Slavery and the Morality

In the United States there was a heated debate about the morality of slavery. Supporters of slavery in the 18th century used legal, economic, and religious arguments to defend slavery. They were able to do so effectively because all three of these reasons provide ample support of the peculiar institution that was so vital to the South.
Legally speaking, the constitution offered numerous arguments for slavery and clearly protected the protected the people's rights to own slaves. The 3/5 clause clearly states that slaves are subordinate being who belong enslaved. This compromise also exposes the fact that slaves were thought of as property. Because the slaves are the property of whitest they are protected by the V amendment which states the protection of property. According to this amendment neither the government, nor anyone else had the right to take slaves away from their owners. The 10th amendment furthermore stated that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Since nowhere was the government given the power to get rid of slavery, that power belonged to the state, and the people. In these ways the constitution provided those in favor of slavery with a strong argument.
By1860, the slave states had approximately four million slaves making up approximately one-third of the South's population. However, opposition to slavery began as early as the 1700's by religious leaders and philosophers in North America and Europe who condemned the practice, arguing that slavery was contrary to God's teachings and violated basic human rights. During the Revolutionary War, many Americans came to feel that slavery in the United States was wrong because they believed that protection of human rights was one of the founding tenets of the United States, and slaves were not accorded rights. Slavery was likely opposed more rapidly in the North in part because fewer people in the North owned slaves. Northern abolitionists began organized efforts to end the practice of slavery in the 1800's. But much of the American South, believed that slavery was vital to the continuation of its livelihood and lifestyle and therefore defended the institution of slavery.
As the abolition movement picked up, southerners became organized in their support of slavery in what became known as the proslavery movement. Some southerners involved in the movement maintained the position that slavery was like "the law of nature" which allowed the strong to rule the weak. Thus is was appropriate for whites to own blacks as slaves because they believed whites were the dominant race.