Comparative analysis of Elkins historical interpretation of slavery Essay

Comparative analysis of Elkins historical interpretation of thraldom with James McPhersons interpretation in Ordeal by Fire - Essay subjectze the similarities and differences between the two authors, the relevance of their treatments fact versus anecdote and which of the two can be said in the light of hindsight to have most accurately expound antebellum slavery.Elkins and McPhersons books represent two very differing accounts of slavery and are separated in time by almost a quarter of a century. Elkins discusses the subject in general terms, and advances two main arguments-It is now appropriate to expand the argument and discuss the points of agreement and disagreement between the two authors and to run across in the light of history whose arguments represent the most appropriate view of US slaveryElkins believed that the behavior you exhibit is who you are (Elkins,1959) he maintained that slavery was so degrading and dehumanizing that slaves lost their identities and beca me Sambos docile, child-like, content and striving for attentionThe different attitudes to slavery in the North and South of the country were profound in the North slaves worked generally as domestic servants, while those in the South were employed in agriculture originally on three crops tobacco, rice and indigo, and later on cotton as well. In the North, by the nineteenth century, strong feelings developed that it was not acceptable for one man to own an some other, and the abolitionists gained strength due to influence of the Quakers, Methodists and other factions. Elkins (1959) wrote To the Northern reformer, every other concrete fact concerning slavery was dwarfed by its character as a moral evil as an obscenity condemned by God and universally offensive to humanity (Elkins, 1959). Many Northern church dignitaries believed that while one slave remained the whole populace was culpable Cain and Abel his brothers keeper.In the South, by contrast, it was held that slavery was a positive moral good a necessary arrangement sanctioned in