The Impending Crisis of the South (Hinton Rowan Helper)

"The Impending Crisis of the South," by Hinton Rowan Helper, is a critical book from 1857 arguing that slavery harms the southern economy and ordinary non-slaveholding whites. Helper contends that the spread of slavery stifles economic progress, restricts opportunities for poorer whites, and ultimately weakens the southern region. He advocates for economic modernization and questions the moral and practical benefits of slavery, aiming to rally non-slaveholding southerners to oppose the system. The book's provocative stance challenged pro-slavery sentiments and contributed to tensions leading up to the Civil War.