Disclaimer: This is a university project, I in no way support slavery. It is, of course, condemned and damned forever in my eyes.
Speaking as William Harper:
The majority of the world condemns slavery and her practices as evil, that argument seems to have been nailed, shut… closed.
This is the public consensus of nations, many of whom reap the rewards - equal or exceeding that of the slave master - behind those same nailed doors. You see, when the first four states eradicated slavery from their respective provinces, (PA, MA, CT, RI) the exportation we see today, of cotton from these United States to England was yet to see it’s true profits… So Seventeen years later, the time states like NY and NJ lagged behind freeing their slaves, exportation to England had reached 38,900,000 pounds annually. This in many ways, is thanks to the bright flame the cotton gin has brought to our economy. Ironically, it is often those same lawmakers and businessmen, preaching their heavy hearts on this matter, who still find a way to profit off the very same slaves today! Ladies and gentlemen, those who sit opposed to me wouldn’t have a penny to stand on, pushing their overreaching, ideological, federalist agenda, were it not for our Southern success! Blind hypocrisy at its finest.
What this room refuses to recognize, is that slavery is not this cruelty foreign to the order of the world, no, it is the foundation of our ordered way of life. Throughout all time, the attainment of labor, be it willing or not, is the key on which civilization can actually be turned. What we in the South have avoided… is the chaos, economic downturn, and volatile nature found in the metropolis. This is painfully obvious in the streets of New York City, as it is in England. No, no... in the South, we are saved by our trade, as repulsive as you claim to find it.
Some have, and will say onto us, “But all men are born free, and equal”, to that I ask, when we are born are we not helpless, desperate and needing the assistance of others? It is not alone we grow, but through work.
I say unto all of you, when you purchase not an ounce of cotton, nor grain, nor fruits from our plantations, then you may claim this high ground upon which you now stand. Then I may hear what you have to say. For I see through your hypocrisy and lies, for slavery is not only the price of southern luxury, but the engine on which we advance as a nation.
WHAT I LEARNED
Clearly the issue over slavery was not as cut and dry as I had originally thought. Going into this project, I would have assumed that any who opposed abolition were to be fueled by purely racial narratives, given the harsh backlash during constructionism. While indeed, the majority of arguments for slavery were racially driven, it was surprising to hear many call it a necessary evil to fit some future ends.
Obviously, my character William Harper was quite racist, yet most of his arguments that I found lay under a logic based in economics. This was also true in the person representing Andrew Jackson, and their argument. Economic ties are painful to dissolve. When 75% of the world cotton crop from the United States of America, abolition would certainly create an upset in the national, and even global economy.
Let's use today as an example, China has some of the most egregious human rights abuses in the world today, yet we still buy 557.9 billion dollars worth from them every year. (See USTR.gov) Do we morally support their secret police, concentration camps or censorship? No. But do we economically? Of course. A complete boycott on Chinese goods would undeniably be the just thing to do, but it would mean sacrificing nearly all of the manufactured goods we have grown to take for granted today, all for a people we have never met.
This is a similar situation to that which was happening in the 1860's. Most Americans found the practice of slavery evil, yet the fruits of their labor indispensable, factory owners and the everyday buyer alike. It seems the nature of humanity to ignore evil, if it means satisfaction in the present, and perhaps history shall repeat itself again in China. The question remains, what Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Appeal, or underground railroad will arise in our modern day?
By listening to the different speeches my classmates wrote, it was clear to me that abolitionist ideas had already well permeated life at the time of debate, and even some of those who supported the continuation of slavery, like Thomas Jefferson, did so with almost a queasy feeling in their words. But in order to keep reaping the rewards of slavery, they tried to excuse the evil.
Truly, the days of slavery were numbered as soon as the declaration of independence was signed, and it's a shame it couldn't have met its demise sooner. To me one question remains - Is it nature to excuse evil, or to fight it?
WORKS CITED
Harper, William. “Cotton Is King, and pro-Slavery Arguments : Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartwright, on This ...” HathiTrust, babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000032236835.
Harper, William. “Memoir of Slavery, Read before the Society for the Advancement of Learning, of South Carolina, at Its Annual Meeting at Columbia, 1837.” HathiTrust, babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t9k35wm7p.
“The People's Republic of China.” United States Trade Representative, ustr.gov/countries-regions/china-mongolia-taiwan/peoples-republic-china.
“William Harper (South Carolina).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Harper_(South_Carolina).
Comments
Post a Comment