The Impending Crisis of the South

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The Impending Crisis of the South is a book written by Hinton Rowan Helper in 1857. It was a book condemning the institution of slavery, but Helper did not take what he considered to be an ineffectually sentimental or moralistic abolitionist approach (as seen in Uncle Tom's Cabin etc.). Instead, Helper crafted an essentially empirical analysis that appealed to the self-interest of whites, rather than a sense of altruism towards blacks. Helper claimed that slavery actually ended up hurting the Southern economy overall (by preventing economic development and industrialization), and was the main reason why the South had progressed so much less than the North (according to the results of the 1850 census and other verifiable factual measures) since the late 18th century. Helper spoke on behalf of the Southern whites who were poor or of moderate means, who he claimed were oppressed by a small (but politically-dominant) aristocracy of wealthy slave-owners. This book met with fierce opposition in the South and many places banned it. This book also helped divide the sections of the South and North (most specifically in the protracted December 1859 - January 1860 political struggle about electing John Sherman to the speakership of the House), in the last few years prior to the American Civil War.