subject more particularly," he states in his preface, "with
reference to its economic aspects as regards the whites--not with
reference, except in a very slight degree, to its humanitarian or
religious aspects. To the latter side of the question, Northern
writers have already done full and timely justice . . . . Yankee
wives have written the most popular anti-slavery literature of
the day. Against this I have nothing to say; it is all well
enough for women to give the fictions of slavery; men should give
the facts." He denies that it had been his purpose to cast
unmerited opprobium upon slaveholders; yet a sense of personal
injury breathes throughout the pages. If he had no intention of
casting unmerited opprobrium upon slaveholders, it is difficult
to imagine what language he could have used if he had undertaken
to pass the limit of deserved reprobation. In this regard the
book is quite in line with the style of Southern utterance
against abolitionists.

Helper belonged to a slaveholding family, for a hundred years
resident in the Carolinas. The dedication is significant. It is
to three personal friends from three slave States who at the time
were residing in California, in Oregon, and in Washington
Territory, "and to the non-slaveholding whites of the South
generally, whether at home or abroad." Out of the South had come
the inspiration for the religious and humanitarian attack upon
slavery. From the same source came the call for relief of the
poverty-stricken white victims of the institution.

Helper's book revived the controversy which had been forcibly
terminated a quarter of a century before. He resumes the argument
of the members of the Virginia legislature of 1832. He reprints