Such conditions retarded the growth of literature. There were no novel
ideas that men felt compelled to utter, as in New England. There was little
town life to bring together all classes of men. Such life has always been
found essential to literary production. Finally, there was inevitably
connected with plantation life a serious question, which occupied men's
thoughts.
SLAVERY.--The question that absorbed the attention of the best southern
intellect was slavery. In order to maintain the vast estates of the South,
it was necessary to continue the institution of slavery. Many southern men
had been anxious to abolish it, but, as time proceeded, they were less able
to see how the step could be taken. As a Virginian statesman expressed it,
they were holding a wolf by the ears, and it was as dangerous to let him go
as to hold on. At the North, slavery was an abstract question of moral
right or wrong, which inspired poets and novelists; at the South, slavery
was a matter of expediency, even of livelihood. Instead of serving as an
incentive to literary activity, the discussion of slavery led men farther
away from the channels of literature into the stream of practical politics.
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