SLAVERY DEBATE
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H.T.M.
Journal
BACKGROUND. Here is a selection of
documents from both sides of the slavery debate. In this exercise we are
asking you to read the documents, then come to class prepared to argue one
of the two sides--either for or against slavery. It is easy to argue against
slavery--no modern American would have any trouble arguing against slavery.
it is harder to recapture how Americans defended slavery. It is also
surprising how abolitionists argued against slavery.
For step 1 apply the
following relevant points (as a template some might not apply to every article).
Though presented here in an outline form, use paragraphs in your write-up.
Template for Analyzing the Logic of an Article
__The Logic of "(name of the article)"
__The main purpose of this article is
...
(State as accurately as possible the author's purpose for writing the
article.)
__The key question that the author is
addressing is ...
(Figure out the key question in the mind of the author when s/he wrote the
article.)
__The most important information in
this article is ...
(Figure out the facts, experiences, data the author is using to support
her/his conclusions.)
__The main inferences/conclusions in
this article are ...
(Identify the key conclusions the author comes to and presents in the
article.)
__The key concept(s) we need to
understand in this article is (are) ...
__By these concepts the author means ...
(Figure out the most important ideas you would have to understand in order
to understand the author's line of reasoning.)
__The main assumption(s) underlying
the author's thinking is (are) ...
(Figure out what the author is taking for granted [that might be
questioned].)
__If we take this line of reasoning
seriously, the implications are ...
(What consequences are likely to follow if people take the author's line of
reasoning seriously?)
__If we fail to take this line of reasoning seriously, the implications are
...
(What consequences are likely to follow if people ignore the author's
reasoning?)
__The main point(s) of view presented
in this article is (are) ...
(What is the author looking at, and how is s/he seeing it?)
For step 2, apply
the above points to analyze your assigned source in the Slavery Debate
CAPTAIN |
PRO-SLAVERY: J. D. B. De Bow
The Industrial Resourses, etc.., of the Southern and Western States.
Samuel George Morton
(see “Observations of the size of the Brain in Various Races and Fameilies
of Man,” Philadelphia, 1849) has ascertained that the negro's brain is nine
cubic inches less than the white man's. Lately; some attempts have been made
by British abolitionists to distort the facts of science,by representing the
African brain as equal to that of the European, and the mind of the former
equal to the latter. A certain Dr. Robert Bentley Todd, of King's College,
London, in a work on the “Observations of the Brain, Spinal Cord, and
Ganglions,” (London, 1845,) endeavors to throw some doubt and uncertainty on
the received and wellestablished facts in regard to the inferiority of the
negro's intellect, the comparative smallness of his brain, and the larder
size of his nerves. Also, James Cowles Pritchard, another British writer,
author of the “Researches on the Physical History of Mankind,” in four
volumes, (London, 1844,) an abolition work, disguised under the pretense
that the authority of the Bible would be impeached if the great differences
that natural historians and comparative anatomists professed to have
discovered in mankind were not called in question.
Pritchard...does not
seem to be aware of what Cardinal Wiseman justly observes, “that it is only
half-way science and half-way truths that militate against the authority of
the Bible.” The whole truth, when brought out, and perfect freedom of
science to pursue its investigations untrammelled to its terminus, have, in
every instance, demonstrated the truth of the Bible; while imperfect
investigations and the omission of the truth, or the tying science down to
the narrow interpretations of biblical commentators, have generally led to
skepticism and infidelity. Pritchard seems to be so much afraid that if the
differences which Malpighi, Scemmerring, Cuvier, and other comparative
anatomists have discovered in the negro's organization, approximating him to
the monkey tribes, be admitted, the Bible will be invalidated, that he has
taken much pains to try to overturn general truths and principles by partial
exceptions. He adduces instances to prove that white persons have turned
black, in whole or in part, and that the negro's skin has, in some
instances, turned white. But he ought to know that the change of color in
all such cases is the effect of disease. Dr. Rush was so much afraid that
the black skin, thick lips, and flat nose of the negro would invalidate the
Mosaic account of the creation of man, and the unity of the human family,
that he published in the Medical Repository (vol. iv., p. 409) some
suggestions, attributing the black color, thick lips, and flat nose to a
disease resembling leprosy. But observation proved that, so far from the
black color being caused by disease, the blackest negroes were always the
healthiest, and the thicker the lips, and the fatter the nose, the sounder
the constitution.
Both Pritchard and Todd
labor to prove by a few cases, exceptions to the general rule, that the
brain of the negro and his mental capacity are equal to the white man, lest
the Scriptures be invalidated, if any inferior slave race be admitted. They
overlooked the fact that the Mosaic history distinctly specifies an inferior
slave race of people, called Canaanites, Gibeonites, &c., and that these
people were reduced to slavery, and their country taken from them, by Divine
command.
|
RECORDER |
PRO-SLAVERY: Excerpts from Samuel
George Morton, Crania Americana
Nineteenth century
Americans were intensley interested in physical anthropology--the study and
classification of human body types. They were especially interested in
theories that connected the way people looked to their basic character—their
intelligence, their moral sense, their capacities for leadership or math
violence. Morton believed that cranial capacity, the size of the skull, gave
an accutrate measure of intelligence. The bigger your skull, the bigger your
brain, the smarter you were. Morton collected thousands of skulls and
measured their cranial capacity. In his book Crania Americana (1839), he
ranked the world's races as follows:
Europeans. The Caucasian Race is
characterized by a naturally fair skin, susceptible of every tint; hair
fine, long and curling, and of various colors. The skull is large and oval,
and its anterior portion full and elevated. The face is small in proportion
to the head, of an oval form, with well-proportioned features. . . . This
race is distinguished for the facility with which it attains the highest
intellectual endowments. . . . The spontaneous fertility of [the Caucasus]
has rendered it the hive of many nations, which extending their migrations
in every direc-tion, have peopled the finest portions of the earth, and
given birth to its fairest inhabitants. . . .
Asians. This great division of
the human species is characterized by a sallow or olive colored skin, which
appears to be drawn tight over the bones of the face; long black straight
hair, and thin beard. The nose is broad, and short; the eyes are small,
black, and obliquely placed, and the eyebrows are arched and linear; the
lips are turned, the cheek bones broad and flat. . . . In their intellectual
character the Mongolians are ingenious, imitative, and highly susceptible of
cultivation [i.e. learning]....So versatile are their feelings and actions,
that they have been compared to the monkey race, whose attention is
perpetually changing from one object to another....
Native Americans. The American Race is
marked by a brown complexion; long, black, lank hair; and deficient beard.
The eyes are black and deep set, the brow low, the cheekbones high, the nose
large and aquiline, the mouth large, and the lips tumid [swollen] and
compressed. . . . In their mental character the Americans are averse to
cultivation, and slow in acquiring knowledge; restless, revengeful, and fond
of war, and wholly destitute of maritime adventure. They are crafty,
sensual, ungrateful, obstinate and unfeeling, and much of their affection
for their children may be traced to purely selfish motives. They devour the
most disgusting [foods] uncooked and uncleaned, and seem to have no idea
beyond providing for the present moment. . . . Their mental faculties, from
infancy to old age, present a continued childhood. . . . [Indians] are not
only averse to the restraints of education, but for the most part are
incapable of a continued process of reasoning on abstract subjects. . . .
Africans. Characterized by a
black complexion, and black, woolly hair; the eyes are large and prominent,
the nose broad and flat, the lips thick, and the mouth wide; the head is
long and narrow, the forehead low, the cheekbones prominent, the jaws
protruding, and the chin small. In disposition the Negro is joyous,
flexible, and indolent; while the many nations which compose this race
present a singular diversity of intellectual character, of which the far
extreme is the lowest grade of humanity. . . . The moral and intellectual
character of the Africans is widely different in different nations. . . .
The Negroes are proverbially fond of their amusements, in which they engage
with great exuberance of spirit; and a day of toil is with them no bar to a
night of revelry. Like most other barbarous nations their institutions are
not infrequently characterized by superstition and cruelty. They appear to
be fond of warlike enterprises, and are not deficient in personal courage;
but, once overcome, they yield to their destiny, and accommodate themselves
with amazing facility to every change of circumstance. The Negroes have
little invention, but strong powers of imitation, so that they readily
acquire mechanic arts. They have a great talent for music, and all their
external senses are remarkably acute.
|
ENCOURAGER |
ANTI-SLAVERY: Frederick
Douglass, “I Am Here to Spread Light on American Slavery: An address
Delivered in Cork, Ireland, on 14 October 1845.”
The relation of
master and slave in America should be clearly understood. The master is
allowed by law to hold his slave as his possession and property, which
means the right of one man to hold property in his fellow. The master
can buy, sell, bequeath his slave as well as any other property, nay, he
shall decide what the poor slave is to eat, what he is to drink, where
and when he shall speak. He also decides for his affections, when and
whom he is to marry, and, what is more enormous, how long that marriage
covenant is to endure. The slaveholder exercises the bloody power of
tearing asunder those whom God has joined together—of separating husband
from wife, parent from child, and of leaving the hut vacant, and the
hearth desolate. (Sensation.) The slaveholders of America resort to
every species of cruelty, but they can never reduce the slave to a
willing obedience. The natural elasticity of the human soul repels the
slightest attempt to enslave it. The black slaves of America are not
wholly without that elasticity; they are men, and, being so, they do not
submit readily to the yoke. (Great cheering.) It is easy to keep a brute
in the position of a brute, but when you undertake to place a man in the
same state, believe me you must build your fences higher, and your doors
firmer than before. A brute you may molest sometimes with impunity, but
never a man. Men—the black slaves of America—are capable or resenting an
insult, of revenging an outrage, and of looking defiance at their
masters. (Applause.)
If more than seven
slaves are found together in any road, without a white person—
twenty lashes a piece. For visiting a plantation without a written
pass— ten lashes . For letting loose a boat from where it is made
fast— thirty nine lashes; and for the second offence, shall have his
ear cut off. For having an article for sale without a ticket from
his master— ten lashes. For being on horseback without the written
permission of his master— twenty five lashes.
The preachers say
to the slaves they should obey their masters, because God commands it,
and because their happiness depended on it. (A laugh.) Here the Speaker
assumed the attitude and drawling manner so characteristic of the
American preachers, amid the laughter of all present, and continued—Thus
do these hypocrites cant. They also tell the slaves there is no
happiness but in obedience, and wherever you see poverty and misery, be
sure it results from disobedience. (Laughter.) In order to illustrate
this they tell a story of a slave having been sent to work, and when his
master came up, he found poor Sambo asleep. Picture the feelings, they
say, of that pious master, his authority thrown off, and his work not
done. The master then goes to the law and the testimony, and he there
read the passage I have already quoted, and Sambo is lashed so that he
cannot work for a week after. “You servants,” continued the preacher,
“To what was this whipping traceable, to disobedience, and if you would
not be whipped, and if you would bask in the sunshine of your master's
favour, let me exhort you to obedience. You should also be grateful that
God in his mercy brought you from Africa to this Christian land.” (Great
laughter.) They also tell the wretched slaves that God made them to do
the working, and the white men the thinking. And such is the ignorance
in which the slaves are held that some of them go home and say, “Me hear
a good sermon to day, de Minister make ebery thing so clear, white man
above a Nigger any day.” (Roars of laughter.) It is punishable with
death for the second attempt to teach a slave his letters in America
(Loud expression of disgust), and in that Protestant country the slave
is denied the privilege of learning the name of the God that made him.
Slavery with all its bloody paraphernalia is upheld by the church of the
country. We want them to have the Methodists of Ireland speak to those
of America, and say, “While your hands are red with blood, while the
thumb screws and gags and whips are wrapped up in the pontifical robes
of your Church, we will have no fellowship with you, or acknowledge you
(as) Christians.” (Great applause.) —In America Bibles
and slave-holders go hand in hand. The Church and the slave prison stand
together, and while you hear the chanting of psalms in one, you hear the
clanking of chains in the other. The man who wields the cow hide during
the week, fills the pulpit on Sunday—here we have robbery and religion
united—devils dressed in angels' garments. The man who whipped me in the
week used to attend to show me the way of life on the Sabbath.
|
DEVIL'S ADVOCATE |
ANTI-SLAVERY: Excerpts from Hinton
Rowan Helper, The Impending Crisis (1860), p. 25-27.
The lords of the lash
are not only absolute masters of the blacks, who are bought and sold, and
driven about like so many cattle, but they are also the oracles and arbiters
of all non-slaveholding whites, whose freedom is merely nominal, and whose
unparalleled illiteracy and degradation is purposely and fiendishly
perpetuated. How little the “poor white trash,” the great majority of the
Southern people, know of the real condition of the country, is, indeed,
sadly astonishing. The truth is, they know nothing of public measures, and
little of private affairs, except what their imperious masters, the
slave-drivers, condescend to tell, and that is but precious little, and even
that little, always garbled and onesided, is never told except in public
harangues; for the haughty cavaliers of shackles and handcuffs will not
degrade themselves by holding private converse with those who have neither
dimes nor hereditary rights in human flesh. Whenever it pleases, and to the
extent it pleases, a slaveholder to become communicative, poor whites may
hear with fear and trembling, but not speak. They must be as mum as dumb
brutes, and stand in awe belief that agriculture is not one of the leading
and lucrative pursuits of the free States, that the soil there is an
uninterrupted barren waste, and that our Northern brethren, having the
advantage in nothing except wealth, population, inland and foreign commerce,
manufactures, mechanism, inventions, literature, the arts and sciences, and
their concomitant branches of profitable industry—miserable objects of
charity—are dependent on us for the necessaries of life.
Mortifying as the
acknowledgment of the fact is to us, it is our unbiased opinion-an opinion
which will, we believe, be indorsed by every intelligent person who goes
into a careful examination and comparison of all the facts in the case-that
the profits arising to the North from the sale of provender and provisions
to the South, are far greater than those arising to the South from the sale
of cotton, tobacco and breadstuff- to the North. It follows, then, that the
agricultural interests of the North being not only equal but actually
superior to those of the South, the hundreds of millions of dollars which
the commerce and manufactures of the former annually yield, is just so much
clear and independent gain over the latter. It follows, also, from a
corresponding train or system of deduction, and with all the foregoing facts
in view, that the difference between freedom and slavery is simply the
difference between sense and nonsense, wisdom and folly, good and evil,
right and wrong.
Any observant American,
from whatever point of the compass he may hail, who will take the trouble to
pass though the Southern markets, both great and small, as we have done, and
inquire where this article, that and the other came from, will be utterly
astonished at the variety and quantity of Northern agricultural productions
kept for sale. And this state of things is growing worse and worse every
year., Exclusively agricultural as the South is in her industrial pursuits,
she is barely able to support her sparse and degenerate population. Her men
and her domestic animals, both dwarfed into shabby objects of commiseration
under the blighting effects of slavery, are constantly feeding on the
multifarious products of Northern soil. And if the whole truth must be told,
we may here add, that these products, like all other articles of merchandise
purchased at the North, are generally bought on credit, and, in a great
number of instances, by far too many, never paid for-not, as a general rule,
because the purchasers are dishonest or unwilling to pay, but because they
are impoverished and depressed by the retrogressive and deadening operations
of slavery, that most unprofitable and pernicious institution under which
they live. |
REFLECTOR |
PRO-SLAVERY: Thomas R. Dew (1802-1846)
It is said
slavery is wrong, in the abstract at least, and
contrary to the spirit of Christianity. To this we answer …
that any question must be determined by its circumstances,
and if, as really is the case, we cannot get rid of slavery
without producing a greater injury to both the masters and
slaves, there is no rule of conscience or revealed law of
God which can condemn us… if slavery had commenced
even contrary to the laws of God and man, and the sin of its
introduction rested upon our hands, and it was even carrying
forward the nation by slow degrees to final ruin—yet if it
were certain that an attempt to remove it would only
hasten and heighten the final catastrophe … then, we would
not only not be found to attempt the extirpation, but we
would stand guilty of a high offence in the sight of both
God and man, if we should rashly make the effort. but the
original sin of introduction rests not on our heads, and we
shall soon see that all those dreadful calamities which the
false prophets of our day are pointing to, will never in all
probability occur. With regard to the assertion, that
slavery is against the spirit of Christianity, we are ready
to admit the general assertion, but deny most positively
that there is any thing in the Old or New Testament, which
would go to show that slavery, when once introduced, ought
at all events to be abrogated, or that the master commits
any offence in holding slaves. The children of Israel
themselves were slave holders, and were not condemned for
it.…When we turn to the New Testament, we find not one
single passage at all calculated to disturb the conscience
of an honest slave holder. No one can read it without seeing
and admiring that the meek and humble Saviour of the world
in no instance meddled with the established institutions of
mankind—he came to save a fallen world, and not to excite
the black passions of men and array them in deadly hostility
against each other. From no one did he turn away; his plan
was offered alike to all—to the monarch and the subject, the
rich and the poor—the master and the slave. He was born in
the Roman world, a world in which the most galling slavery
existed, a thousand times more cruel than the slavery in our
own country—and yet he no where encourages insurrection—he
nowhere fosters discontent—but exhorts always to
implicit obedience and fidelity. What a rebuke does the
practice of the Redeemer of mankind imply upon the conduct
of some of his nominal disciples of the day, who seek to
destroy the contentment of the slaves, to rouse their most
deadly passions, to break up the deep foundations of
society, and to lead on to a night of darkness and
confusion! … 2dly. But it is further said that the moral
effects of slavery are of the most deleterious and hurtful
kind; and as Mr. Jefferson has given the sanction of his
great name to this charge, we shall proceed to examine it
with all that respectful deference to which every sentiment
of so pure and philanthropic a heart is justly entitled.
… A
merrier being does not exist on the face of the globe, than
the negro slave of the United States. Even Captain
Hall himself, with his thick "crust of prejudice," is
obliged to allow that they are happy and contented, and the
master much less cruel than is generally imagined. Why then,
since the slave is happy, and happiness is the great object
of all animated creation, should we endeavor to disturb his
contentment by infusing into his mind a vain and indefinite
desire for liberty—a something which he cannot comprehend,
and which must inevitably dry up the very sources of his
happiness.…
It
has been contended that slavery is unfavorable to a
republican spirit: but the whole history of the world
proves that this is far from being the case. In the ancient
republics of Greece and Rome, where the spirit of liberty
glowed with most intensity, the slaves were more numerous
than the freemen.…In modern times, too, liberty has always
been more ardently desired by slave holding communities.…
Burke says, "it is because freedom is to them not only an
enjoyment, but a kind of rank and privilege."
4thly.
Insecurity of the whites, arising from plots,
insurrections, &c., among the blacks. The slave, as we
have already said, generally loves the master and his
family; and few indeed there are, who can coldly plot the
murder of men, women, and children; and if they do, there
are fewer still who can have the villainy to execute. We can
sit down and imagine that all the negroes in the south have
conspired to rise on a certain night, and murder all the
whites in their respective families; we may suppose the
secret to be kept, and that they have the physical power to
exterminate.
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If a sixth
person |
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