Mudsill theory

The theory was first articulated by James H. Hammond, a Democratic United States senator from South Carolina and a wealthy Southern plantation owner, in a speech on March 4, 1858.

They saw the abolition of slavery as an existential threat to their political and economic power that revolved almost entirely around the plantation system, which was primarily dependent on the use of African chattel slaves but also on the existence of a destitute white underclass.

[2] Mudsill theory and similar rhetoric has been dubbed "the Marxism of the Master-Class"[3] which fought for the rights of the propertied elite against what were perceived as threats from the abolitionists, lower classes and non-whites to gain higher standards of living.

Abraham Lincoln argued forcefully against the mudsill theory, particularly in a speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1859,[4] where he delineated its incompatibility with Free Soil.

Lincoln contrasted his view that labor was in fact the source of capital by noting that a majority of persons in Free States were "neither hirers nor hired" but in such professions as farming, where they worked for themselves.