The Problem with Social Facts

Both slavery and capitalism can be considered Social Facts in the history of the United States of America (especially during the colonial period) as these two practices were in the mind of the people of the time and were approved and consolidated by collective practice. In the case of slavery, the way in which white people from the Southern Colonies treated African people and the imposition of slavery itself springs from the perpetuation of manners and customs that were part of the collective. This is to say that people saw slavery as something that was part of culture and therefore did not have a critical stance towards it merely because it was what others were doing. The practice itself may have had its origin in the need that men had for other’s approval which in the end led them to self- approval. This goes hand in hand with Durkheim´s idea that social facts posses a compelling and coercive nature. You do it just because, because it is something that everybody does, as it can be taken from Twain’s text Corn-pone Opinions in which the author states that one supports a given custom as a way to fit in society.