“To work industriously and steadily”: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Southern Work Ethic Revisited
Frederick Law Olmsted is widely admired by historians of the nineteenthcentury United States and generally regarded as the single most important commentator upon slavery and the South. He toured the southern states in the early 1850s and published a series of reports in the New York Daily Times and...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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CBS Open Journals
2014-02-01
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| Series: | American Studies in Scandinavia |
| Online Access: | https://192.168.7.25:443/index.php/assc/article/view/5148 |
| _version_ | 1797805460554776576 |
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| author | David Brown |
| author_facet | David Brown |
| author_sort | David Brown |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Frederick Law Olmsted is widely admired by historians of the nineteenthcentury United States and generally regarded as the single most important commentator upon slavery and the South. He toured the southern states in the early 1850s and published a series of reports in the New York Daily Times and the New York Daily Tribune. These articles were subsequently revised and compiled into three books, but it was their publication as a single, edited volume, The Cotton Kingdom (1861), which had the greatest impact. This article revisits perhaps the central insight provided by Olmsted: his criticism of the southern work ethic and the South’s reluctance “to work industriously and steadily.” It does so within the context of current scholarly interpretations of capitalism in the late antebellum South, where most scholars have taken issue with Olmsted’s view, presenting instead a dynamic and hard-working southern workforce. Why did Olmsted take such an overly critical view of the southern work ethic? |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T05:52:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f1b0acd7f33841b1858551e0548f5f4d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0044-8060 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T05:52:24Z |
| publishDate | 2014-02-01 |
| publisher | CBS Open Journals |
| record_format | Article |
| series | American Studies in Scandinavia |
| spelling | doaj.art-f1b0acd7f33841b1858551e0548f5f4d2023-06-13T12:10:53ZengCBS Open JournalsAmerican Studies in Scandinavia0044-80602014-02-0146110.22439/asca.v46i1.5148“To work industriously and steadily”: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Southern Work Ethic RevisitedDavid Brown0University of ManchesterFrederick Law Olmsted is widely admired by historians of the nineteenthcentury United States and generally regarded as the single most important commentator upon slavery and the South. He toured the southern states in the early 1850s and published a series of reports in the New York Daily Times and the New York Daily Tribune. These articles were subsequently revised and compiled into three books, but it was their publication as a single, edited volume, The Cotton Kingdom (1861), which had the greatest impact. This article revisits perhaps the central insight provided by Olmsted: his criticism of the southern work ethic and the South’s reluctance “to work industriously and steadily.” It does so within the context of current scholarly interpretations of capitalism in the late antebellum South, where most scholars have taken issue with Olmsted’s view, presenting instead a dynamic and hard-working southern workforce. Why did Olmsted take such an overly critical view of the southern work ethic?https://192.168.7.25:443/index.php/assc/article/view/5148 |
| spellingShingle | David Brown “To work industriously and steadily”: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Southern Work Ethic Revisited American Studies in Scandinavia |
| title | “To work industriously and steadily”: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Southern Work Ethic Revisited |
| title_full | “To work industriously and steadily”: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Southern Work Ethic Revisited |
| title_fullStr | “To work industriously and steadily”: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Southern Work Ethic Revisited |
| title_full_unstemmed | “To work industriously and steadily”: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Southern Work Ethic Revisited |
| title_short | “To work industriously and steadily”: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Southern Work Ethic Revisited |
| title_sort | to work industriously and steadily frederick law olmsted and the southern work ethic revisited |
| url | https://192.168.7.25:443/index.php/assc/article/view/5148 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT davidbrown toworkindustriouslyandsteadilyfredericklawolmstedandthesouthernworkethicrevisited |