# James Henry Hammond South Carolina governor (1842–1844) and U.S. senator (1857–1860) who was among the most aggressive defenders of slavery in American politics. His 1858 "Cotton is King" speech on the Senate floor articulated the planter class's belief that the Southern slave economy was indispensable to global capitalism. Hammond's concept of a "mudsill" underclass — a permanent laboring caste required by civilization — anticipated arguments still echoed in modern [[White Supremacy]] ideology and anti-egalitarian thought. ## Notable Quotes - [[James Henry Hammond - the very mud-sill of society]] — the Mud-Sill Speech, U.S. Senate, March 4, 1858