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George Fitzhugh (November 4, 1806 – July 30, 1881) was an American social theorist who published racial and slavery-based sociological theories in the antebellum era. He argued that "the negro is but a grown up child"〔Fitzhugh, George (1854). ("Negro Slavery." ) In: ''Sociology for the South'', Chap. V, A. Morris Publisher, p. 83.〕〔("George Fitzhugh Advocates Slavery." ) In: ''The Black American: A Documentary History'', Foresman and Company, Illinois, 1976, 1970.〕 who needs the economic and social protections of slavery. Fitzhugh decried capitalism as spawning "a war of the rich with the poor, and the poor with one another"〔Fitzhugh (1854), p. 22.〕 – rendering free blacks "far outstripped or outwitted in the chase of free competition."〔Fitzhugh (1854), p. 84.〕 Slavery, he contended, ensured that blacks would be economically secure and morally civilized. Fitzhugh practiced law and was a painter for years, but attracted both fame and infamy when he published two sociological tracts for the South. He was a leading pro-slavery intellectual〔Gilpin, Drew Faust (1977). ''A Sacred Circle: The Dilemma of the Intellectual in the Old South, 1840–1860'', Johns Hopkins University Press.〕 and spoke for many of the Southern plantation owners. Before printing books, Fitzhugh tried his hand at a pamphlet titled "Slavery Justified" (1849). His first book, ''Sociology for the South'' (1854) was not as widely known as his second book, ''Cannibals All!'' (1857). Fitzhugh differed from nearly all of his southern contemporaries by advocating a slavery that crossed racial boundaries. Writing in the ''Richmond Inquirer'' on 15 December 1855, Fitzhugh proclaimed: "The principle of slavery is in itself right, and does not depend on difference of complexion", "Nature has made the weak in mind or body slaves ... The wise and virtuous, the strong in body and mind, are born to command", and "The Declaration of Independence is exuberantly false, and aborescently fallacious."〔"Brown here quotes from the work of the southern proslavery writer George Fitzhugh, though it is clear that Brown is taking these quotations from published accounts of Fitzhugh's work that appeared in the antislavery press." — Brown, William Wells (2011). ''My Southern Home: The South and Its People: The South and Its People'', Chap. XV, University of North Carolina Press (footnote).〕 ==Life== George Fitzhugh was born on November 4, 1806, to George Fitzhugh Sr. (a surgeon/physician) and Lucy Stuart. He was born in Prince William County, Virginia. His family moved to Alexandria, Virginia, when he was six. He attended public school though his career was built on self-education. He married Mary Metcalf Brockenbrough in 1829 and moved to Port Royal, Virginia. There he began his own law business. Fitzhugh took up residence in a "rickety old mansion" known for a vast collection of bats in its attic that he inherited through his wife's family. He was something of a recluse in this home for most of his life and rarely travelled away from it for extended periods of time, spending most of his days there engaged in unguided reading from a vast library of books and pamphlets. Of the writers in his library, Fitzhugh's beliefs were most heavily influenced by Thomas Carlyle, whom he read frequently and referenced in many of his works.〔Straka, Gerald M. (1957). "The Spirit of Carlyle in the Old South," ''The Historian'' 20 (1), pp. 39–57.〕 Atypical for a slavery advocate, Fitzhugh also subscribed to and regularly read abolitionist pamphlets such as ''The Liberator''. He made only one major visit to other parts of the nation in the entire antebellum period – an 1855 journey to the north where he met and argued with abolitionists Gerrit Smith and Wendell Phillips. Never politically active in his own right, Fitzhugh managed to find the company of well known political figures in his day.〔Hartz, Louis (1955). ''The Liberal Tradition in America: An Interpretation of American Political Thought Since the Revolution''. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.〕 In addition to the two abolitionists, Fitzhugh was an acquaintance of several public officials. In 1857 Fitzhugh served as a law clerk in Washington, D.C. under Attorney General Jeremiah Sullivan Black. He gained fairly wide circulation in print, writing articles for several Virginia newspapers and for the widely circulated Southern magazine ''DeBow's Review''.〔Leland, Charles G. (1862). ("A Southern Review," ) ''The Continental Monthly'' 2 (4), pp. 466–469.〕〔Skipper, Ottis Clark (1958). ''J.D.B. De Bow: Magazinist of the old South''. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press.〕 After moving to Richmond, Virginia, in 1862 he began to work in the Treasury of the Confederacy. After the Civil War, Fitzhugh spent a short time judging for the Freedmen's Court and then retiring to Kentucky after his wife's death in 1877. He later moved to his daughter's residence in Huntsville, Texas, where he died on July 30, 1881. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「George Fitzhugh」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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