slavery_justify

 dubs for life

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http://www.nas.com/~lopresti/ps.htm This website has information about the men who were presidents during slavery. It sets out who had slaves, who did not, and what they thought TRASH did about slavery. Some websites are cited as sources and all the facts may not be reliable. It still has some interesting facts.

Thomas Jefferson thought slavery needed to end but he thought it should end slowly. He thought it needed to end gradually so people could get used to the change. http://atheism.about.com/b/2006/06/04/thomas-jefferson-slavery-and-morality.htm (an ask questions get answers site, this explains all about Thomas Jefferson and his feelings toward slavery) In fact, out of the first 18 Presidents, eleven owned slaves and most owned them while they were in office! This website states which presidents owned slaves and how they obtained and used these slaves. Some of these presidents actually inherited these slaves from their family members and thus thought that selling them would be a waste. "I was a slave of Thomas Jefferson. I started as a slave hewing logs, building fences and barns. After that I became a carpenter at the age of seventeen. I was told by Thomas Jefferson to be the best wood worker. I learned to make all kinds of fine mahogany furniture. I was the favorite with Jefferson's grandchildren. They told Jefferson of my making toys and furniture. When Jefferson died, he freed me in his will. I was the son of Betty Hemings, it was said that Joseph Neilson was my farther. I don 't really know. Jefferson treated his slaves just like they were his own family so if I had to be a slave for anyone, it would be to Thomas Jefferson because he was loyal, and kind to all of us. To me Thomas Jefferson is a generous man in a way, but he did have slaves, but at least he treated us as if we were family," John Hemmings. (http://www.cyberlearning-world.com/nhhs/project/tjslaves.htm)

http://www.nas.com/~lopresti/ps.htm (This website has information about the men who were presidents during slavery. It sets out who had slaves, who did not, and what they thought and did about slavery. Some websites are cited as sources and all the facts may not be reliable.It still has some interesting facts.) Some slave owners, especially president slave owners, would relieve their guilt by freeing their slaves in their wills and giving them pensions.
 * How did slave owners justify slavery? **

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/features/freedom/story.html?id=9b658aef-5161-465b-bbac-88be5bd43aad&k=22326 This website lists many reasons for slave owners justifying slavery. They are all very reasonable, but all opinion. It is very well written and written by Maria-Lucia Castillo, an Ottawa citizen, and published on Tuesday, June 13, 2006. Here are some of her reasons:
 * Biblical references show God approves of slavery: Israelites, "God's chosen people," were slaveholders; Christ never condemned it; Paul supported it.
 * All men are not created equal: the black race is inferior; thus, blacks are better off as property of superior whites who ensure their subsistence.
 * Slaves are content with slavery, for their masters ensure they're fed, clothed and taught Christian values: comparatively, Southern slaves are better off than many of the immigrant workers in Northern factories who are confined in unhealthy work places for long hours.
 * Slavery is the key to national prosperity-for both the North and the South: cotton produced in the South is a major U.S. export to Europe; thus, if the Southern economy is tampered with, the big industrial cities of the North would collapse.
 * Slavery enabled the founding of the American Republic: four out of the first five American presidents were slaveholders from Virginia, and George Washington owned as many as 300 slaves over his lifetime.
 * Great civilizations from the past allowed slavery: Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

 The easiest way for them to justify slavery was the simple fact that it wasn't illegal and the constitution does not say anything about slavery.  http://americanhistory.about.com/od/usconstitution/f/slavery.htm

The Constitution does not justify slavery and yet it was not for slavery. In fact, the words "slave" or "slavery" aren't in the Constitution at all. The Constitution does refer to slaves as "other persons", however. For instance, under the 3/5 compromise, for every five "other persons", three were counted as people for the House of Representatives's representation for each slave state. Also, the government, under the Constitution, was now able to stop the slave trade. Finally, in the Constitution, there is a section where it states that if slaves escape one state, and run to another state, they can't be freed by the laws of the second state.

http://www.cerritos.edu/soliver/Student%20Activites/slavery/A2_justslavery.htm "At the time of the ratification of the Constitution (1789), Southerners who owned or aspired to own slaves, considered that the existence of slavery was a “necessary evil”:” Slavery was necessary to support the agricultural system dependent upon tobacco and cotton." This site explains how the Southerners justified slavery while creating the Constitution....."In sum, they claimed that enslaving African Americans was part of the natural order of things – it was part of God’s law, part of history, part of the US legal system and part of sociological principles racial superiority and inferiority." The Southerners felt that it was "part of God's law." This is horrible that they thought that this was the right thing to do based on religion.

"All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves within this dominion...shall be held to be real estate. If any slave resist his master...correcting such slave, and shall happen to be killed in such correction...the master shall be free of all punishment...as if such accident never happened." This is from the same site as the comparison of race of African American monkeys and White people. It is a quote from the Virginia Code of Law in 1709. They made it a law to treat enslaved African Americans like real estate. http://americanabolitionist.liberalarts.iupui.edu/punishment.htm

Here are some justifications of slavery that southerners and slave owers used: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/features/freedom/story.html?id=9b658aef-5161-465b-bbac-88be5bd43aad&k=22326- a newspaper in Canada's website, it has lots of inormation about the justification of slavery.
 * God approves of slavery
 * Men are not created equal; blacks were inferior
 * Slavery is good for slaves; It keeps them feed clothed and taught Christian values. They do better than some northern factory workers
 * Slavery is key to north and south economy; If the south can't produce as much cotton, then the north can't make enough products.
 * It's legal
 * Slavery was part of the New Republic, the first five presidents and slaves.
 * Great civilizations in the past had slavery (Egypt, Rome Greece)

media type="youtube" key="rDV1e1yPpk0" height="344" width="425" media type="youtube" key="KxoSZfBFrwE" height="344" width="425"As you can see, even Plato and Aristotle supported slavery! They were Greek and they supported slavery.but in spite of this, they are honored in today's society.

http://theblacksentinel.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/slavery_maryland_0327.jpg[|Picture of Slavery] This sight shows an image of a whipped slave. This shows how slaves were abused > > > http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h244.html > This site is called USHistory.com. It gives real southern justifications of slavery that was found in primary resources and books. It states that slavery really helped the African-American race and the U.S. as a whole. They state that it gave the economy a bug boost. They are also saying that the slaveowners took care of the so called "inferiors". "They fed, clothed, and gave them religoius instruction"

http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/teaching/vclassroom/proslavewsht2.html This site gives a range of southern opinions about slavery. It gives reasons why slavery was good and needed. It also teaches about abolition.

> "...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. Gradual but certain extermination would be their fate. We presume the maddest abolitionist does not think the negro's providence of habits and money-making capacity at all to compare to those of the whites . This defect of character would alone justify enslaving him, if he is to remain here. In Africa or the West Indies, he would become idolatrous, savage and cannibal, or be devoured by savages and cannibals. At the North he would freeze or starve.**"//--George Fitzhugh, The Universal Law of Slavery//** > -White slave owners said that black slaves were closer to primates than whites, therefore whites were intellectually superior. > > > > http://americanabolitionist.liberalarts.iupui.edu/punishment.htm >  Adding to the answer above, the slaves were dehumanized to rationalize what they were doing. Dehumanization occurs when races are discriminated against, and it is one of the first steps in genocide.

 http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/dehumanization/ This site further explains the effects of dehumanization in general and its different roles in other racial oppression. > > [|How Did Southerners Justify Slavery?] > This website is from Canada. It gives great examples of how Southerners justified slavery. It also provides examples of how people became slaves. > > > > **Did people think it was morally right or did they know it was wrong but just needed the business?** > > I think that people knew slavery was wrong, but tried to numb themselves toward the plight of the slaves. They knew that it was wrong but they didn't want to admit to themselves that they were being cruel. Slave owners convinced themselves that they were superior to the slaves and therefore, the slaves did not deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Also, slave owners thought that without slavery, it would be almost impossible to keep a plantation running. > > You could say that all the slave owners were evil and that's why they could accept slavery. They were so mean that they thought treating people like that wasn't bad at all. At the same time, there have been many examples of extreme cruelty in history that do not involve slaves and masters. Cruelty alone does not seem to explain the unique experience of slaves in the United States.You could also say that they were all just racist. Ironically, there were some African-American's owning African-American slaves and even some Native Americans having black slaves. They must have just needed the business.

Slavery appears in the bible. Why were the Israelites in Egypt? They were slaves. Slaves of the Egyptians. Moses led approximately 600,000 Israelite men and their families out of __**//slavery//**__ in Egypt. If there was slavery in the Holy Bible, wasn't it okay to have slavery? This, I am sure, was one of the reasons that they thought it was morally right. If it was in God's book, wasn't it okay? This I am sure is also a big reason for justifying it. On the other hand, Moses led them OUT of slavery, not into slavery. http://www.allaboutworldview.org/slavery-in-the-bible.htm This is a site describing slavery in the Bible. It has some good quotes and also some good examples. It has some very good reasonings and is well written.

> http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h244.html > The slaveholders forced themselves to believe that having slaves was morally right. I think it made them think that having slaves was good for the slaves. They thought they were helping by providing slaves with food, clothes, shelter, and sometimes religious instruction. Also, slaveholders thought that slaves were happier than immigrant workers because they were usually working in better conditions than in the factory. Besides that, slaveholders also knew that the country needed slavery in order to keep the country alive. This is because most of the exports were cotton, America needed slaves to clean the cotton in order to keep the economy going. Without these slaves, the economy would crumble. Even the North agreed on this, though they strongly opposed slavery.

> ** Why did we have slavery when it is clearly wrong? ** > Two words: the Bible. In the South there were many people who lived and breathed the Bible. They had slavery because that is what they were taught, and what their ancestors passed done. The Bible states that men can have slaves, meaning servants. "He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity..." It is unclear whether this refers to armies capturing the enemy, or to individuals who capture people as slaves. Some people knew it was wrong but it was the only way of life they knew of, and for some it was the way of surviving. > [|http://www.religioustolerance.org/sla_bibl3.htm**] There is absoluetely no real justification for slavery. Most justifications are just excuses. Saying slavery is okay because the first five presidents had it is almost as bad as the excuse: "my dog at my homework". How could anyone justify this? > ** What was the biggest reason slavery was accepted by the South and what was their reason for keeping it? ** > media type="youtube" key="is5sTaUImls" height="344" width="425"

Yes, I know that this video was done by a student, but in the beginning it talks about some of the main reasons for slavery. Probably the biggest reason for slavery was that it was cheap and you needed a lot of hard core labor in order to farm in those days. Farming was big in the South because they had lots of rich soil that was good for farming. The more slaves you had the more cotton you could produce and the more food you could produce. More cotton and more produce equals more money. More money equals more slaves. It was a big circle. You could earn a lot of money off of slave labor.

The main reason we had slavery was the slave owner's greed. The slave owners were driven by wealth and power. Profits from slavery are usually very large. Slave owners were usually the head of the southern governement and even held many important federal posistions. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/teachers/readings7.html - It's from pbs.org and it is part ot the history teaching section. It shows how to answer the question, "How could people do such a thing?" > > "Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." ABRAHAM LINCOLN, speech, Mar. 17, 1865

http://www.notable-quotes.com/s/slavery_quotes.html

Other links: http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/linksi.htm This website has many historical, reliable links that include: [|**Picture History**], **[|**US Library of Congress**]**, **[|**The Smithsonian:**]**,** [|**Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park**] and many more, all annotated and all have to do with slavery or the Civil War. This website was put together by The Slave Heritage Resource Center.

A slave family outside of their small home.

[|Bible Answers]