Episode 10: Arguments for and Against Slavery

A New History of the American South

Dr Edward Ayers (2018)

Film Review

Ayers begins by describing the failure of Congress to pass the 1820 Talmadge Amendment. The latter would have prevented the transport of new slaves to the state of Missouri and the enslavement of children born to Missouri slaves. Additionally it would have free existing slaves 25 and older. Talmadge proposed the legislation during an aggressive campaign by northern abolitionists to prevent the spread of slavery to western territories. The evangelical movement, which flourished as much in the North as the South, inspired a large number of northerners to battle political corruption as a Christian duty. In the 1820s and 1830s, the main issues they took on were alcohol prohibition and the abolition of slavery.

The American concept of North and South first arose from these heated debates over Missouri’s status. In fact by 1820, there was already talk of southern states seceding from the United States.

In the end, Congress agreed on the Missouri Compromise. This prohibited slavery in all Louisiana Purchase territories above the 36th parallel. Thus it continued in Missouri and Arkansas and was prohibited in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas. However the law also required that any slaves who escaped to free states be returned to their masters.

A key figure in the ongoing Northern abolition movement was William Lloyd Garrison, the editor of the first newspapers dedicated to the prohibition of alcohol and the abolition of slavery. Two hundred separate abolitionist societies emerged in the 1830s, with an initial focus of persuading religious leaders to take up the anti-slavery issue. There were numerous postal campaigns, thanks to technological innovations that lowered the cost of printing. One million anti-slavery leaflets were sent by mail in 1834-35. Southern slaveholders, convinced the campaign would encourage slave rebellions, issued a $12,000 reward for the capture of wealthy Northern merchant Arthur Tappan (who funded the postal campaign). They also organized southern mobs to seize sacks of mail and burned them in the street.

At first abolitionists also inspired northern riots when they spoke in public. One mob dragged Garrison through the streets of Boston at the end of a rope. Several northern abolitionist churches were bombed.

Pro-slavery arguments put forward by southern intellectuals included claims that slavery provided the firm economic base allowing the first American colonies to declare independence; that slavery should be allowed to slowly die out on its own; that Africans were innately inferior to whites; and that whites were the heirs of glorious ancients civilizations (Greek, Roman, Teutonic, Angle, Saxon and Highland Scots) and had a unique capacity for the domination of dark skinned people.

Any southerner who spoke out against slavery ran the risk of being tarred and feathered or lynched.

Ayers divides 19th century southern intellectual movements into the Late Enlightenment phase (1810-1835), the Romantic phase (1830-1855)  and the Bleak Phase (after 1855).* The 19th century saw the construction of numerous Southern universities (by slaves) as the Southern elite became increasingly reluctant to send their children to northern universities that might expose them to abolitionist concepts.

*The Late Enlightenment phase embraced an individualistic attitude towards life that was wary of human passion. Thomas Jefferson was part of this tradition when he warned about the danger of of abolitionist ideas and helped found the University of Virginia as a safe place for the children of Southern gentry to be educated. The Romantic phase (Edgar Allan Poe it chief representative was more sentimental and promoted the pleasure of belonging. The Bleak intellectual tradition promoted the belief that most men had to choose between having God, power or belonging.

Film can be viewed free on Kanopy with a library card.

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/arguments-and-against-slavery