Why did the Southerners think slavery wasn't that bad?

Question

was it true that they thought workers in the North got worse treatment and the condition in the North was just as bad?

Answer 1

The idea that slavery was bad was invented by americans. Up until that point, the opinion of the entire world was that slavery was OK because blacks were not human. At the time, the idea that blacks were human and should not be slaves was extremely radical. Most people saw it as a lowering of the dignity of the human race. You weren't recognizing that slaves were on the same level, nor even elevating them to that level. You were degrading humanity to the level of the slave. That idea was violently resisted and took generations to become fully accepted.

But the idea started here.

Answer 2

The people in the south thought slavery was OK because

Their preachers read to them from the bible verses about slavery

Leading scientists of their time said blacks were not human

Slavery had been a part of American History for a long time

They indeed looked down on the north for the way the northern worker was thrown away after the factory could not get any more work out of him. They prided themselves on taking care of old slaves.

People in the past were not monsters. The average person in 1850 did what they thought was right. We look back on them and see where they were very wrong. Just as students in the future will look back on us and see all the things we are doing wrong. Many of which we do not even see as wrong.

Answer 3

For the southerners, it wasn't really a matter of right and wrong. Their economy depended on the slaves. Who would grow their cotton? Who would do all the work? The southerners needed the slaves to keep their economy running.

And yes, it's true...conditions in the North were just as bad.

Answer 4

For Southerners, slavery was an economic issue, not a moral one. They had paid lots of money purchasing slaves to work on their huge plantations, so if slavery were abolished, they would lose their investments in buying them and would have to pay others to do the work the slaves did. That was economic disaster for them.

Chow!!

Answer 5

Slavery was so ingrained in everyday life, - that to question it's legitimacy would have been far-fetched.

The need for cheap labor and "because we can enslave" was so easy and profitable, how can one say no?

Anyway, early on, the Africans sold there slaves already as slaves. And after that supply ran out, - they'd started getting more, one way or another.

When one group / society captures another's resources thru war / conflict, it's status-quo to blunder the land and take the people too, - as human resources. Otherwise, you pretty much had to kill them all (so next year they don't attack you and your family), - rather than make them slaves. I think everybody can agree that killing them is typically worse than slavery.

Answer 6

Because they were making money off the work that the slaves did. What they thought was that slaves were meant to be slaves and that they were meant to be the slave owners. Really disgusting people.

Answer 7

it was the times....slavery was considered part of running a farm, ranch, cheap labor,etc...even the lowest caste had a slave or two.....besides, it was the blacks of africa that sold their own to the dutch mainly and they were sent to islands to work sugar cane.....from there the trade came to america......nuff said....

Answer 8

Bacause they were making money

Answer 9

it werent bad