This article is within the scope of WikiProject Human rights, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Human rights on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Human rightsWikipedia:WikiProject Human rightsTemplate:WikiProject Human rightsHuman rights articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Sociology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of sociology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SociologyWikipedia:WikiProject SociologyTemplate:WikiProject Sociologysociology articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject African diaspora, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of African diaspora on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.African diasporaWikipedia:WikiProject African diasporaTemplate:WikiProject African diasporaAfrican diaspora articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Discrimination, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Discrimination on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.DiscriminationWikipedia:WikiProject DiscriminationTemplate:WikiProject DiscriminationDiscrimination articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject International relations, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of International relations on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.International relationsWikipedia:WikiProject International relationsTemplate:WikiProject International relationsInternational relations articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of politics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PoliticsWikipedia:WikiProject PoliticsTemplate:WikiProject Politicspolitics articles
Semi-classic Russel B. Nye article and book on the reality of the Slave Power[edit]
I kind of forgot that Russel B. Nye wrote a 1946 article "The Slave Power Conspiracy: 1830-1860" in the journal Science and Society, which was later somewhat incorporated into his 1948 book Fettered Freedom: Civil Liberties and the Slavery Controversy 1830-1860 as chapter 8. Obviously it's not the latest scholarship on the subject, but it still may be of interest (probably more so than anything Charles Beard may have written on the subject, though Beard is the bigger name). His overall evaluation of the reality of the Slave Power is expressed more clearly in the article than the book: AnonMoos (talk) 09:35, 29 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Nye wrote in 1946;
"Was there a Slave Power, and were the abolitionists correct in ascribing to it the evil designs which formed so large and important a part of the abolitionist propaganda? In the sense of the term as used by Wilson, Goodell, Bailey, Garrison, and others -- a secret and highly-organized group with conscious aims of imposing restrictions on traditional liberties -- the Slave Power conspiracy probably had no real existence. … However, it is clear that among Southern leaders there was unity of belief that slavery was a good system, probably the best, and that it should be retained and extended; the events of the period from 1830-1860 showed that in preserving and extending it the South was willing to infringe upon basic civil and personal rights, free speech, free press, free thought, and constitutional liberty. … While the 'conspiracy' of which the abolitionists warned was no doubt a natural alliance of common political and economic interests, its threat to liberty, North and South, was more than idle. …the abolitionists were not so far wrong in believing that its existence seriously jeopardized, for the first time since the founding of the republic, the American tradition."
General Complaint
This whole article, and the opening in particular, sounds like original research and analysis, with a point of view no less. The point of view feels like it is attempting to minimize the extent to which the slave interests in the U.S. South was extremely powerful and did promote slavery and undermine compromise at every turn. If the power was merely "perceived," perhaps that should be cited? A reader of this article might imagine there was no popular sentiment against things like enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, when in fact MORAL sentiment was high. In any event, there are far too many statement here that are not cited and are controversial.Sjlebl (talk) 05:35, 18 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]