Justification Of Slavery

There were various justifications for slavery during the Industrial Revolution in which the whites argued against the abolitionists. Some justifications included how slavery preserved the economy of America and Europe, how slavery was accepted and possibly encouraged in the bible, and how slavery solved the political incapability of the Africans. Europeans justified slavery as a necessity to support their economy and to satisfy growing demands for resources. Christianity was also used as a justification as it showed how they followed the ‘Word of God’. The whites also claimed that slavery helped Africans ‘live a better lifestyle’ under the slaveholder’s protection. The main justification that defenders of slavery used was that the slave's

Slaveholders would explain that slavery was accepted in the bible; that God approved of it in the days of Abraham. An unknown author argued in The Negro and the Free Born Briton compared; or a Vindication of the African Slave Trade, that slavery was “completely lawful from a religious and commercial view”. Religion was extremely influential during the 18th century, and the whites were strong in their beliefs and followed the bible accordingly. Thomas Roderick Dew wrote in A Review in the Debates of the Virginia Legislature of 1831 ad 1832 that “when we turn to the New Testament, we find not one single passage at all calculated to disturb the conscience of an honest slaveholder”. The whites also cited the Bible to suggest that slaves should always obey their masters, asking who would question the Word of God when the bible said, “slaves, obey your earthly master with fear and trembling” (Ephesians 6:5) or “tell slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect” (Titus 2:9). Therefore, this demonstrates how the whites relied heavily on Christianity and the Bible to justify

Henry Ward Beecher asserted that Africans “cannot even ride cars of our city railroads…the Negro cannot be employed” in The Spectator ‘Freedom and Slavery. Beecher further goes on to emphasise that “without the protection of slave owners, Negroes would not be able to survive in the society by themselves”, and in James Henry Hammond’s letter to an English abolitionist in 1845, he argued that “those the poorest and most ignorant, have no political influence whatsoever … people are just not equal.” This suggests that whites believed Africans were incapable of being a part of the society as they did not know how to live the same lifestyle as the whites, and abolishing slavery would also expose Africans to the threats of prejudice. These beliefs may have stemmed off Samuel George Morton’s Observations of the size of the Brain in Various Races and Families of Men, where he ascertained that the Negro’s brain was nine cubic inches less than the white man’s. This could have been one of the factors which led the whites to perceive Africans as intellectually challenged and unfit to be