Arguing From the Sides of Abolition and Slavery and the Civil War

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Proponent of Slavery

As a Southerner, I believe I know and understand the peculiar institution better than any Northerner ever can. We live and breathe our way of life. The Yankee only presumes to know what is best for us in a way some might call arrogant. While the Northerner looks down upon us from the ivory towers of New England, the Southerner works hard in the fields, training and beating slaves so that the price of cotton and tobacco remains at market rates. We Southerners have provided the bread and butter of the American economy for generations, and suddenly, abolitionists formed of groups of women want to destroy our way of life, tell us what to do, and moralize? We pay good money to keep alive our slaves, but the Yankee wants to exploit us.

The Northerner would envision a world in which miscegenation sullied the racial soil of our nation. The world we envision is neat, orderly, godly, and just. We do not share your values or beliefs, and will not listen to your shameful cries. Slaves have been traded since time immemorial. Our own scripture talks about slavery, but even God-fearing Christians in the North are stating that suddenly now God is against the peculiar institution. God works in mysterious ways, ways that we cannot hope to understand. The Northerner is so arrogant as to presume to know God's will. When the abolitionist in the North aids the escape of slaves, he or she is breaking the law but yet presumes to be above the law.

God also created difference races for a reason. Animals of different species do not mate with one another. For the same reason, whites do not mate with blacks. Our slave owners never consider raping our female slaves. The babies those liars claim to be theirs are proof of their evil primitive nature. Slavery is proof that whites are superior to blacks and prevents all out chaos and anarchy. As George Fitzhugh so eloquently puts it, "The negro race is inferior to the white race, and living in their midst, they would be far outstripped or outwitted in the chaos of free competition." The United States is one of the only nations left strong enough to continue this practice. Let it be so. We stand strong. Our churches are strong and God is on our side.

References

Foner, E. (2012). Give Me Liberty: An American History (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Norton.

Foner, E. (2012). Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Norton.

"George Fitzhugh advocates slavery." Africans in America. Retrieved online: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3141.html

An Abolitionist

Emancipation must happen, because slavery is unnatural, immoral, and an embarrassment to our great nation. Thomas Jefferson himself, without whom our nation would not exist in its current form, argued passionately against slavery in spite of having owned slaves himself. White slave owners, you too can be like Jefferson in your rejection of the peculiar institution and embrace of a higher social and moral order. Jefferson taught us how we cannot replace one tyranny with another, and how hypocritical our nation will be if we allow slavery to perpetuate itself with each passing generation. Slavery is, according to Jefferson, "against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither." It is time now to emancipate the slaves in the great spirit of liberty and justice that permeates the world. Nation after nation has abolished slavery, including even the British who once colonized our land.

The call for emancipation is not a new one. Jefferson fought to abolish slavery from American society, and so too did many others who hoped to witness a new nation truly being conceived with the idea that all men are created equal. Yet too many clung to the economic expediency of slave labor, coupled with the erroneous belief in racial superiority. From where these beliefs arose, we do not know. There is no fair reason to impound human beings based solely on the presumption of superiority. It is even more preposterous to enslave on the grounds of spiritual or moral superiority, when by the very act of torture that is slavery, one proves only the capacity for evil and sin.

References

Foner, E. (2012).

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Give Me Liberty: An American History (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Norton.

Foner, E. (2012). Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Norton.

"Jefferson's "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence." Library of Congress. Retrieved online: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html

Part 2

a) Response to "Proponent of Slavery"

While I do agree that all Americans have financially reaped the benefits of slave labor in helping us to prosper from crops like tobacco, cotton, and all the other bounties of the South, what has occurred in the past should cease to exist in the future. We must, as Americans, join together in creating an economic and social system based on liberty and justice as our Founding Fathers wished it to be. The prices of these items will rise, indeed. Their value on the open market will also rise, though, and the buyers in Europe will pay the price because they need our raw materials to suit their economies as well. We can create a system that recognizes the evil of slavery and that also structures a new Southern economy based on a wage labor rather than slave labor model.

You are also correct to say that slaves are generally provided with food, water, shelter, and the basic provisions of life. Yet you neglect to mention that they lack the most important asset of living in our nation: freedom. You say, "In the North some 'free' factory workers toil all day to earn meager wages which do not provide them these basic necessities." That may be true, but it is unfortunate. These deplorable working conditions are not something to be proud of or to emulate. Rather, we should all enjoy the fruits of our labor as Americans. All Americans should live and work with dignity and liberty.

Anarchy is not a necessary response to emancipation, as you seem to be suggesting. Rule of law would ensue. Southern whites of the current generation may resent the loss of their power and their social hierarchies, but they will survive, and their sons and daughters will reap the benefits of a new nation. Finally, I need to point out that when you invoke the Dred Scott decision, you also neglect to note how our nation's Constitution is amendable. It should be amended yet again to make way for the rights of all citizens -- black and white, male and female -- to participate in all matters of public life.

References

Foner, E. (2012). Give Me Liberty: An American History (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Norton.

Foner, E. (2012). Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Norton.

b) Response to "Abolitionist"

While we are, as you say, "a country founded on Liberty," there are notable differences among our population that you fail to recognize. You advocate the liberation of the slaves, and claim that the slaves be "afforded a life much like that of Northern society." We are not the North. Here in the South, we have our own ways of life, our own social order that Northerners neglect to respect. Are we not a part of this great nation, too? Would you also suggest that these slaves, who took no part in the founding of the nation, be allowed to vote? I suppose you may also believe that women deserve the right to vote too, in spite of their lack of contribution to our political and social life. What you are asking, Abolitionist, is quite preposterous and unreasonable.

There is a difference between denying freedom to the "so many" who you champion and promoting the freedoms of the majority. Yes, many of us in the South do live in areas where slaves outnumber whites. As the minority here in the South, we whites need to stand up for our rights now more than ever before. We maintain social order and control in ways that Northerners could never do. The lack of appreciation or understanding for our needs as slave owners is something we Southerners will come to resent for generations to come. We need to have power over other people in order to justify our lives, and if you do not care to understand or respect our wishes, then we are certainly willing to take up arms and fight......

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