Peculiar Institution Analysis

After the establishment of the independent, free, proud American nation, after the War of 1812, cue the subsiding of the Era of Good Feelings, the South had turned to slavery as a means by which to earn revenue and in order to satisfy worldwide demands. Many American citizens, especially Northerners, had fervently objected to slavery as an extreme evil of morality and of liberty, which had not afforded the slaves any sort of freedoms or rights as promised by the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, which had all been well-established and implemented by 1820, the beginning of the Southern predicament. Prior to the decisive and divisive Civil War, to counter increasing Northern and federal opposition, the Southern supporters of slavery had put forth arguments involving slavery’s nature and role in society, slaves’ rights and freedoms, and the economic demand for slavery. Together, the Southern arguments in defense of the Peculiar Institution had allowed for the endurance of slavery south of the Mason-Dixon line until 1865. …show more content…
Specifically, tobacco, one of the main cash crops of the South, had been the basis of the system, which would inevitably have fallen apart otherwise. The planters had been at the top rung, followed by the aristocrats, then by the gentlemen, and finally by the slaves at the lower echelons of the caste. In defense of the Peculiar Institution, slaveowners had cited the need for this social structure, as without it, there would be effectively no distinction between planters and