Why did slave owners consider slavery a "necessary evil"?

Question

I'm doing a project for history, and supposedly the answer to this question was in the book we are reading, and I have looked EVERYWHERE. I've scoured the internet as well, and I can't find it..so I thought that I might as well ask to see if anybody else knows. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Answer 1

Because they wanted to keep large plantations (as always, "they were trying to keep up with the Jones's") and realized that they could not have both a large plantation and pay workers to tend them. They used slaves because it was economical way to tend large fields with little cost.

They would rationalize this as "everyone else is doing it", "I treat my slaves well", "I would go broke if I didn't use slaves", etc.

So even though they recognized that slavery was wrong, immoral or unacceptable, they knew that their way of life (i.e., the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed) depended on this cheap labor.

Although they called it a "necessary evil" it really wasn't -- the slave owners could have existed with smaller farms and less income themselves.

Answer 2

I doubt if ... at the time ... any slave owners considered it evil. Slaves were expensive ..... they were part of the farm or plantation ..... just as today you may own a tractor .... people owned slaves or servants.

Ancient kings and nobles had slaves. Slavery was not considered an abomination. Even Jesus did not condemn slavery ..... he exhorted those that were slaves to be obdedient servants to their master.

So really, the thought of slavery as being evil was a new way of thought. This new opinion of slavery was pushed by authors, and groups such as the Quakers. Especially in America, with new found freedom, wealth and power ..... many Quakers worked to get slavery abolished. They even helped escaped slaves .... bought slaves their freedom .... and put the issue to the forefront .

Just as smoking and tobacco was once considered a fine activity and a great economic asset .... slavery was considered a necessary part of agricultural production. Thinking changed and it later became the "necessary evil" and then finally, banished from our land.

Answer 3

Slave owners did not consider it evil at all: they honestly believed that those they enslaved were not fully human and were better off being slaves. One can justify this with Scripture from the Bible if one picks and chooses one's passages and ignores others.
The economy of the antebellum South depended upon slavery - the South's prime trade goods were agricultural in nature, and the production of those goods, such as tobacco and cotton - were labor-intensive. The labor was provided by slaves in preference to white laborers, who would have had to be paid more and who could strike or simply quit for a different job.
Given the above, abolitionism - the drive to free the slaves - was seen as unfair and even evil, as it threatened the entire Southern economy. Unfair, that is, to the white slave owners!
The slaves themselves were prone to view it differently, as you might imagine.

Answer 4

Perhaps because it was an economic necessity, but totally and completely wrong to enslave another human being. I think some slaveholders knew what they were doing was morally wrong but did it anyway because it was the only way for them to profit or stay in business. But also slavery has been around for a really long time, it didn't just start in America.
Check out the wiki link it has lots of info about slavery.

Answer 5

They knew it was wrong and evil....but there was no other way to keep their business going. So they simply did it.

Take a typical farmer. He had a dozen Fields of crop to harvest. And he has to get it to the market in two weeks to sell it or he makes no money. He can't pay people to do it, he does not have enough money. Slaves work for free and work with no breaks and such. So he can easy get all that work done. He does not want to use the slaves, but has no choice.

Answer 6

It seems they tried praying to god to have all the cotton picked and cleaned and spun. When that didn't work they tried the opposite approach which by definition would be the devil's way.
It was a necessary evil because if they didnt do it they wouldn't have been able to make money.

Answer 7

During the antebellum(pre-Civil War) period, the economy of the South depending on the institution of slavery.