Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
Until the 1830s, slavery was always defended as "a necessary evil" by the population both N&S. John Calhoun, champion and definer of state rights felt it incumbent on him to change that to read, "a necessary good." Accepting slavery as an "evil" was not reconcilable with his vision of the idyllic southern image based on individual rights and freedom. There was a contradiction there that absolutely had to change in order to justify a continuance of the "peculiar institution."
Calhoun began with a convincing and very convenient argument. Simply put he argued that slavery benefited the black slave. "There is no instance of any civilized colored race of any shade being found equal to the establishment and maintenance of free government," Calhoun declared with certainty. "Never before had the black race . . . from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually . . ."
In essence Calhoun provided slave owners with a dogma that assuaged consciences and allowed slavery to flourish without pangs of an irritating conscience. By the time Calhoun died in 1850, his theories of race had become scripture with a litany that still lives today as exemplified in a comment that Africans today wished that their ancestors had been enslaved so that they could live in America. "It [Africans] came to us in a low, degraded, and savage condition, and in the course of a few generations it had grown up under the fostering care of our institutions." Note Calhoun’s use of the pronoun <u>it</u> rather than <u>they</u> to designate human beings. Nice touch, don't you think?
Calhoun’s creed took hold with his words were echoed by Robert E. Lee in 1857. "The doctrines and miracles of our Saviour have required nearly two thousand years to convert but a small portion of the human race, and even among Christian nations what gross errors still exist! While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is still onward, and give it the aid of our prayers, let us leave the progress as well as the results in the hands of Him who, chooses to work by slow influences, and with whom a thousand years are but as a single day."
And of course, Jefferson Davis was just as ready to defend slavery on Calhoun’s dogma of benefit to the blacks. "In moral and social condition they had been elevated from brutal savages into docile, intelligent, and civilized agricultural laborers, and supplied not only with bodily comforts but with careful religious instruction. Under the supervision of a superior race their labor had been so directed as not only to allow a gradual and marked amelioration of their own condition, but to convert hundreds of thousands of square miles of wilderness into cultivated lands covered with a prosperous people . . ."
Calhoun led the way to moral justification through biblical application and Jefferson Davis was able to pick up the mantra. "[Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God...it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation...it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts."
Today we call the Calhoun defense of slavery and the willingness to embrace it "situational ethics."
Until the 1830s, slavery was always defended as "a necessary evil" by the population both N&S. John Calhoun, champion and definer of state rights felt it incumbent on him to change that to read, "a necessary good." Accepting slavery as an "evil" was not reconcilable with his vision of the idyllic southern image based on individual rights and freedom. There was a contradiction there that absolutely had to change in order to justify a continuance of the "peculiar institution."
Calhoun began with a convincing and very convenient argument. Simply put he argued that slavery benefited the black slave. "There is no instance of any civilized colored race of any shade being found equal to the establishment and maintenance of free government," Calhoun declared with certainty. "Never before had the black race . . . from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually . . ."
In essence Calhoun provided slave owners with a dogma that assuaged consciences and allowed slavery to flourish without pangs of an irritating conscience. By the time Calhoun died in 1850, his theories of race had become scripture with a litany that still lives today as exemplified in a comment that Africans today wished that their ancestors had been enslaved so that they could live in America. "It [Africans] came to us in a low, degraded, and savage condition, and in the course of a few generations it had grown up under the fostering care of our institutions." Note Calhoun’s use of the pronoun <u>it</u> rather than <u>they</u> to designate human beings. Nice touch, don't you think?
Calhoun’s creed took hold with his words were echoed by Robert E. Lee in 1857. "The doctrines and miracles of our Saviour have required nearly two thousand years to convert but a small portion of the human race, and even among Christian nations what gross errors still exist! While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is still onward, and give it the aid of our prayers, let us leave the progress as well as the results in the hands of Him who, chooses to work by slow influences, and with whom a thousand years are but as a single day."
And of course, Jefferson Davis was just as ready to defend slavery on Calhoun’s dogma of benefit to the blacks. "In moral and social condition they had been elevated from brutal savages into docile, intelligent, and civilized agricultural laborers, and supplied not only with bodily comforts but with careful religious instruction. Under the supervision of a superior race their labor had been so directed as not only to allow a gradual and marked amelioration of their own condition, but to convert hundreds of thousands of square miles of wilderness into cultivated lands covered with a prosperous people . . ."
Calhoun led the way to moral justification through biblical application and Jefferson Davis was able to pick up the mantra. "[Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God...it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation...it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts."
Today we call the Calhoun defense of slavery and the willingness to embrace it "situational ethics."
Connie
I thought it was time for "equal time" as it is called to day.
Calhoun a hero for Hanny & Beowulfie, he justify slavery as "good" so Beowulfie should understand his logic.
__________________
"States Rights are about States Wrongs" - Jesse Jackson
Today we call the Calhoun defense of slavery and the willingness to embrace it "situational ethics."
Connie
Exactly so, considering the Haiti experience and the condition in Africa, slavery was from a number of stanpoints a better condition to lve in, also the type of attack on slavery by northern abolitions had changed, meaning a different respose was required, the attack was more virulent, calling for an end to it without consideration of the effect this would have, calhouns and others arguments took into acount this new form of abloition, and responded to it.
__________________ "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote."
Benjamin Franklin, 1759
Exactly so, considering the Haiti experience and the condition in Africa, slavery was from a number of stanpoints a better condition to lve in, also the type of attack on slavery by northern abolitions had changed, meaning a different respose was required, the attack was more virulent, calling for an end to it without consideration of the effect this would have, calhouns and others arguments took into acount this new form of abloition, and responded to it.
Hanny understand Calhoun as well, good. I would not run to Africa of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as an example of bad condition for all the evils in Africa from the 19th century into most of the 20th century can be traced right back to European Colonialism of Africa.
Haiti and Liberia are examples of slaves taking charge of thier own nation but the only example they have to follow is the example of White man's slavery.
Once the counties were under self rule they were ignore by the world no help or guidance given to them. I will give you 50/50 slit on that one.
I will never except slavery is better then poverty and slavery is better then the exercise of ones free will.
__________________
"States Rights are about States Wrongs" - Jesse Jackson
It seems that with the advance of debates on slavery both sides were taking more and more radical stands. Like Calhoun, Alexander Stephens embraced the idea of slavery as a positive good even though in earlier years he saw the institution as "one of the greatest problems of this interesting age".
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I would not run to Africa of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as an example of bad condition for all the evils in Africa from the 19th century into most of the 20th century can be traced right back to European Colonialism of Africa.
For me it's not so easy. Africa before colonisation was no paradise on earth. Slavery was not a european invention, tribal divisions & warfare also. Problem with all those Calhouns' and Stephenses' opinions on African conditions was based on strange (for us) assumptions. For example Stephens based his position on... arithmetics- "If the comforts of a people or race are to be comported according to their natural increase and rapid multiplication, the race is certainly vastly better off in this country in their present condition that it ever was in their own with all the liberty of nature". Both Calhoun and Stephens being sincere and sensible men, I think they believed in what they were saying and didn't only try to advocate the peculiar institution at all cost.
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I will never except slavery is better then poverty and slavery is better then the exercise of ones free will.
George Orwell wrote in one of his novels that sometimes you have to chose between freedom and happiness- and for masses of people the latter is more important. I would choose freedom- like you or CW1865, but Orwell might be right as for the masses
The Negro in Africa, before European colonization, was assumed to have been a savage. (Otherwise, enslaving him might not have been so easy.) And this assumption has been passed on to us.
The Negro, in Africa, was quite comparable to the Native American. There were civilized tribes, cooperative towns, and nomads. Most survived in agrarian pursuits. They had rules and judges and were likely happy to not have the internet.
The idea that they were rescued from savagery by being made slaves is ludicrous. They had wives and children and families. They had animals and gardens and fields and herds. And freedom.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
The Negro in Africa, before European colonization, was assumed to have been a savage. (Otherwise, enslaving him might not have been so easy.) And this assumption has been passed on to us.
The Negro, in Africa, was quite comparable to the Native American. There were civilized tribes, cooperative towns, and nomads. Most survived in agrarian pursuits. They had rules and judges and were likely happy to not have the internet.
The idea that they were rescued from savagery by being made slaves is ludicrous. They had wives and children and families. They had animals and gardens and fields and herds. And freedom.
ole
I have no doubt that given the prevalent racism of the time, some actually believed that by bringing the Africans to America they were saving them from barbary and savagery. Perhaps some even believed the pious platitudes that they were "preparing the Negro to govern himself" or raising him up to the level of civilized nations.
But I think that most realized that it was all a lie. Some confessed a belief in gradual emancipation, but of course that was always so far in the future that it coud not effect them or their children. "Someday" was an easy concept to embrace as long as "someday" was far enough in the future.
But I think the Slave Codes, especially the parts thereof which made it a crime to teach slaves to read or write put a lie to this whole "belief." How exactly are you "civilizing" a people if you keep them in poverty and ignorance?
It is a great disgrace that Catholic Lousianna was a center of slavery when slavery was condemned by several Popes: "In 1839, Pope Gregory XVI issued a Bull, entitled In Supremo. Its main focus was against slave trading, but it also clearly condemned racial slavery: We, by apostolic authority, warn and strongly exhort in the Lord faithful Christians of every condition that no one in the future dare bother unjustly, despoil of their possessions, or reduce to slavery Indians, Blacks or other such peoples." The Popes and Slavery written by Fr. Joel S. Panzer (Alba House, 1996), pp 101.
__________________ "There must be more historians of the Civil War than there were generals figthing in it... Of the two groups, the historians are the more belligerent." David Donald, Lincoln Reconsidered (1961)
enslaving Africans was easy due to rivalry and fighting among various tribes. Without help from inhabitants of Africa , Europeans wouldn't have a chance to get slaves from that continent. Pity that they took advantage of it.
Those old assumptions about Africans being savages and "the white man's burden" seem to be quite persistent
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It is a great disgrace that Catholic Lousianna was a center of slavery when slavery was condemned by several Popes
Timewalker,
did Catholics from Louisiana (or Maryland) own slaves? It wasn't the only religion in this state.
did Catholics from Louisiana (or Maryland) own slaves? It wasn't the only religion in this state.
Indeed they did. The planter class in Lousianna was predominantly Catholic, despite Papal pronouncements which excommunicated those who practices racial slavery. The Catholic Bishop of Charleston, perhaps purposefully, misinterpreted the 1836 Papal Bull against slavery saying that it only prohibited the slave trade, not the ownership of slaves.
I have attended Mass in churches and chapels in Louisiana built by slave labor.
It fascinated me enough to do some research into the theological underpinnings of slavery. Indeed the southern preachers of the time (mostly Protestant) had a laundry list of Biblical support for slavery and even, following Calhoun's logic, argued that it was a Christian duty to own slaves.
An interesting speech by Frederick Douglas on the topic, in which he talks about the numers of slaves owned by the Methodist Church and the Churches of Christ: http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/1077.htm
__________________ "There must be more historians of the Civil War than there were generals figthing in it... Of the two groups, the historians are the more belligerent." David Donald, Lincoln Reconsidered (1961)
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