George Fitzhugh, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

George Fitzhugh

American activist

Date of Birth: 04-Nov-1806

Place of Birth: Prince William County, Virginia, United States

Date of Death: 30-Jul-1881

Profession: lawyer, sociologist

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio


Show Famous Birthdays Today, United States

👉 Worldwide Celebrity Birthdays Today

About George Fitzhugh

  • George Fitzhugh (November 4, 1806 – July 30, 1881) was an American social theorist who published racial and slavery-based sociological theories in the antebellum era.
  • He argued that the negro "is but a grown up child" who needs the economic and social protections of slavery.
  • Fitzhugh decried capitalism as spawning "a war of the rich with the poor, and the poor with one another", rendering free blacks "far outstripped or outwitted in the chase of free competition." Slavery, he contended, ensured that blacks would be economically secure and morally civilized. Fitzhugh practiced law and was a painter for years, but attracted both fame and infamy when he published two sociological tracts for the South.
  • He was a leading pro-slavery intellectual and spoke for many of the Southern plantation owners.
  • Before printing books, Fitzhugh tried his hand at a pamphlet, "Slavery Justified" (1849).
  • His first book, Sociology for the South (1854) was not as widely known as his second book, Cannibals All! (1857).
  • Sociology for the South is the first known English-language book to include the term "sociology" in its title.Fitzhugh differed from nearly all of his southern contemporaries by advocating a slavery that crossed racial boundaries.
  • In 1860 Fitzhugh stated, "It is a libel on white men to say they are unfit for slavery" and suggested that if Yankees were caught young they could be trained, domesticated and civilized to make "faithful and valuable servants." Writing in the Richmond Inquirer on 15 December 1855, Fitzhugh proclaimed, "The principle of slavery is in itself right, and does not depend on difference of complexion", "Nature has made the weak in mind or body slaves ...
  • The wise and virtuous, the strong in body and mind, are born to command", and "The Declaration of Independence is exuberantly false, and aborescently fallacious."

Read more at Wikipedia

See Also