Slavery in the United States.

Slavery in the United States

Michael Argenti

Slavery has played a central role in the history of the United States. It existed in all the English mainland colonies and to dominated the South. Most of the Founding Fathers were large-scale slaveholders, as were eight of the first 12 presidents of the United States. Debate over slavery increasingly dominated American politics, leading eventually to the nation's only civil war, which in turn finally brought slavery to an end. After emancipation, overcoming slavery's legacy remained a crucial issue in American history, from the reconstruction following the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement a century later.

The enslavement of blacks in the American Colonies began during the 1600's. Slavery flourished in the South, where large plantations grew cotton, tobacco, and other crops. The plantations in the South required large numbers of labourers, and the cheapest and most efficient way of producing was to acquire slaves. But slavery was less profitable in the North, where economic activity centred on small farms and industries. By 1860, the slave states had about 4 million slaves, these slaves comprised nearly a third of the South's population.

Abolition of slavery in the North, which began in the Revolutionary era and was largely complete by the 1830s, divided the United States into the "slave" South and the "free" North. As this happened, slavery came—both to Northerners and Southerners—to define the essence of the South: to defend slavery was to be "pro-Southern," whereas opposition to slavery was "anti-Southern." In essence, the South believed slavery should not be banned and the North argued many reasons to the contrary. However, although most Southern whites did not own slaves (the proportion of white families that owned slaves declined from 35 percent to 26 percent between 1830 and 1860), slavery more and more set the South apart from the rest of the country—and the Western world. This was particularly so with the addition of the Mason-Dixon Line, which literally divided the country in half between “free states” and “slaves states”, and only ended up adding fuel to the already raging fire. In an era that celebrated "liberty" and "equality," the slave South came to be viewed as backwards and repressive.

The South had many reasons for not abolishing slavery, the main and most important of which was that their economy depended on it. Southern economic growth was based largely on putting more acreage under cultivation; the South did not undergo the kind of industrial revolution that was beginning to transform the North. The South had remained almost entirely rural, with cotton and tobacco, the two main crops in the South being both extremely high maintenance and needing constant care. During this period the South derived almost all of its income from the sale of these crops. It was without ...

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But the biggest gap between North and South was ideological. As Northern states abolished slavery and saw the growth of a small but articulate abolitionist movement, Southern white spokesmen—from politicians to ministers—rallied around slavery as the backbone of the Southern society. Defenders of slavery developed a wide range of arguments to support their cause, from those that stressed slavery as a "practical" necessity to those that depicted it as a "positive good." They made heavy use of religious themes, pointing to the bible to explain the origins of black bondage and portraying slavery as part of God's plan for civilizing a primitive, heathen people.

This was a time during which people believed almost every word they read straight from the pages of the Bible and so therefore they looked at it for advice and guidance. The Old Testament was said to have approved the practice of holding slaves and one of the quotes they referred to was Genesis 16:9. In this section, God was said to have sanctioned slavery through his angle when the runaway slave, Hagar, was commanded to return to her mistress Sarah. However, if they really followed the Bible closely and referred to in the New Testament it would be seen that Jesus Christ preached with the Sermon on the Mount and redefined the Old Testament. He changed a lot of things that were mentioned and put forward in the Old Testament, one of them being ‘treat others as you treat yourself’. Nevertheless the South relied heavily on the Bible as a case for slavery. The following quotes are taken from the Bible and represent the religious arguments that the South used to justify slavery:

Abraham, the "the father of faith,' and all the patriarchs held slaves without God's disapproval (Gen. 21:9-10).

Canaan, Ham's son, was made a slave to his brothers (Gen. 9:24-27).

The apostle Paul specifically commanded slave to obey their masters (Eph. 6:5-8).

On the other hand, the North was also on sound ground to base its arguments against slavery. A very strong argument was the fact that in the second paragraph of the United States Constitution it states that all men are created equal and should have the opportunity to pursue ‘Life, Liberty and Happiness’, three things that the slaves had no chance of pursuing in the South. The Constitution was a document that both North and South representatives signed yet were quite clearly at opposing ends.

The most obvious reason for opposing slavery was the fact that it is unjust and morally incorrect. Nobody has any right to kidnap someone from their homeland only to enslave them somewhere else. The United States was founded on a basis that they themselves were escaping the ties with the British to in turn become a free and independent country. However, still after freeing itself the United States enslaved Africans which again was contradicting the morale fibre of the United States and its constitution.

The arguments for and against slavery, therefore, were predominantly based on the issues of economic practicality for the South and the difference in ideology. It came to represent a cultural, moral, and ideological divide in the nation which ultimately resulted, together with other differences, in the countries first and only Civil War. Debate on the issue of slavery was at its height in the early 1800s with strong passion and belief evident in both sides. Abraham Lincoln’s speech in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act at Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854 demonstrates the disparity of values the nation was struggling with.

“Fellow countrymen, Americans—South as well as North—shall we make no effort to arrest this (slavery)? Already the liberal party throughout the world express the apprehension "that the one retrograde institution in America is undermining the principles of progress and fatally violating the noblest political system the world ever saw." This is not the taunt of enemies but the warning of friends. Is it quite safe to disregard it, to despise it? Is there no danger to liberty itself in discarding the earliest practice and first precept of our ancient faith? In our greedy chase to make profit of the Negro, let us beware lest we "cancel and tear in pieces" even the white man’s charter of freedom.

Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify it. Let us turn and wash it white in the spirit, if not the blood, of the Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its claims of "moral right" back upon its existing legal rights and its arguments of "necessity." Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it, and there let it rest in peace. Let us readopt the Declaration of Independence and with it the practices and policy which harmonize with it. Let North and South, let all Americans, let all lovers of liberty everywhere join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union but we shall have so saved it as to make and to keep it forever worthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it that the succeeding millions of free, happy people, the world over, shall rise up and call us blessed to the latest generations.”

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