Indentured Servitude Quotes
This is one of the major reasons that Slavery was so hard to end in the South. At the time, the dollar value of the Southern slaves was greater than the value of all the land, factories, inventory, and capital equipment of the South. Slaves were not only capital, they were the largest component of Southern capital and Southern wealth. There were numerous ideas of paying slave owners for the freedom of their slaves, and if this was done, it would have been far less expensive in money alone than the Civil War cost. However, the Southern leadership, like Fitzhugh, were totally intransient with culture and customs—indeed the Southern concept of manhood—was dependent in Slavery. The result was that no compensation was paid to slave owners and the South was impoverished as a result of its capital loss and it would not recover for 150 years.
While England was strongly opposed to slavery, the English textile industry benefited from importing American Southern cotton. So many in England were supportive of the Confederacy.
Southern secession and the Civil War This is one of the major quotations with which historians rebut the revisionist view that the Civil War was about States’ Rights or other economic factors.
During the same year England outlawed the slave trade and English citizens and ships from participating in it.
The perception of the necessity of slavery was evident very early in the South.
Many English slaves had been brought into Ireland by kidnappers and purchasers of English children as described in the quotation by Girald of Wales. The Irish kept them in bondage. In 1171 English invasions of Ireland appeared to be succeeding and the Irish clerics decided that they were being punished by God for the slavery. The edict was issued with the force of law. For insight into the common practice of kidnapping slaves in England, see Council of Westminster.
He was the last Pope to hold temporal power. This defense of slavery was all the more surprising because America was fighting about the issue in the Civil War and nations like England had abolished slavery. 99 years later Vatican II altered Pius IX’s statement forever. See {612715}.
This was one of the first opportunities that Congress had to legislate on the slavery issue. The Southerners were adamantly opposed to this article although by previous agreement the issue of slavery in the original 13 states could not be interfered with. Majority sentiment of the nation at the time was opposed to extending slavery into the territories. The second part of the quotation shows however, that the slavery in the Southern States would not be undermined by allowing fugitive slaves to escape into the territories, so there was a compromise of sorts that pushed the inevitable clash over slavery off. Compromise and struggle ensued for 70 years until it finally erupted as the Civil War.
The Parliament was debating the reaction to the Stamp Act by the American Colonies. One of the members, reflecting a majority view, asked sarcastically when the American Colonies had been emancipated so that they could make their own independent decisions. Pitt then hit this one out of the park by reversing the question.
In this case, the Pope was obeyed on the issue of slavery. However, Papal injunctions against slavery have not always had the desired effect. See {617632}
