George Fitzhugh

George Fitzhugh was an American social theorist who developed antebellum social theories centered on race and slavery. He contended that the negro was "but a grown-up child" who need the economic and social benefits of slavery. Fitzhugh criticized capitalism as practiced in the Northern United States and Great Britain for causing "a war of the rich with the poor, and the poor with one another," leaving free blacks "far outpaced or outwitted in the pursuit of free competition." Slavery, he...See more

George Fitzhugh was an American social theorist who developed antebellum social theories centered on race and slavery. He contended that the negro was "but a grown-up child" who need the economic and social benefits of slavery. Fitzhugh criticized capitalism as practiced in the Northern United States and Great Britain for causing "a war of the rich with the poor, and the poor with one another," leaving free blacks "far outpaced or outwitted in the pursuit of free competition." Slavery, he argued, guaranteed blacks' economic security and moral civilization. Some historians regard Fitzhugh's worldview as proto-fascist due to its rejection of liberal values, defense of slavery, and views on race. He was born in Prince William County, VA. His family relocated to Alexandria, Virginia, when he was six. He attended public school, but his career was based on self-education. He married Mary Metcalf Brockenbrough in 1829 and relocated to Port Royal, Virginia. See less