Pro-slavery (United States) facts for kids

Pro-slavery was an idea that supported the practice of slavery. It also defended this system against anyone who tried to change it. By the 1830s, slavery was mostly practiced in the Southern United States.

African American slaves were treated as property. Slave owners said they were property because they were black. This meant they were not considered people. Slaves worked on large plantations and small farms. They were the main source of labor.

Groups called abolitionists wanted to end slavery. In response, people who supported slavery created arguments to say slavery was a good thing. Anti-slavery groups wanted to end slavery slowly. But abolitionists demanded it end right away. Supporting slavery also meant being against abolitionism.

Why Slavery Was Defended

Life in the South

It can be hard to understand why southerners who didn't own slaves still defended slavery. In the South at that time, slaves did more than just work on plantations. Over 4 million black people were enslaved in the South. They greatly outnumbered white people in many areas.

In cities like Charleston, South Carolina, slaves had many different jobs. They worked as carpenters, blacksmiths, bricklayers, and street sweepers. They did all kinds of manual labor. They also raised children, cooked, cleaned, and served food to their masters. One visitor to Charleston said it looked "more like a Negro country than a country settled by white people."

Southerners worried about slave rebellions. A big rebellion had happened in Haiti just a few decades earlier. They also feared that without slaves, their economy would completely fall apart. Slavery became a very important topic for everyone in the United States.

In 1859, John Brown's raid shocked the South. John Brown was an abolitionist. He attacked the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. If he had succeeded, he planned to give weapons to slaves. He wanted them to revolt against their masters.

Every new state joining the United States caused a fight. People argued if it would be a free state or allow slavery. Extremists from both sides went to these territories. They wanted to promote their own ideas. Bleeding Kansas was a terrible example. There, the different views led to real guerrilla warfare.

Political compromises were tried. These included the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850. But nothing could truly solve the issue. Only an outright war would settle it.

How Slaves Lived

Slaves usually had poor food. They also had very little clothing and bad places to sleep. Slaves who worked in the household often had it a bit better. They might get old clothes from their master's family. They also had access to better food.

Slaves suffered from poor health. This was due to the heat and humidity in the South. Their poor diet and unsanitary living conditions led to many diseases. Rice plantations were the most dangerous places for slaves. They often stood in water all day under the hot sun. Malaria was a common disease there.

The mortality rate (death rate) was highest among slave children. On average, about 66 % of slave children died. On rice plantations, this number could be as high as 90 %.

Arguments for Slavery

People who supported slavery in the South made several arguments. They said that chattel slavery (treating slaves as property) was more humane. They compared it to the "wage slavery" system in the industrialized Northern United States.

George Fitzhugh wrote a book in 1857 called Cannibals All!. He argued that pro-slavery ideas were morally better in the national debate about slavery. Fitzhugh claimed that slaveholders owned their slaves. Because of this, they took better care of them. He said northern capitalists only "rented" their workers.

Some supporters pointed out that slave owners gave food and clothes to their slaves. They said northern employers didn't do this for their workers. Other arguments said that keeping black and white people separate was a benefit. This idea played on the fears of both southerners and northerners. It was based on the common belief at the time that black people were inferior to white people.

Others argued that ending slavery suddenly would cause the South's economy to crash. They said there would be no cotton, tobacco, or rice industries. They also claimed that freeing all slaves would lead to unemployment and chaos across the United States. They even said it could cause uprisings, like the "Reign of Terror" during the French Revolution.

These arguments and others were widely published. They appeared in books, newspapers, and pamphlets. They were carefully created to promote and defend slavery.