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1 The Collision Of Cultures
2 Britain And Its Colonies
3 Colonial Ways Of Life
4 The Imperial Perspective
5 From Empire To Independence
6 The American Revolution
7 Shaping A Federal Union
8 The Federalist Era
9 The Early Republic
10 Nationalism And Sectionalism
11 The Jacksonian Impulse
12 The Dynamics Of Growth
13 An American Renaissance: Religion, Romanticism, And Reform
14 Manifest Destiny
15 The Old South
16 The Crisis Of Union
17 The War Of The Union
18 Reconstruction: North And South
19 New Frontiers: South And West
20 Big Business And Organized Labor
21 The Emergence Of Urban America
22 Gilded-age Politics And Agrarian Revolt
23 An American Empire
24 The Progressive Era
25 America And The Great War
26 The Modern Temper
27 Republican Resurgence And Decline
28 New Deal America
29 From Isolation To Global War
30 The Second World War
31 The Fair Deal And Containment
32 Through The Picture Window: Society And Culture, 1945–1960
33 Conflict And Deadlock: The Eisenhower Years
34 New Frontiers: Politics And Social Change In The 1960s
35 Rebellion And Reaction In The 1960s And 1970s
36 A Conservative Insurgency
37 Triumph And Tragedy: America At The Turn Of The Century

The Defense of Slavery

Overview How did white southerners defend the institution of slavery?

After the American Revolution, many white southerners defended slavery as a "necessary evil." The criticisms of abolitionists and Nat Turner's slave rebellion forced slavery's defenders to reconsider that argument. Thomas Dew, George Fitzhugh and others fashioned a pro-slavery argument in which they maintained that slavery was beneficial to slaves and masters, and was superior to the North's system of free labor.
Sources

  • Thomas R. Dew Defends Slavery (1852)
  • Dew defends slavery against its critics, including those who condemned it a violation of the spirit of Christianity.
  • Topic: The Defense of Slavery
  • George Fitzhugh: Slavery Justified (1854).
  • Virginia attorney George Fitzhugh argues that slavery benefited masters and slaves, and produced a society more peaceful and productive than the free labor system found in northern states.
  • Topic: The Defense of Slavery

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