Slavery Arguments

Primary Source / Pro or Anti Slavery? / Rationale

The Declaration of Independence has declared to man, without speaking to color, that all men are born free and equal.

Peter Osborne, Oration, New HavenAfricanChurch, 1832

There is abundant evidence to prove that the black man's lot (group) as a slave, is vastly preferable to that of his free brethren (brothers)in the North.
The Spectator, December 6, 1859, p. 2, c. 1
The negroes… seem as happy as lords. They work well and cheerfully in the day, and at night, during the holidays they sing, dance and smoke, eat sweet potatoes, drink hard cider, sit around big kitchen fires, "laugh and grow fat," regardless of all the "tomfoolery" (disobedience) and nonsense about the "poor oppressed slaves."
The Spectator, January 17, 1860, p. 2, c. 2 /
…that free labor is far more respectable, profitable, and productive, than slave labor,
Hinton Rowan Helper, TheImpending Crisis, 1860

Slavery Arguments

Primary Source / Pro or Anti Slavery? / Rationale
Our theory is, that they are not free, because God and nature, and the general good and their own good, intended them for slaves.
George Fitzhugh, Cannibals All!, 1857
There is not a man on earth who does not believe that slavery is a curse. Human beings may be inconsistent, but human nature is true to herself...We repeat it, every man knows that slavery is a curse.
Theodore Weld, American Slavery As It Is, 1839
Slavery is contrary (opposite) to the principles of natural justice, of our republican form of government, and of the Christian religion, and is destructive of the prosperity (wealth) of the country, while it is endangering the peace, union, and liberties of the States;

Constitution of the American Anti Slavery Society, December 4, 1833

What more can be required of Slavery, in reference to the negro, than has been done? It has made him, from a savage, to an orderly and efficient laborer. It supports him in comfort and peace. It restrains his vices (addictions). It improves his mind, orals and manners. It instructs him in Christian knowledge.
An Excerpt from William John Grayson's The Hireling and the Slave, 1856 /