Arguing From the Sides of Abolition and Slavery and the Civil War

¶ … Proponent of Slavery

As a Southerner, I believe I know and understand the peculiar institution better than any Northerner ever can. We live and breathe our way of life. The Yankee only presumes to know what is best for us in a way some might call arrogant. While the Northerner looks down upon us from the ivory towers of New England, the Southerner works hard in the fields, training and beating slaves so that the price of cotton and tobacco remains at market rates. We Southerners have provided the bread and butter of the American economy for generations, and suddenly, abolitionists formed of groups of women want to destroy our way of life, tell us what to do, and moralize? We pay good money to keep alive our slaves, but the Yankee wants to exploit us.

The Northerner would envision a world in which miscegenation sullied the racial soil of our nation. The world we envision is neat, orderly, godly, and just. We do not share your values or beliefs, and will not listen to your shameful cries. Slaves have been traded since time immemorial. Our own scripture talks about slavery, but even God-fearing Christians in the North are stating that suddenly now God is against the peculiar institution. God works in mysterious ways, ways that we cannot hope to understand. The Northerner is so arrogant as to presume to know God's will. When the abolitionist in the North aids the escape of slaves, he or she is breaking the law but yet presumes to be above the law.