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**Theme:** Expansion **Topic: Slavery** **Free Response Question**: Analyze the ways in which supporters of slavery in the nineteenth century used legal, religious, and economic arguments to defend the institution of slavery. Introductory Paragraph **Setting:** White southerners in nineteenth century America relied heavily on the institution of slavery as their source of free labor on plantations and in the home. **Basis for Analysis**: As many began to question if slavery was morally right, supporters of slavery began to look for ways to defend it. **Partitions**: Southerners argued that slaves were not considered citizens but were considered property, that slavery actually bettered a slave's life due to the convertion to christianity, and that the economy of the south would not survive without slavery. **Thesis:** Although abolitionists questioned the morality of slavery, southerners used property rights, christianity, and economic prosperity to justify the use of slavery in nineteenth century America. **Partition 1:** Property Rights -slaves were not seen as citizens, but they were seen as property Examples:
 * A man's right to own property**
 * Dred Scott case**- Dred Scott, a slave who had been moved from Missouri to Wisconsin and Illinois for five years with owner, sued owner claiming that the time spent in a free state made him a free man and could keep that staus even after returning to a slave state. Chief Justice Rodger Taney ruled that African Americans had no citizenship protections under the Constitution and that Congress could not deny a man their property under U.S. Constitution. Slaves were property which meant The Missouri Compromise of 1820 (stripped slaveholders of their human property when they moved north of a certain boundary line) was unconstitutional.
 * The Confiscation Acts**- passed in the first year of the war, allowed Union troops to seize enemy property that could be used in an act of war. Slaves were included in this because even to the Union, slaves were seen as property.

**Partition 2:** Christianity - George Fitzhugh who was an apologist argued that since slaves were provided for by their owners, they were much better off than Northern "wage slaves" many southerners extolled the "family-like" atmosphere slave owners provided for their slaves to be preferable to freedom slaves didnt have to go out into the workplace and try to provide for their family -converting Africans to christianity was seen as being a good christian ---used passages from the bible to justify captivity of Africans
 * Provided for by owner **
 * Christianity **

-helped African Americans have hope and improved their lives --- civilized the uncivilized people of Africa

** Partition 3: ** Economic Prosperity - without slavery, massive plantations would not have the means to pay for all of the workers necessary to harvest the crop - relatively small white southern minority ---this would not only economically hurt the south, but also the north, for example: cotton production lower=lower clothing production - without slavery, job competition would drastically increase as blacks moved north (factory jobs), willing to work for lower wages than most whites. General Information: Missouri Compromise of 1820 <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Dred Scott Case <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Southern agrarian based economy <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Abolitionist- against the institution of slavery <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Apologist- in support of the instiitution of slavery
 * Cash crop plantations relied on free labor to maximize profits **
 * Increase in wages and job opportunities for all white Americans**