Was slavery before the Civil War wrong?

Question

Just conducting a survey....thanks.

Answer 1

I don't think it's a simple yes or no answer. I'm sure that too many (and one is too many) slaves were treated horribly and raped and scarred physically and emotionally so much that many people feel we should still be paying for it today. I'm sure there were also slaves that lived better lives than the average white person, slaves who were in more of a bartering situation than what you could call slavery. Because of slavery, blacks make up a significant part of America today...who knows whether they would be here at all if they hadn't been enslaved. However, just because something good came out of it (America is the best place in the world to live, as far as I'm concerned) doesn't mean it was right to do, and just because some slaves were perfectly happy and respected doesn't make the horrors of what others went through any less significant. It would be completely wrong now because of how society has evolved, and I think the vast majority of us look back on that time feeling that it was wrong, but we might have felt differently had we lived through it; we just can't know. But I do feel, knowing what some people went through, that it if I have to choose simply right or wrong, I choose wrong.

Answer 2

No - Before the Civil War it was not wrong. And many southern men fought and died believing primarily that they were fighting for state's rights and thier way of life which included slavery at the time. Many parts of History can be viewed in retrospect as morally wrong, or truly evil. But it's like the woman that views and wonders why her neighbor is hanging out still dirty laundry and wants to be critical and upon opening the window finds that it was her window that was dirty all along. The pane or the glass that you that view things through often clouds your judgement of the issue. There is nothing that you can do change History you can only look upon it to learn so that your life and the lives of others around you can be enriched and enhanced. Seen 300? Sparta's warriors were so well trained so that their slaves(yes slaves)in thier slave state could be kept from revolting. Who knows in another millenia all we know could be lost and there could be civilizations that re-employ that evil, but was it wrong before the Civil War? My answer is no.

Answer 3

Who decides right or wrong? What if in 1000 years all people are vegetarians are we wrong for eating animals today? As a historian you can't put today's morals on history. You have to look at the motivations and ideals of the people who lived in that time period. Slavery was an ancient practice that every race on earth has both practiced and been victim of. By about the 1700's it was starting to die out as a profitable enterprise and was almost extinct in Europe by the American Revolution. Without the invention of the Cotton Gin by Ely Whitney it would have died in America as well, but this Gin made Cotton farming very profitable for the plantation owners and they kept the institution alive for another 50 years.

Answer 4

initially the first Africans in what's now u . s . a . were indentured servants. As indentured servitude grew out of want, African chattel slavery grew to develop into codified into regulation and some thing which will be handed from mom to newborn. Slavery replaced into criminal contained in the British Empire as we talk. no individual in antebellum u . s . a . concept slavery replaced into unlawful, even abolitionists. Many abolitionists argued that a constitutional modification should be required to restrict slavery contained in the U. S., that's why the thirteenth modification exists. definite, slavery replaced into actual criminal. The structure (1787 onward) addressed it very vaguely, notwithstanding, making factor out of "different persons" and in no way outright calling them slaves, notwithstanding it replaced into properly understood that "different persons" were slaves.

Answer 5

All cultures and religions agree on the Golden Rule. By that standard, slavery was always wrong.

Answer 6

Yes
It was also illegal in many countries (only Christian ones, SFAIK)

It is still wrong today
and it is legal in several countries (eg Sudan)
or de facto practiced in others (eg China)

Answer 7

Yes. Enslaving a person, no matter when in history, is always wrong.

Answer 8

Of course..
and it's wrong today.

Answer 9

It is ALWAYS wrong; it just wasn't illegal before then.

Answer 10

yes it was wrong very wrong