John C. Calhoun's The Positive Good Of Slavery?

The face of American democracy is deceptive; from missionary trips to military tours, America has established a presence in the Middle East, and has always projected itself to be the perfect image of a democratic and free nation where everyone is equal. While America tries to up hold their motto of being the land of the free, American media has presented Arabs as unintelligent and violent people. Because of the way America presents itself to the rest of the world, one would be surprised if they traveled to America only to find violence and ignorance amongst its government and citizens. While Western civilization believes itself to be on a higher level than Eastern civilization, this orientalist view blinds America from seeing the similarities

In his speech “The Positive Good of Slavery” in 1837, John C. Calhoun, a pro slavery politician from South Carolina and former U.S. vice president, responds to antislavery petitions and encourages southerners to embrace slavery for it is benefiting both Whites and Blacks: “Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually." Despite the South’s immense support of the institution of Slavery the North wanted to end slavery in America. Because of this, the South seceded from the United States and became the Confederacy. Their secession began the American civil war. From 1861 to 1865, the Union and the confederacy fought over their secession and the institution of slavery. In 1865, after the Union won the war against the confederacy, the 13th amendment was passed and officially outlawed the institution of slavery in the United States and in 1868 the 14th amendment made all slaves U.S. citizens. Even though the Union’s victory gave millions of Blacks their

The earliest slaves were captives taken in warfare and most slaves appeared to have been the property of kings, priest, and temples, and only a relative small proportion were in private possession, which is not the case for transatlantic slave trade. The Arab trade of Zanj and Bantu slaves in Southeast Africa is one of the oldest slave trades, slaves were believed to be sold from the slave market of Zanzibar to the Somali coast. The Zanj who were taken as slaves to the Middle East were often used in strenuous agricultural work. As the plantation economy boomed and the Arabs became richer, agriculture and other manual labor work was thought to be demeaning. Male slaves were often employed as servants, soldiers, or laborers, while female slaves were long traded to the Middle Eastern countries and kingdoms by Arab and Oriental traders as concubines and servants. In terms of legal considerations, Bantu slaves were devalued. Somali social mores strongly discouraged, censured and looked down upon any kind of sexual contact with Bantu slaves. David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary explorer, wrote of the slave trade in the African Great Lakes region, which he visited in the mid-nineteenth