Mudsill theory is the proposition that there must be, and always has been, alower class orunderclass for theupper classes and the rest of society to rest upon.
The term derives from amudsill, the lowest threshold that supports thefoundation for a building.
The theory was first articulated byJames H. Hammond, aDemocraticUnited States senator fromSouth Carolina and a wealthySouthernplantation owner, in a speech on March 4, 1858. Hammond argued that every society must find a class of people to do menial labor, whether called slaves or not, and that assigning that status on a racial basis followednatural law, while theNorthern United States'social class of white wage laborers presented a revolutionary threat.[1]
Many saw the argument as a weak justification forexploitation and a flimsy example of manipulatingscience to reference asproof.[2]
Mudsill theory and similarrhetoric has been dubbed "theMarxism of theMaster-Class"[3] which fought for the rights of the propertied elite against what were perceived as threats from theabolitionists, lower classes and non-whites to gain higher standards of living.
Abraham Lincoln argued forcefully against the mudsill theory, particularlyin a speech inMilwaukee,Wisconsin, in 1859,[4] where he delineated its incompatibility withFree Soil. In his view, mudsill advocates "conclude that all laborers are necessarily either hired laborers, or slaves" since to them, "nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital... induces him to do it." Further, mudsillers believed that these laborers were "fatally fixed" in their status. Lincoln contrasted his view that labor was in fact the source of capital by noting that a majority of persons inFree States were "neither hirers nor hired" but in such professions as farming, where theyworked for themselves.[5]
The 'Mudsill' Theory speech atWikisource
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