Why was slavery a good thing?

Question

I know slavery is a very bad thing.......But I juss wanted to know what good things came out of it.....Im doing a debate in school and Im FOR slavery...... I know it was a good thing Money wise but I need a lil more help.....

Answer 1

In the development of the south's economic affair, it was critical. Slaves previous to the sugar cane fields were actually treated OK. Keep in mind most farmers were poor as well. It would have been difficult to have the south develop as a part of America. The Industrial base was the north. Before I get hate mail, I don't agree with the way in which the south used slaves to achieve economic success. Slaves supported the "Economy of Plantations" Another key point was yes, free labor, or labor that was extremely cheap. With Elli Whitney's cotton gin, cotton was needed for the garment industry up north, so slavery served a economic purpose by getting the industrial revolution going in the states as a whole. Another aspect, was the continual birthrate of slave children without having to pay for more to come to America as a work force. Of the 10-12 Million pulled out of Africa, scholars agree that about 400-500,000 slaves actually landed in America.

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Why was slavery a good thing?
I know slavery is a very bad thing.......But I juss wanted to know what good things came out of it.....Im doing a debate in school and Im FOR slavery...... I know it was a good thing Money wise but I need a lil more help.....

Answer 3

You want to know what good came from slavery.

First, one must recognize from where slavery arises. It has always in history originated out of war as a way to manage the captured prisoners. These prisoners would otherwise have been killed. This is true all the way back to ancient times.

Two, the New World was severely under-settled from the perspective of the newly industrializing economies.

Three, this permitted a dramatic increase in genetic diversity in the New World that may have had a considerable impact on preventing and slowing the progress of diseases like malaria. (African Americans and others coming from tropical regions have a higher likelihood of being carriers for sickle cell anemia. Carriers for sickle cell anemia are highly resistant to malaria.)

Four, Africa is now being helped economically and charitably by the descendants of those forcibly removed in the past.

Answer 4

Slaves , believe it or not,in ways were treated better than the working poor in the factories up north. Slaves were considered valuable property so they were fed and housed and given med treatment( granted by a vet usually) . If you read or saw the movie, "North and South" there was a scene where Patrick Swayze(The southern slaveowner) visiting his northern friend who owned a steelmill & factory. When Swayze arrives at the worker village, he looks around and comments that they treat their "people" much better down south on the Plantation. Northern factories played one group against the other . they were payed so little, they were trapped, if they died or their children died from being overworked, no one cared as there were plenty of replacement workers. These conditions were what originally gave rise to the trade union movement. We see history repeating itself today. That's why your government does not really have the Political will regarding the immigration policies re: illegal migrants. They are a source of cheap labour as Walmart has proven.
I am totally opposed to slavery, but just wanted to give you some ideas for your debate. Oh I wish I was in de land of cotton old time there etc. Good luck in your debate. A real hero against slavery was John Brown.

Answer 5

I will say that it is very difficult to defend something that is considered bad by many people.But as far as I know slavery had these bright points.
1.Everyone was assured labour.
2.Everyone had a constant source of income(though it might be barely sufficient),shelter and security to certain extent i.e as long as a slave remains loyal and works hard for a master,the slave does not have much to worry about.
3.Usually a big household or any organization that required workers had scores of slaves working in it.This resulted in the unity among the slaves.We know that many revolutions in history have resulted by the unity among slaves which had paved way for freedom from slavery to many.
4.The slaves usually excelled in the job allotted to them and produced many skilled workers at that time.This legacy of skilled workmanship was usually passed on from one generation to another.
These are some of the points that I can think of as 'good' points of slavery.But If I were to have a say in this matter I would say that slavery was a very inhuman practice followed in many countries in many civilizations and an almost impossible practice in today's world.

Answer 6

Well, you will have a very difficult task justifying human bondage. In modern man, it's just untenable. If you look at the history of mankind however, slavery has been prevalent for tens of thousands of years and only outlawed in very recent times.

The course you should take is perhaps the unintended consequenses of slavery that turned out to be good.

For one thing, many people, not just Africans but white too, got to come to America including a free boat trip, room and board and plenty of healthy outdoor activities. OK, I'm joking, but what else is there? After 10 generations or so, Civil rights and full American citizenship must count for something. Look at the savage, brutal backward third world hellhole most of Africa has become. Who would want to live there?

Also, since I have the floor, did you know that the US was one of dozens of major countries that got rid of slavery in the mid-Ninteenth century, but the ONLY ONE that actually fought a war over this issue?

It would be quick to jump to conclusions and blame it on the stubborness of the Southern states, but unfortunately the blame lies squarely on the leadership of the country and most partucularly on Abraham Lincoln himself. This man wanted a war and was elected by those who wanted war. Rather than working on a comprimise and solution that would compensate plantation owners like in every other country that ended slavery peacefully, Lincoln fanned the flames of war and attacked the South.

Answer 7

Slavery in and of itself was and is bad. Slavery still exists today under different names and in different places.

Slavery was "necessary" to have large groups of workers at minimal costs. (not that owning slaves was ever cheap, it wasn't). Large groups of people were needed to produce the commodities that were needed to live in the past. For instance, in the southern states of America. Cotton was the main crop grown for the fiber to produce cloth for many uses. It required hundreds of thousands of people to plant, care for, harvest, and to remove the seeds from the cotton to make it useful. Hand labor was the only way that this could be accomplished.

Slowly as more and more mechanical machines were invented there was less need for those thousands that were required for farming. The cotton gin invented by Ely Whitney was the real beginning of the end to the vast amounts of people required to harvest the cotton crops of the south.

Today, because of the machines that have been invented a handful of people can do what at one time required thousands to do.

Slavery supplied the required people to do the hand labor that was required before machines took that work away.

I said earlier that there are still slaves today. One of the largest and deadliest slave markets today is in the sex slave markets. these entrap pretty young women who are sold for sex and most end in death.

There will most likely always be slaves in one form or another as long as there are those willing to use then and exploit them.

Answer 8

Top 5 Good things about slavery (not just in the US but in history):
1.POW camps pay for themselves with slavery
2.an enslaved enemy wouldn’t have time to go to war
3.its good on the self esteem of the slavers
4.Everybody had work
5.Nobody got paid

Answer 9

Since the slavery based on the hurt of human being, and even human race, we cannot say there is benefits or positivity in this issue. anything would be build based on the sufferance and torture of specific race should not consider as advantage and disadvantage plan. its one way only: WRONG, WRONG AND WRONG.
its like armed robbery for a bank or big shop, can we talk about the advantage for the gangs whom doing that? I don't think so!!

Answer 10

One of the good things that came out of it --although it wasn't planned at the time-- is the fact that the descendants of American slaves are now in school debating about it, instead of cutting each other's heads off in all the civil wars and tribal fighting in Africa.

You drew the hardest side to handle in that debate. It's hard to see much good about slavery. But anyway here are a few things you may be able to fit into your argument: If you're a slave, then you don't have to worry about ...... getting too fat, running out of things to do, having to pay too much income tax or the inheritance tax, having to pay the bills and expenses of groceries, rent, house repairs, medical treatments, college tuition, utilities, superbowl tickets, & anything else you can think of; having to make hard decisions about what kind of house, car, or yacht to buy, which HMO to choose, which stocks to buy, & anything else free people make decisions on; also you are free of such problems as shoplifting, employee theft & turnover, where to go this year on vacation, how to make sure your slaves are taken care of, & how to get enough productivity out of them to make them pay for their own maintenance.