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slavery as a positive good

slavery as a positive good Prompted by the moral attacks by Garrison and his American Anti-Slavery Society, the southerners felt their very own livelihood is at stake. They, the southerners, decided to draw up an elaborate defense to counteract these “preposterous” accusations. The slaveholders went to no end to justify holding slavery. In my opinion, they were trying to justify it to themselves as much as they were justifying it to the abolitionists. First of all, anti-slavery movements were not popular in the south. Slavery is the foundation in which all the south’s economy stands upon. To take away the slaves would be to cripple the south. Only a small amount (2,292 out of 4,6274 planters) held over a hundred slaves. Those that hold zero to twenty slaves supported slavery in the hopes that they one day will become part of the “Planter’s Elite.” It is the holding onto that hope that they support slavery. The belief that the white race is superior to the black also played a role in retaining slavery in the south. If the south emancipated all the slaves then they would have to give all the rights of a free citizen to the black. This would lead to equality between the races, which the “superior” whites can not stand. Holding slaves is like “holding a wolf by the ears.” If they let go of slavery, the slaves can wage war upon the white race. Through fearing for their lives, the southerners also held onto their slaves. The south’s proslavery argument is a basis in which the southerners defend the right to own slaves as a positive good rather than a moral evil. They found sanction in history by pointing out that many of the great civilizations in the past (Greece, Rome, Egypt) used slavery. Thus thinking that the slaves made those civilizations great would in turn make this nation also great. The southerners also found some support of slavery in the Old and New Testament. However, there isn’t really a strong religious argument to justify slavery. They said that a lot of people from the Bible had servants and slaves. According to the southerners: who are humans to object what god has ordained? By looking upon scriptures of the bible, the southerners found a religious sanction for holding slavery. Among the most farcical defense of slavery is that the enslavement is good for the slaves. They (the slave owners) thought that the slaves were content and happy under the care of the master and his family. They believed that the talks of freedom and liberty among the slaves were trivial because slaves did not understand these concepts. Finally the slave owners argue that the slaves were better off than the “wage workers” of the north were. The employers of the north did not care for the workers; planters had an investment in their slaves. They fed, clothed, and sheltered their slaves. The slaveholders indulge in their dream thinking they are the most kind of masters. However, “If slaves are so well off, why doesn’t everyone want to be a slave?” The southerners truly convinced themselves that holding slaves were for their (the slaves) own good. Those that opposed to accept slavery as a positive good were silenced or exiled. After 1832, public talks of slavery and it’s abolishment abruptly ended in the south. All parts of the white society supported slavery, whether or not they owned slaves. The southerners not only wanted to counter the abolitionists, but to quell the antislavery movement altogether. In 1835, the South Carolina legislature called upon the northern states to prohibit any print or document that cause a slave revolt. This clearly states that South Carolina believes that slavery is up to the state. Any attempt to interfere would be unlawful. The south defended slavery by saying it was beneficial to the Southern economy as well as the slaves themselves and that the abolition of slavery would be detrimental to the quality of life in the South. Their southern arguments in defense of slavery would lead Americans to take a revolutionary/rebellious stand to defend their homeland, culture, and way of life, a stand similar to the one that their Founding Fathers had taken almost a century earlier. Bibliography:

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