History of the United States I / Unit 11 USH1 1523 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Slavery as a Positive Good
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The idea
Southern defenders increasingly argued that slavery generated wealth and left White men free to exercise their true talents.
In practice
The claim that enslaved people were better off exposed to Christianity as enslaved than living as free heathens in Africa.
Where people slip
The defence shifts here from necessary evil to positive good, and Unit 12 shows where that argument goes.
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