Slavery in White and Black - Elizabeth Fox-Genovese - Bog

In the Old South a doctrine emerged - 'Slavery in the Abstract', which declared enslavement the best possible condition for all labor regardless of race. They joined the Socialists in believing that the free-labor system, wracked by worsening class warfare, was collapsing. This book asks, to what extent did the people of the several social classes of the South accept so extreme a doctrine?