Final answer:
George Fitzhugh claimed that free labor was more cruel than enslaved labor because it left workers vulnerable to economic forces and without guaranteed basic necessities, unlike the paternalistic care provided by slaveholders in the South.
Step-by-step explanation:
Proponents of slavery like George Fitzhugh argued that the system of free labor was more cruel than enslaved labor, as described in his book Sociology for the South, or the Failure of Free Society (1854). Fitzhugh contended that laissez-faire capitalism particularly benefited those with intelligence and wit, while leaving the less knowledgeable at a severe disadvantage. He posited that slaveholders in the South took care of the enslaved from birth to death, providing for their basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. This paternalism, he asserted, was in sharp contrast to the wage slavery of the North, where workers faced mercies of economic forces and had no security or certainty for basic necessities, which led to a life of struggle and economic instability. Fitzhugh's perspective is a reflection of a southern defense of slavery, presenting an image of benevolent care against the backdrop of a harsh and opportunistic free market.