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Proponents Of Slavery

 

            
             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.


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