Summary Of William Joseph Harper's Memoir On Slavery

In Memoir on Slavery, William Joseph Harper, a jurist, politician, and social and political theorist from South Carolina, advocated the notion that slavery was not in fact only a necessary evil but rather a positive social good. Harper promoted several philosophical, racial, and economic arguments on behalf of slavery, but his central idea was that "slavery anticipates the benefits of civilization and retards the evils of civilization" (Boundless). Furthermore, He felt that non-slaveholding civilizations in northern climates, such as Great Britain, were fractured by inequality, political radicalism, and other dangers. However, non-slaveholding civilizations in more southerly areas, such as Spain, Italy, and Mexico, were rapidly slipping into