The Role Of Slavery In The Southern Economy

By the 1840s, America had become split in opinion over whether slavery was an evil which needed to be removed or a vital part of the southern economy and therefore needed to be kept. The North believed slavery was an evil because slaves were treated inhumanely. For them, the ideal of slavery was a denial to human's basic rights. The fact that slavery was mainly used in the south and did not directly impact the lives of those who lived in the North, there was no threat being made to the Northerners which made it easier for them to condemn the act. The South didn't see slaves as humans, believing they were only property and therefore saw nothing wrong in their treatment of slaves. Treatment towards slaves was like any other property Southern
Given cotton's importance in the U.S. economy during the 1800's, the thought of taking it out of the Southern economy was feared. They argued that the sudden removal of slavery, therefore the sudden loss of cotton production, would cause chaos in the South. The thought process was that if all the slaves were freed, there would be widespread unemployment and violence because of uprisings. To avoid all of this, keeping the slaves in servitude was seen as the best way to keep the statuesque of their lifestyle in place. The economic fallout that the South would encounter would be devastating as well. Much of the U.S. economy at the time was based on the success of cotton, given it was distributed throughout the U.S. as well as being the primary export of America at the time. Removing this would be catastrophic for both sides but it would ruin the Southern economy. An important court case that the South used in defense of slavery was the Dred Scott case. This stated that all blacks, slaves and freed alike, were not humans but were property. This distinction is what allowed southern slave masters to rely on the Constitution to defend their claim on slaves. Because slaves were property, the Constitution protected the ownership of property which therefore included
Numerous successful civilizations, such as the Romans, Greeks, and even the English, to a certain degree, all utilized slavery as a way to better their economies and societies. Since the Bible was highly regarded during the 1800's, events that mention slavery were interpreted as justifications that slavery was an acceptable institution. There are even specific parts in the Bible that endorse slavery. One part of the 10 Commandments given by Abraham says, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house...nor his manservant, nor his maidservant." While this does not explicitly says slavery is right, it acknowledges that servitude goes all the way back to the Bible. An even more concrete example from the Bible appears in the New Testament when Paul returns a runaway slave, Philemon, to his master. Evidence of slavery is very clearly shown. Southerners were able to defend their position because they put so much emphasis on the Bible in their lives, believing everything for the