George Fitzhugh: Society

“[T]he unrestricted exploitation of so-called free society is more oppressive to the laborer than domestic slavery.”

George Fitzhugh

Source: Cannibals All!, or Slaves Without Masters (1857), p. ix

“The normal state of a free society is a state of famine.”

George Fitzhugh

Source: Cannibals All!, or Slaves Without Masters (1857), p. 335

“What is falsely called Free Society, is a very recent invention. It purposes to make the weak, ignorant and poor, free, by turning them loose in a world owned exclusively by the few.”

George Fitzhugh

Source: Cannibals All!, or Slaves Without Masters (1857), p. 108

World , Falseness

“Liberty and equality are not only destructive to the morals, but to the happiness of society.”

George Fitzhugh

Source: Sociology For The South: Or The Failure Of A Free Society (1854), p. 236

Happiness

“…the great truth which lies at the foundation of all society—that every man has property in his fellow-man!”

George Fitzhugh

Source: Sociology For The South: Or The Failure Of A Free Society (1854), p. 69

Truth

“The greatest of all communists, if communist he be, Proudhon, has also seen and exposed this tendency of socialism to slavery. He is a thorough-going enemy of modern free society; call property a thief; and would, he says, establish anarchy in place of government.”

George Fitzhugh

Source: Sociology For The South: Or The Failure Of A Free Society (1854), p. 62

“Money is the great weapon in a 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 the weak-minded. Its evil effects are greatly aggravated by the credit and banking systems.”

George Fitzhugh

Source: Cannibals All!, or Slaves Without Masters (1857), p. 303

Money , War , Evil

“A mere verbal formula often distinguishes a truism from a paradox. ‘It is the duty of society to protect the weak;’ but protection cannot be efficient without the power of control; therefore, ‘It is the duty of society to enslave the weak’.”

George Fitzhugh

Source: Cannibals All!, or Slaves Without Masters (1857), p. 278

“Free trade or political economy is the science of free society, and socialism is the science of slavery.”

George Fitzhugh

Source: Sociology For The South: Or The Failure Of A Free Society (1854), p. 61

Science

“Property is not a natural and divine, but conventional right; it is the mere creature of society and law… if private property generally were so used to injure, instead of promote public good, then society might and ought to destroy the whole institution.”

George Fitzhugh

Source: Sociology For The South: Or The Failure Of A Free Society (1854), p. 185

Law , Nature

“Slavery is a form of communism… The manner to which the change shall be made from the present form of society to that system of communism which we propose is very simple.”

George Fitzhugh

Source: Cannibals All!, or Slaves Without Masters (1857), p. 324

Communication , Change

“The negro is improvident; will not lay up in summer for the wants of winter; will not accumulate in youth for the exigencies of age. He would become an insufferable burden to society. Society has the right to prevent this, and can only do so by subjecting him to domestic slavery.”

George Fitzhugh

Source: Sociology For The South: Or The Failure Of A Free Society (1854), p. 83

Youth , Age , Winter , Summer

“The failure of laissez-faire, of political economy, is admitted now by its last and lingering votary. Free society stands condemned by the unanimous testimony of all its enlightened members.”

George Fitzhugh

Source: Sociology For The South: Or The Failure Of A Free Society (1854), p. 74

Failure

“All concur that free society is a failure. We slaveholders say you must recur to domestic slavery, the oldest, the best and most common form of Socialism. The new schools of Socialism promise something better, but admit, to obtain that something, they must first destroy and eradicate man’s human nature.”

George Fitzhugh

Source: Sociology For The South: Or The Failure Of A Free Society (1854), p. 72

School , Failure , Nature