Justifications for the Institution of Slavery during the Antebellum Era Essay

In Chapter 11, it was stated that Slavery is earlier a lug system intended to produce wealth for landownersIt increasingly became a capitalistic enterprise intended to maximize profits. As such, it was secure to a growing international web of economic relations. By 1820, the reciprocal ohm became the worlds largest producer of cotton. Cotton required continuous development, land, labor demand and a global system of trade. As such, it depended increasingly on the slave- base economy. However, the Upper South was experiencing a long depression and it affected prices.To survive, in all the planters move or stay and diversify. Diversification meant shifting to grains and to selling slaves. Soon, the internecine slave trade became a multi-million dollar industry. Until the 1830s, bondage was explained as a necessary evil. However, the call for abolition of slavery was becoming stronger and they had to change their plea for maintaining slaves to make it more acceptable. The Sout herners started to label slavery as a electropositive good. They based their vindications on five sources the bible, history, the Constitution, science and sociology.The biblical justification makes persona to the curse imposed upon Ham, Noahs son and the various verses from both the nonagenarian and New Testament reprimanding servants to always obey their masters. For its historical justification, they pointed out that all ancient civilizations were based on it and most likely even the genuine civilization depended on the servitude of the blacks in America. The Constitution was their reference to its legal justification which refused to abolish slavery and various laws passed protecting it such as the foreign slave trade and mandate for returning slaves to rightful owners.They also sour to science and twisted the data an conclusions to justify that blacks were an inferior race based on the cranial shape and size and must, therefore, submit to their destiny to do work for the superior Caucasians. Lastly, the sociological justification was made more clear by the paternalistic statement as advocated by George Fitzhugh that the Negro is but a grown sister and must be governed as a child and so needed the paternal guidance, restraint and protection of a washcloth master. Be that as it may, to free the blacks would mean giving up our well-favoured country to the ravages of the black race and amalgamation of the savages. On the humanitarian side, they express that it would be heartless to release them especially after seeing that the blacks usher out only be industrial laborers working like slaves for meager support from which they will have to use to pay for shelter, food and clothing.They will be a burden to the uninfected people who have to compete for the alike job and a burden to themselves for having to fend for themselves without the nurturing protection of a master. These justifications were had to be well-thought of so that it would not run contrary to the prevailing ideological directions of the American society at that time which espoused individual liberty, mobility, economic opportunity and democratic political participation. Moreover, they cannot afford to antagonize the probably envious non-slave owning whites that they had to emphasize white superiority regardless of class. The truth of the matter is that behind all these justifications, the existing motive is money. By 1860, the crop per value of a slave is $125. Enslaved women increment their value whenever they give birth to healthy children. A prime heavens worker which sold for $600 in 1844 can go as racy as $1800 following a cotton boom. All things told, what mattered most is that slavery is profitable.