FREE ESSAY ON THE SOUTH AND SLAVERY

THE SOUTH AND SLAVERY

Mr. Wills Matt Weiss
U.S. History I April 3, 2000
The South and Slavery
The Societies of the North and South were very different. They were two regions of the
country that depended very heavily on each other but yet seemed so far apart. Disagreeing
on almost every aspect of how to reside and especially on very specific issues like
slavery and emancipation.
The North was an industrious, moneymaking, region. They respected blacks and gave them
more rights than in the South where they had none. They still were not given the same
rights as whites. Theodore Weld an influential abolitionist wrote many pamphlets. In one
he stated. "Reader, what have you to say of such a treatment? Is it right, just,
benevolent? Suppose I should seize you, rob you of your liberty, drive you into the
field, and make you work as long as you live—would that be justice and kindness, or
monstrous injustice and cruelty?"(Weld 464, The Annals of America) "We will prove that
the slaves in the United States are treated with barbarous inhumanity; that they are
overworked, underfed, wretchedly clad and lodged, and have insufficient
sleep…"(Weld 466, The Annals of America) The South made money, but the economy was
based on agriculture. They did not have the factories or the work force of the North. So
they turned to something even more prosperous, slavery. This peculiar institution is
strongly defended, even using the Bible. William Harper wrote
The Inequality of Man in 1837, which argued that all men are not created equal. "Then
inequality is further developed, and becomes infinite in every society, and under
whatever form of government. Wealth and poverty, fame or obscurity, strength or weakness,
knowledge or ignorance, ease or labor, power or subjection mark the endless diversity in
the condition of men."(Harper 342, The Annals of America) The South used their own slave
work force to build their Cotton Kingdom. 
The South had so much invested in farming cash crops and in agriculture and so little
invested in factories and mass-producing goods an extreme shift such as emancipating all
of the slaves would have been too much of a risk. That was all people knew and the
economy could collapse. People would lose their livelihood. "…the Negro race, from
their temperament and capacity, are peculiarly suited to the situation which they occupy,
and not less happy in it than any corresponding class to be found in the world; prove
incontestably that no scheme of emancipation could be carried into effect without the
most intolerable mischiefs and calamities to both master and slave, or without probably
throwing a large portion of the earth's surface out of the pale of
civilization…"(Harper 341, The Annals of America) There were a few alternatives
such as hiring workers, but for most southerners this was out of the question. If the
large plantation owners were forced to pay workers to do the work of a hundred or more
slaves the profit loss would be huge. The workers would demand better hours than the
slaves got and could quit if they did not want the job anymore. The small farmers who
owned ten or less slaves would be forced to do all the work themselves because they could
not afford paid labor. Even the churches and clergymen in the South supported slavery. On
May 16, 1861, the Presbyterian Assembly met in Philadelphia. Only a few southern
presbyteries were in attendance. When a Northern clergyman called for an oath of
allegiance to the Federal Government, the Southern clergymen defected.
There were a few Northerners who agreed with the South these were the poorest whites and
the immigrants. They did not want the slaves emancipated because they saw them as
competition for jobs.
Many bonds were broken between the North and the South. They both had their own ways of
living and own ideas of what was right and wrong. Neither would bend or give in and war
was imminent. 
Bibliography
The South and Slavery
Works Cited
"African American Odyssey". 13 March 2000 
.
The Annals of America. Vol. 6,7. Chicago: William Benton, 1968.
Miller, Steven F. Sept. 1999. 13 March 2000 
.