The Ruling Race: A History of American Slaveholders

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Study of the Plurality of Slaveholders
Review: James Oakes' The Ruling Class is a history of American slaveholders that effectively dispels the image of the paternalistic plantation aristocrat as the definitive, or even typical, portrait of the average slaveholder. It was interesting to see how much the Southeners and the Northeners had in common in political and ecomonic outlook. The average slaveholder was a grasping capitilist continually on the move and trying to advance himself. Slaves were a commodity to be used in this regard, as were the slaveholders' democratic politics and the expansion south and westward in the United States. The paternalist image built up in mythology after the Civil War existed but it was not representative. This book is effective is demonstrating the ways in which the slaves were an active, often rebellious, factor in this capititist drama as they also rejected any paternalist notion of their enslavement and saw the truth of the picture. They were a commodity both for labour and commerce. The book is excellant in portraying a complicated picture of the slaveholding class that involved many people of different ethnic, religious, political, and economic backgrounds all bound up in a capitilist explotiation of the slaves as a source of upward mobility in a very fluid society. A good place to begin to learn about this period of history.

Rating:
Summary: An intriguing study of the other side of the lash....
Review: With this book, Oakes brings to light the other side of themaster/slave relationship in the south. The information presented is quite intriguing, and certainly interesting, but I think that Oakes missed whatever mark he was trying to make. The point that he attempts to drive home is murky, at best, concentrating on the differences between the "old" and the "new" slaveholding class. Oakes subscribes to Genovese's concept of paternalism in the slaveholding class, and effectively makes the argument that there was a difference between the parvenus of the class, and the old blood. Unfortunately, his comparison, although the details are interesting, ultimately turns out to be confusing and becomes instead just a collection of facts about the slave owning society in the South. Despite this weakness, however, the book is well worth reading for the new slant that it gives on the "master class," and their attitude about their slaves, the South, and their view of the world.