Those who believe all writers are humanists will either have to change their notion or redefine humanism in a new angle if exposed to the American literary debate in the mid-nineteenth century on the issue of slavery. American writers were divided, to side with politicians they liked or with the socioeconomic interests of the communities they belonged to. Even in creative literature, including songs of that time on the issue of slavery, a gross ethnocentrism or community interest was reflected.
My visit to the parental residence of George Washington in May 1985 in Mount Vernona few hours' drive from Washington, DCinspired me to have an in-depth reading of old literature on the issue of slavery. Along with the kingly beddings, furniture, utensils, and other belongings in the residence, the dwelling-sheds of slaves are shown to visitors on a regular schedule since the place by now became a museum. The cemented bed of each slave was a space, elevated a bit from the original floor inside a small room with no windows. A tiny ventilator in each room was the only means of aeration that gave oxygen supply to the slave while resting or sleeping in his shed. Iron-made chains, with their roots clung to the walls used for clasping the leg(s) and hand(s) of a slave, may help a visitor reminisce on the inhuman living conditions of those human beings! Yet, most politicians and writers in the South spoke and wrote against abolition of slavery, while those in the North commonly supported abolition.
The process of colonization by migrant Europeans started first in the northern part of the American territory. As in all other places of human habitation, these northerners had initially an agro-based economy and were the first to invest in industries with the surplus sale-proceeds from agricultural products exported to European markets. The southerners, on the other hand, were still dependent on agriculture, this being more profitable for round-the-year crop-production advantage in a sub-tropical climate. Snowfall for a longer duration in the North hindered agricultural productivity, leading to rapid industrialization. The industrialists needed hirelings (daily-wagers) or employees on monthly payment as free citizens, and not as slaves whereas the landlords of the South found the slaves as their most essential and cost-effective workforce.
The issue of slavery instigated fury in the Civil War between southerners and northerners. Since it is widely known that President Abraham Lincoln put an end to the slavery as a social institution, one may tend to believe that he himself was an abolitionist. In reality, Lincoln's role was one of a clever politician who sided with none as evidenced from his response to an editorial titled, 'The Prayer of 20,000,000 People', by Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune. After the publication of the editorial on 19 August 1862, Lincoln, in his Open Letter to Horace Greeley, clarified his neutral policy on the issue of slavery, thus:
"My paramount object in the struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."
This implies that Lincoln's prime concern was to stop the war, for uniting people, putting an end to the North-South conflict, but neither to abolish nor to conserve slavery. His intention as president of the country was to please both sides. All politicians other than Lincoln; writers and singers were divided on the issue of slavery, mostly guided by their community interest as stated earlier.
Walt Whitman, often said to be a 'war-born poet', was vocal against slavery from his boyhood. His protest against slavery was reflected both in his poetry and in his journalistic writings. Political and intellectual divisions sprouted in America in 1850 immediately after the Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress. The Act upheld the legal right of slave owners to capture and bring back their fugitive slaves with the help of the law-enforcing agencies of the government. Whitman courageously opined in writing that he would rather help a slave to flee to safety were any such occasion to arise.
The poet and scholar Ralph Waldo Emerson declared in public that he would disobey the Act, and the writer Henry David Thoreau really assisted a slave in his attempt to flee to Canada. In 1854, while police were trying to arrest a fugitive slave named Anthony Burns in Boston, an angry mob on the street thwarted their action. The beleaguered policemen had to call in the army for their rescue. However, Burns was ultimately caught and handed over to his master.
Immediately after the above incident, an anti-slavery social activist, John Brown, was hanged by the authorities for the charge of instigating a slave mutiny in Virginia. Appeals by Emerson and Thoreau to the government to withdraw the verdict against Brown ended in failure. After his execution, a feminist poet and lyricist Julia Ward Howe wrote a song titled 'John Brown's Body':
Old John Brown's body is a-mouldering in the dust,
Old John Brown's rifleís red with blood-spots turned to rust,
Old John Brown's pike has made its last, unflinching thrust,
His soul is marching on!
Soldiers in the North used to sing this song, among a few others, while marching or resting in camps during the civil war. The second piece, on the scale of popularity, was another by James Sloan Gibbons.
John Greenleaf Whittier's extroversive poetry on the issue and Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin had probably the greatest impact on refreshing public opinion towards abolition of slavery in the USA. Uncle Tom's Cabin had an even greater impact when George L Aiken produced a drama based on the story. After the Civil War ended, Mrs. Stowe had a chance to hand over a copy of her Uncle Tom's Cabin to President Abraham Lincoln. After she had introduced herself to the president, Lincoln said: 'Oh I see! You are that little woman who instigated an outrageous civil war in the country!'
It is imprudent to say that these abolitionists were all guided by sheer ethnocentrism or community interest of the northerners; some might have really seen slavery as an inhuman social institution with a humanistic mindset, although most of them incidentally belonged to the North. However, the southerners who opposed abolition of slavery overtly expressed their community interest in their speeches and writings. They argued that if slavery were abolished, the freed slaves would migrate to the North seeking easier jobs in offices and industries, leaving the hard laborious jobs involved in agriculture in the southern states. This would jeopardize the southern agro-based economy. As additional positive points in favour of slavery, they opined that the industrial economy of the North too would be affected because of the failure to supply raw material (cotton) from the South for the textile industries of the North.
Although John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster were writers, they were more famous as politicians. They strongly supported conservation of slavery in the interest of the southern economy. Webster's speeches had a greater impact than his writings. It was commonly believed that Webster was one among the few orators America has ever produced. John Pendleton Kennedy, in his famous novel Swallow Burn published in 1832, portrayed the intimate relationship between the white masters and the black slaves. The novelist illustrated how the masters bestowed their love and affection upon their slaves. The following quote from William Gilmore Simms, a poet, novelist, and historian, sounds like a new definition of humanism:
"Slavery is a widely-devised institution of Heaven, devised for benefit, improvement and safety, morally, socially, and physically, of a barbarous and inferior race, who would otherwise perish by filth, by the sword, by disease, by waste and destinies forever gnawing and finally destroying."
This notionwhich I would like to term 'pseudo-humanism of the conservationists'was more clearly depicted in a 1600-line poem titled 'The Hireling and the Slave' by poet William J Grayson. The poem presented a comparison of the life of a daily-wager with that of a slave and pin-pointed the uncertainty of earning by the former for his livelihood whereas the slave was said to be in a better position in terms of food security, shelter, healthcare, and recreational activities in a family atmosphere. While reading the poem, one may be inclined to feel feel that slavery was really "a widely-devised institution of Heaven" for an inferior race, in the words of William Gilmore Simms.
Another talented poet, Henry Timrod, also wrote a series of poems defending conservation of slavery as a social institution. He preached the same pseudo-humanism, although his voice had a lesser impact on the masses because of the brilliance of his rhetorical expressions. His poems were enriched with a classic architectural build-up that served as barriers to reaching general readers.
The issue of slavery continued to incite the feelings of creative writers long after the Civil War ended and, to many, the best literary pieces were published after the political upheaval had calmed down and the social crises resolved. Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, published in 1825, and Vincent Benét's John Brown's Body are acclaimed to be the best instances of creativity based on the issue of slavery and the American Civil War [It is to be noted that Julia Ward Howe earlier wrote her lyric with the same title].
It can apparently be observed that both abolitionist and conservationist writers were devoted to safeguarding the interests of their respective communities guided by sheer ethnocentrism as did the politicians, the social activists and people at large. This disproves the hypothesis derived from a common belief that all writers have a humanistic mindset. Similar examples in our society are also not rare.

Abid Anwar is a poet, essayist, literary critic and lyricist .