Hinton Rowan Helper

Hinton Rowan Helper
Helper c.1860
Born(1829-12-27)December 27, 1829
Mocksville, North Carolina, U.S.
DiedMarch 9, 1909(1909-03-09) (aged 79)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Notable worksThe Impending Crisis of the South
Signature

Hinton Rowan Helper (December 27, 1829 – March 9, 1909) was an American writer, abolitionist, and white supremacist. In 1857, he published a book that he dedicated to the "non-slaveholding whites" of the South. Titled The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It and written partly in North Carolina but published when the author was in the Northern United States, it argued that slavery hurt the economic prospects of non-slaveholders and was an impediment to the economic growth of the entire region of the South. Anger over his book due to the belief he was acting as an agent of the North attempting to split Southerners along class lines led to Southern denunciations of "Helperism."