Getting Right with Slavery

Moral doubts about slavery persisted among Southern whites throughout the antebellum period, and planters were never convinced of the full loyalty to slavery of non-slaveholders. Largely in response to the moral indictment of slavery by Northern abolitionists, evangelical ministers launched a concerted movement to show that slavery was ordained by God in the Bible and was part of a divine plan entrusting Southerners with the care and moral uplift of an inferior race unfit to live in freedom. As revealed by slave testimony, the disciplinary measures of slaveholders, and the separation by sale of slave families, efforts to reform slavery by the Christian principle of stewardship were unsuccessful. Sporadic programs in the Upper South to gradually end the institution by colonizing slaves in Africa reached dead ends. Although often troubled by the responsibilities of managing slaves, plantation mistresses readily resorted to violence to enforce their will and placed their positions of wealth and privilege above any antislavery sentiments. Intimidation and expulsion faced dissenters who openly attacked slavery. Whatever doubts whites entertained, they closed ranks against any outside interference with slavery.