Is Slavery Wrong

Countless people today would agree that the institution of slavery, which was once established and permitted in the United States of America, was a disgraceful one. For many today, it is easy to contend that slavery was wrong merely because one should not enslave another person, but those that lived in the antebellum period that argued against slavery had a harder time debating just that. Abolitionists, orators, and the slaves themselves had to form a far more formidable argument against the institution of slavery in order to gain any ground in the fight to bring it to an end. They needed a way to argue that slavery went against what those who supported it already believed in, which was found in American principles. Appealing to the principles …show more content…
The country was evolving. The United States was emerging from what were once a few states clustered around the East Coast to numerous states with a substantial expansion to the West. The country saw technological developments ranging from canals, railroads, and even the invention of the telegram. The United States was growing fast, but the matter of slavery began to threaten that growth. The issue of slavery instigated an already growing division amongst the American people. Perceptions of the morality of slavery began to form and arguments were being made over if states should be unrestricted to permit slavery to continue. In the North, there was a growing support for the abolition of slavery. In the south, arguments in favor of slavery were hardening. Many Southerners had hardened their hearts and would no longer be susceptible to the mere argument that slavery was inherently evil because one should not enslave another person. By this time, slavery had emerged into a great source of labor and income for many Southerners. They had not only welcomed the practice, but they had also indoctrinated it as acceptable and necessary. From preachers, teachers, bakers, and farmers, many Southerners argued that they had the right to decide if the institution of slavery was moral. The time had come for those who opposed slavery to create an argument so daunting that even the most hardened of hearts would empathize with …show more content…
Not long before the antebellum period, men and women who were angry about what they believed to be unjust interference by the British took a stand for themselves and fought for independence. Americans still valued the plight and fight of those revolutionaries. Their actions created guiding principles in the United States of America in its conception. Gaining independence enforced the principle that the United States of America was a place where people understood that they had the right to fight for what they believed in. It enforced the principle that men should be able to govern themselves if they feel fit to do so and that they have a right to challenge that which they deem unjust. Abolitionists, orators, and all who opposed slavery recognized these principles as well. Even slaves could recognize the principles that guided the nation to fight for its independence. Many of the people who oppose slavery began to shift their approach, from arguing that slavery was simply evil and unjust, to arguing that it was against the nation’s moral code to enslave another. By appealing to something that once unified the country, they began to gain ground against those who supported