HIST 4071 : Exam I James Henry Hammond Study Guide
Document Summary
The young master was determined from the first to brook no challenge to his power. By asserting his control, he would transform silver bluff into a profitable enterprise and its slaves into productive workers. Hammond recognized that his effectiveness in creating a docile and traceable labor force depended upon his success in making the blacks entirely subservient to his will not just in the fields, but in every aspect of their lives. To force them to acknowledge their own weakness and his power, he would destroy the autonomy of the slave community and bring its members under his direct and total domination. Over the next several years, he developed a carefully designed plan of physical and psychological control intended to eliminate the foundations of black solidarity. They rely entirely too much on my management & will not learn to manage for themselves. Total dependence was essentially unworkable; even a slave had to be granted some measure of human autonomy.
