How did slave owners defend the practice of slavery?

Question

Please include sources.

Answer 1

They didn't have to defend it that I know of--it was a legal practise. In ancient civilizations, most slaves were acquired as prisoners of war. In the minds of the victors, it was their right to take the prisoners as slaves. In fact, a lot of African slavery started out with African tribes selling their own slaves to white men.

Eventually, importing slaves into the Americas was outlawed, but it was still legal for slave owners to own slaves and to, forgive the word, breed them. Any children born to slaves were property of the slave owners. And what is really bad is that once the law was passed that Africans would no longer be imported, slave-owners would rape their slaves in order to have more slaves. The slave owners would use their own children as slaves.

I don't have any specific sources--this is just what I've picked up over the years. I'm writing a book about a slave, so I've done research here and there.