Pro Slavery Lobby Essay

As tensions began to rise between northern and southern states, various arguments and debates took place between important political figures from both sides. Among these arguments were opinions based around states rights, national tariffs, trade, and the most extreme, slavery . Slavery was apart of the culture in the south and had been since the founding of Jamestown in 1619 (The Southern Argument for Slavery). The anti-slavery lobby declared that slavery was unjustifiable, cruel, and unnecessary for the success of the southern economy, while the pro-slavery lobby stood firm on the belief that slavery was necessary for the survival of the southern economy, bringing slaves over helped Africans escape Africa and it’s harsh conditions, and black

Much like many verses from the Bible, the way I interpret its meaning and the way you interpret its meaning could be as different as night and day. One example of this is Ephesians 6:5 (Blake, 2011), which was a verse that was used to argue against the abolition of slavery. It states, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ (Eph. 6:9 [New International Version]).” When thinking literally, or how the pro-slavery lobby wanted people to think, one might say that this verse does indeed condone slavery because of the way it addresses how slaves should act towards their masters. It almost seems to show that human slavery was intended to be apart of life. However, when knowing the book of Ephesians and the purpose behind it, you realize that this verse wasn’t intended to condone slavery at all. Paul wrote the book of Ephesians to the church, explaining the purpose and nature of it (Eph. 1:1 [New International Version]). This tells me that this verse was indeed directed towards both a slave and a slave master, but not because slavery was appropriate. Since slavery was very much apart of roman society and Paul wrote the book of Ephesians to maintain harmony in the church, master/slave relations was a topic that needed to be addressed (Blake, 2011). To prove that it was written to maintain peace and not just to command slaves on