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Few people will disagree with the proposition that history is controlled by the biases of those who write it. The evolution of the story of slavery in America is no exception.
Until the conclusion of World War II, the preeminent scholar of American slavery was Ulrich B. Phillips. He is credited with developing new avenues of historical research on slavery through the techniques of examining the personal diaries and journals of plantation owners. Even prominent black intellectuals of his day such as W.E.B. Du Bois credited Phillips with presenting thorough and meticulous research on the institution of slavery, work that was unsurpassed by any scholar up to that time. Professor Phillips, who taught at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Michigan, and finally at Yale University, contributed two major works. They are American Negro Slavery, published in 1918, and Life and Labor in the Old South, published in 1929. When Phillips died in 1934 and for two decades later, his reputation held as chief historian of slavery in the United States.
In his works Phillips painted an idyllic picture of plantation slavery. He emphasized the economics of the slave economy and defended the slave owners. According to Phillips, slaves were childlike creatures who were biologically and mentally inferior to whites. Phillips' portrayal of blacks was akin to...