was merely "perceived," perhaps that should be cited? A reader of this article might imagine there was no popular sentiment against things like enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, when in fact MORAL sentiment was high. In any event, there are far too many statement here that are not cited and are controversial.Sjlebl (talk) 05:35, 18 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with this comment. In this context the word "perceived" is a bit of a weasel word. The antebellum planter class included Founding Fathers like signer of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Heyward Jr. and signer of the Constitution Charles Cotesworth Pinckney Jr. They were politicians, legislators, bankers, clergymen, and military leaders. Not to mention they weren't separate families the way we think about it. It was one giant family that can be traced all the way back to the Lords Proprietors. Perceived power indeed. MoodyGroove (talk) 20:50, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
In the late 18th century, some prominent southerners were among the loudest in theoretically denouncing slavery, and before the invention of the cotton-gin, it seemed that slavery might be on its way out, since it was already being abolished in the northern states, and in the southern states along the Atlantic seaboard, soils were becoming exhausted and no longer suitable for big plantations in some areas. Even after cotton planting and the use of slaves to raise cotton started to expand geographically, Congress abolished the transatlantic slave trade on the earliest date that the Constitution allowed it to (in 1808). It wasn't until the crisis of 1819 that North and South were clearly opposed on the slavery issue, and the feeling that the U.S. was politically dominated by slaveholders didn't become widespread until later... AnonMoos (talk) 03:08, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
