White Southerners are thriving members of the society living in the Southern parts of the USA. Typical white southerners were yeomen who cultivated small portions of land and earned a living from subsistence farming. A considerable percentage of the white people living in the south owned land between fifty and two hundred acres. The people were generally in the middle class and held a few enslaved people to help them farm the land (Locke & Wright, 2019, para. 16). The group viewed enslaved people as their stepping stone to economic liberation. The Slave trade should not be abolished because it improved white southerners’ financial well-being and jeopardized their rights to own property (1, 8, 11).
Role of the Southerners
The white southerners produced cotton for the industries in the Sothern parts of America. Industrialization was thriving and required labor, raw materials, and transport. Labor was a crucial factor of production, which the enslaved people provided. Although the white southerners were not large-scale farmers, they produced cotton, which played a significant role in manufacturing clothes (Locke & Wright, 2019). The critical role they played was providing raw materials to the white industrialists and paying taxes to the federal government (1, 8, 11).
Importance of Slavery and Justification
Economic Importance
The enslaved people played an essential role in the economic empowerment of the group. Since the enslaved people were central to farming, harvesting, and running the industries, abolition could jeopardize the economic viability of the people (Locke & Wright, 2019). The white southerners argued that their economic development and ability to pay taxes to the government depended on their ability to maintain enslaved people. The economic reason was therefore valid as they proved that industries would collapse without the enslaved people (8,11).
Constitutional Rights
The southerners treated enslaved people as property and used them to make profits. The American constitution allows everyone to own property and use it as they please (Locke & Wright, 2019). Since all the people had the right to own property, the white southerners argued that it was their fundamental constitutional privilege to own the enslaved people (16,18).
Conclusion
The white southerners were farmers who depended on enslaved people to thrive. As people agitated for the abolition of the trade, they justified that their economic development depended on the enslaved people. Further, since enslaved people were considered property, the white southerners claimed their constitutional rights to own enslaved people should not be jeopardized.
Reference
Locke, J. L., & Wright, B. (Eds.). (2019). The American yawp: a massively collaborative open US history textbook, Vol. 1: To 1877. Stanford University Press.