Slavery In The South Pros And Cons

For as long as there’s an American north and south there has been animosity and tension, From the nation’s very inception, country man quarreled over a litany of issues, debating the pros and merits of one cause or philosophy over another. Quite often factions were geography based. In particular due to the technological restrictions on travel often isolating communities and states from others who might disagree with widely held beliefs. This lack of exposure often serving to increase fervor for causes and engender resentment for opposing points of view. This would often in turn lead to widespread disagreement on political policy, national leadership, tax rates and social issues. Of which few issues were so hotly and frequently debated as that of Slavery.

(1). To further clarify the scale and scoop of slavery one must take into account that at the time the total population of the entire south was only 9.1 million(1). And in many states particular the “Lower” South the number of enslaved rivaled and in the case of Mississippi and South Carolina well exceeded the number of Free men. Put simply, these enslaved people, in particular the goods their forced labor produced were the lifeblood of the southern economy and thus it could be argued their entire way of life and thus was often considered in the minds of many southern a vital, time-honored tradition of their people. To many northerners however, Slavery was merely one of a long line of barbaric southern backwoods practices, in turn considered the distant Yankee, busy bodies, a pack of no nothing, know it all’s, hell bent on telling anyone who would listen how to live their