Analysis Of Senator James Hammond's King Cotton Speech

Senator James Hammond delivers the King Cotton Speech and begins his speech by saying “In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life.” He is talking about the work of a slave or the work of a low-class man. During this time there was a big debate about if all men are equal. Leading up to this speech in past years there were mini wars on slavery. Hammond said, “I will not characterize that class at the North by that term, but you have it; it is there, it is everywhere; it is eternal.” He was essentially saying that there will always be a need for salves and a need for low-class workers.
In the society we live in today, it is ideal that we are all equal. We like to think that social class

does not matter and the type of job a person has does not matter either. That is not the case and it never will be. Although there are lower class jobs they aren’t thought of the same way that Hammond thought of them. There are the jobs that no one wants but someone has to do them. Not every person in America can work a job that makes six figures. There are many people that feel that they are working as the slaves did in Hammond’s time.
Hammond was for slavery. He owned slaves and believed that they were essential to society. The slaves were not treated well. Most of the time they were treated as if they were animals. It all depended on the owners. The fact that a person can be compared to a dog is unsettling. If the slave owner was a kind and just man that truly needed help on their land then they treated the slaves with respect. The slaves were almost family. If their owner chose to let them go then they would most likely give them money or land to help them become integrated into society.
In 1858, the same year Hammond made his speech, Abraham Lincoln was nominated to the U.S.

Senate. In June of 1858, Lincoln gave a speech titled “The House Divided”. In Lincoln’s speech, he made the point that the country can’t be half for slavery and half against it. Unlike the points made by Hammond. Hammond said, “we use them for our purpose, and call them slaves.” Lincoln believed that slavery was morally wrong, unlike Hammond. Lincoln said in his Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society that “Free Labor says ‘no!’ Free Labor argues that, as the Author of man makes every individual with one head and one pair of hands, it was probably intended that heads and hands should cooperate as friends…” Lincoln believes that there should not be free labor, he thinks that a man needs to earn a living no matter the type of work he does. Hammond believes that a slave is a slave and that is all they will ever be. Nothing more than a farmhand or an object.
In Hammond’s King Cotton speech, he talks a lot about money and income. He takes the reports written by Secretary of the Treasury and tells the exported income of the domestic product. He then splits the amount between the North and the South. After that Hammond goes into the goods and costs of what is sent from the South to the North. He is trying to make a statement that the reason that the South was able to have that income was that they had slave labor to increase production and without that, they would not have had that

income.
In Hammond’s defense, the South was able to be more financially stable and produce more product because they had the manpower. Without the manpower, they would not have produced as much. He was trying to say that there should not be a war on cotton because they all need it in different ways. He tries to make a case for himself by saying the cotton did not do anything wrong. Hammond says that “the greatest strength of the South arises from the harmony of her political and social institutions.” He’s saying that the South works the way it does because of the social system. He’s implying that with the social system they have they are able to produce good to create revenue.
He does not say that although the social system we have worked it is not morally right and there should be something done about it. He is a firm believer that the South needs slaves in order to survive. Hammond could have been like Lincoln and admitted that slavery was morally wrong but for the success of the states they were needed. He wanted to keep the free labor but to solve the problem and keep his workers he could have said to the Senet that the slaves would receive a form of payment (money, land, etc.) but he did not. He did not want the slaves to be equal to the owners because of the color of their skin. He believed that blacks were worth less than whites. This claim is not true. All men are created equal. There is a social system but a person, no matter their race, can go from rags to riches. America was built on dreams and hope. For an American to take that away from someone else is not moral and unamerican.