The Economist Withdraws Book Review That Defended Slave Owners
Yesterday, the internet’s collective jaw dropped when The Economist published a review of a book dealing with the history of the American slave trade, claiming that its author was not being fair enough to slave owners.
In its review of historian Edward Baptist‘s “The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism,” The Economist was disappointed that the book focused on how bad slaves had it during slavery, and didn’t give a fair shake to slave owners. No, really, that’s what they wrote. Here’s one excerpt:
Slaves were valuable property, and much harder and, thanks to the decline in supply from Africa, costlier to replace than, say, the Irish peasants that the iron-masters imported into south Wales in the 19th century. Slave owners surely had a vested interest in keeping their “hands” ever fitter and stronger to pick more cotton. Some of the rise in productivity could have come from better treatment. Unlike Mr Thomas, Mr Baptist has not written an objective history of slavery. Almost all the blacks in his book are victims, almost all the whites villains. This is not history; it is advocacy.
The article was accompanied by a photo of Lupita Nyong’o as Patsey from the movie 12 Years A Slave, along with the caption “Patsey was certainly a valuable property.” If you’ve seen the movie, in which the highly productive Patsey is nearly whipped to death by her rapist master for borrowing a bar of soap to clean herself, this is not the best image to accompany an argument that masters treated their slaves well in order to boost productivity.
After much objection from the internet, especially over that last line, The Economist withdrew the article, citing the “widespread criticism” over the article’s conclusion. “Slavery was an evil system, in which the great majority of victims were blacks, and the great majority of whites involved in slavery were willing participants and beneficiaries of that evil.”
But not before a beautiful Twitter trend was born — and dear Lord, it is beautiful:
Had Ms Stowe properly described the abode as "Uncle Tom's Mansion", so much civil disruption might have been avoided. #economistbookreviews
— Lady La dee dah (@yesgrainne) September 5, 2014
Nowhere in Mr. Dickens' account does he acknowledge the proprietor's generosity in providing orphans with factory work #EconomistBookReviews
— Katje (@silentkpants) September 4, 2014
Pi's missed opportunity to monetise a sentient tiger shows a startling lack of entrepreneurial immigrant spirit #economistbookreviews
— Dan Smith (@sirdansmith) September 5, 2014
#economistbookreviews Mr. Bradbury argues that burning books is bad, but provides no solution to the unemployment that firemen would face.
— Laila Lalami (@LailaLalami) September 4, 2014
"All the passengers are portrayed as victims, and all the icebergs are portrayed as evil." #economistbookreviews
— Michael Schaub (@michaelschaub) September 4, 2014
[The Economist]
[Image via Fox Searchlight Pictures]
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