Why Is Slavery Wrong

The institution of slavery was a truly horrible thing, and is not a topic for debate over whether is was ethically right. The bondage and forced labor of fellow humans is an absolutely despicable act from a moral standpoint. However, as absolutely horrible as it was, slavery reaped many positive benefits for the new and developing country at the time, many which were pivotal in the foundation and eventual survival of America. For as horrible as it was, slavery was critical in the formation of the United States of America, and it is highly likely that without slavery, the country would be extremely different today, possibly not even existing. The most clear benefit of slavery were the economic effects, primarily in the south. Most commonly
Within the social pyramid, there were the lowest level, which had its own pyramid within that level. House slaves were towards the top, while the common field hands were at the bottom. The lowest category of whites in the pyramid were dubbed the “hillbillies” and the “clay eaters” by the more aristocratic. These lowly whites took comfort in the fact that they were still not the lowest in America, as their “racial superiority” kept them from being less than slaves. However, the “clay eaters” were sometimes worse off than the slaves, despite deeming themselves as above them. Slaves, in most instances, did have a roof over their head and shelter. This provided a safeness that lowly whites did not always have. The slaves also did have access to, admittedly very little, food. Although they were forced to labor and had to serve a sometimes cruel master, slaves were still provided shelter. Something not always guaranteed to the free but
Wrong enough for an abolitionist movement to start up. Primarily rooted in the north, they simply wanted the abolition of slavery. They used propaganda to help spread their cause, such as the American Slavery as It Is pamphlet. Some more radical abolitionists took their philosophy to the extreme. Abolitionists, such as Wendell Phillips, would refuse to even use products produced by slave labor, such as cotton or cane sugar. Joining the cause were other free blacks, including some ex-slaves, like Frederick Douglass. This movement was relatively supported across the north, but it wasn’t completely founded on moral principle. Many northerners simply wanted to exercise power over the south, not be ethically right. Discrimination still occurred in northern states, and life was hardly better for a free black in the north than the