The debate over slavery began with the first importation of African Americans to America, and still continues today among historians. Because the Southern economy depended on slave labor, pro slavery arguments were common throughout the nation. While many Northerners as well as the British thought slavery to be morally wrong, the proponents of this "peculiar institution" cited numerous reasons why slavery was in fact beneficial to Africans in America. The articles "Thomas R. Dew, The Virtues of Slavery, The Impossibility of Emancipation" (1831) and "John C. Calhoun, Defending Slavery to the British Minister in Washington" (1844) in the American History text relay the points of view of two esteemed men pertaining to slavery in the South, and their reasoning on the matter. .
In his argument, Dew makes four main points. The first is that slave labor is a better investment than free labor, and that if emancipation were to occur the country's economy would suffer. This, however, is the most obvious and self-explanatory rationale of them all. Not only is it more economically sound to have slaves, some argue that it is also more humane than free labor. He goes on to say that slaves are not morally fit for freedom. They know not what to do with it, and would be left to self-destructive behaviors as a result. Slavery is protecting blacks from crime and poverty. More importantly, Dew believed that whites and blacks could not live harmoniously as free men in the same society. There would undoubtedly be a sudden surge of uprisings and murders. Even those who opposed slavery still felt that Africans were inferior, therefore relations between the races would be tense at best. In Dew's final point, he portrays the relationship between master and slave as comparative to that of mother and daughter, or brother and sister. A slave learns to look up to his master as a revered figure, and is proud of his master's wealth.
The revolutionaries advocated individual liberty, rejecting all forms of arbitrary constraint: including monopolies on commerce, feudal charges laid upon the land, vestiges of servitude such as serfdom, and even (in 1794) black slavery overseas. ... Locke was also a proponent of equal rights for women. ...
Taylor said very little with regard to slavery even though he himself owned 200 slaves. ... However, since he owned slaves himself, most people considered him to favor pro-slavery. ... Cass was a proponent of popular sovereignty, which meant that the people in any new territory should have the right to vote whether or not to permit slavery. Unlike Taylor, Cass was a career politician having served as governor and senator of Michigan Many people who opposed slavery became frustrated with the fact that neither candidate would address the issue of slavery. ... Van Buren and the Free Soil...
The most important of these influences was the popular racism which had inherently existed in both northern and southern colonial America since the establishment of the institution of slavery in the seventeenth century. ... If generation after generation of Southerners had not been brainwashed into thinking that Blacks were inherently inferior to whites, slavery would not have perpetuated itself. ... In effect, the end of Reconstruction was conceived as soon as slavery became a part of the Southern consciousness and way of life. ... Proponents of the Dunning school of Reconstruction histori...
The strain the slavery issue had resulted in the Democratic Party being split into two and severely weakening its political control. ... The election of Lincoln, who was clearly opposed to slavery spreading to the outside of the existing states, was the last step as far as the South was concerned in proceeding with secession and eventually war. ... The question of slavery remaining lawful in the South as well as in the newly acquired terriortories in the southwest, Nebraska, and Kansas was first and foremost on their agendas. ... William Yancy, a senator from Alabama and another of the sou...
Slavery is an institution that clearly denies these basic rights, allowing for the inhumane treatment of people because of the color of their skin. The legacies of slave rebellion leaders such as Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, and Denmark Vassey have and continue to be an undeniable and ubiquitous proponent of the antebellum/anti-slavery period. ... Like Prosser, Vassey was filled with anger and resentment towards slavery and the circumstances surrounding black slaves. ... Turner, like Vassey, was from the "upper class" of slaves although growing up, he deeply hated slavery. His mother, an A...
Thus, the southern economy became a one crop economy, depending on cotton and therefore on slavery. ... Strong proponents of states' rights like Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry were not present at this meeting. ... However, proponents such as John C. ... This was because many of the great leaders were retired and moved to their homes in the south, even if they were against slavery. ...
Furthermore, Abraham Lincoln's biggest passion was abolishing slavery. On September 22, 1862, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves and "pronounced slavery a moral evil that must come to an end.... This demonstrates Lincoln's despise for slavery however, his hatred for the subject has nothing to do with the types of people. ... This also gives the knowledge that being anti-slavery has nothing to do with racism and Lincoln himself could undoubtedly be prejudice. ... Being labeled as "The Black Man's President" and "A Proponent of Blac...
The Lost Cause was the belief that the southern secession, even the defense of slavery, was honorable. Lost Cause proponents claim the true cause of the Civil War was not slavery but how the North was suppressing states rights. ... This simplistic view of slavery shown in "Gone With the Wind" is one of the biggest aspects in "The Myth of the Lost Cause". ... The Confederate soldiers captured black people, including children and free blacks, and sent them South into slavery" (31). ... The Lost Cause Myth states the war was about states' rights and not at all abo...
Both proponents and advocates of gun control policies have arguments based on legitimate concerns. ... The Bill of Rights, women's right to vote and the abolition of slavery have only served to further the constitution's original premises. ... Patrick Henry once said, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? ...
