In Defence of Slavery

It's not often you come accross this sort of argument. This piece is straight from the 19th century south. Found in a book titled, A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention, for Proposing Amendments to the Constitution of the United States by Lucius Eugene Chittenden, 1863.

This excerpt comes from chapter, "Remarks of Mr. Seddon" pp 94-96:

Gentlemen, we hold that as the soul is to man, so is honor
to a nation. Honor is the soul of nations. Without it, no nation can
have a place in history or among the nations. We of Virginia
must have in this Confederation the position of an equal. Equal
in dignity--equal in right. In the Congress of the States of this
Union, we insist on this as our right. We must have the same
protection as the States of the North. Otherwise we are a dishonored
people. We might live for a time otherwise, but we
should be unworthy a place among the nations. We hold property,
yes, our property in slaves, as rightful and as honorable as any
property to be found in the broad expanse between ocean and ocean.

We feel that in the existence, the perpetuity, the protection
of the African race, we have a mission to perform, and not a mission
only, but a right and a duty.

Upon this subject I have a word to say in all seriousness.
Think not, gentlemen of the North, that we propose to deceive
or mislead you. We of the South are earnest in what we say.
This is a question which we answer to ourselves. We hold that
these colored barbarians have been withdrawn from a country of
native barbarism, and under the benignant influence of a Christian
rule, of a Christian civilization, have been elevated, yes, elevated
to a standing and position which they could never have otherwise
secured. In respect to the colored race we challenge comparison
with San Domingo, with the freed regions of Jamaica,
with those who have been transferred to the coast of Africa. Ask
the travellers who have visited those distant shores to contrast the
condition of the colored people there with that of those on our
Southern plantations, and they will give you but one answer--they
will say, we have redeemed and kept well our high and our
holy trust.

But this is a matter with our own consciences, not with yours.
We appeal to you to leave it where it is, to leave the colored
people where they are. Why should you undertake to interfere
with the policy of a neighboring State concerning a people about
which you know nothing? We feel, we know that we have done
that race no wrong. Deep into the Southern heart has this feeling
penetrated. For scores of years we have been laboring earnestly
in our mission. In all this time we have contributed far
more to the greatness of the North than to our own. Yet all this
time we have been assailed, attacked, vilified and defamed, by
the people of the North, from the cradle to the grave, and you
have educated your children to believe us monsters of brutality,
lust and iniquity.

I tell you, that from the time the abolition societies aroused
the latent anti-slavery spirit of the North until now, nothing but
evil has come of the excitement and discussion. It has spread a
horrid influence far and wide; it has for years distilled, and is
now distilling its poison and venom all over the land.

It was under English, yes, British, Anglo-Saxon instigation
that it first commenced. By this instigation it has been fed,
been given life, continuity and power. Think you the English
authors of this instigation had any purpose but to disrupt this
Republic? They professed to regard slavery as an evil and a
sin. The fruits of their action were first manifested in religious
societies--first in the largest churches in New England, in the
Presbyterian or Congregational churches, next the Methodist,
then the Baptist, and finally, the venom spread so widely, its
influence separated other churches. What has the moral influence
of this power done? It has made the abstraction of our
slaves a virtue. Societies have been formed for that very purpose,
inciting their members and others, by the vilest motives, to
steal our slaves, to destroy our property.

Nor have they been sufficiently modest to cloak their designs
under the veil of secrecy. These people advocated their pernicious
doctrines openly in your leading cities, even within the consecrated
walls of Fanueil Hall.

Openly among your people, in the very light of day, these
efforts were carried on for the destruction of your sister States.
There has not been an effort of the law nor an exertion of public
opinion to put them down.

These efforts culminated in the actual invasion of my own old
honored State [Virginia], and your people thought they were
doing GOD service in signing a petition to our authorities for
mercy to John Brown and his ruffian invaders of our soil. And
when these men met the just reward of their crime, there was,
throughout the North, in your meetings and your public prints,
expressions of sympathy for these robbers and murderers. They
were looked upon as the victims of oppression, as martyrs to
a holy and righteous cause. Gentlemen, consider these things,
and tell me, is there not today reason for suspicion; on the part
of the South for grave apprehension?

But the half is yet to be told; I have looked only at the
moral aspect of the question.