The Issue of Slavery

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Good Evening Gentleman. I have come here tonight, as a commissioner from the state of Texas, to discuss with you South Carolina’s recent secession from the Union. The issue of slavery, spearheaded by Abraham Lincoln, is destroying this country; and frankly, I do not believe that President Lincoln has the constitutional power to end slavery. While discussing South Carolina’s secession I hope to convince you that the state of Texas should follow suit. The issue of slavery is one that is tearing our country apart. The Northerners believe that slavery is wrong and have already abolished slavery. Slavery cannot exist in the North, but the South cannot exist without slavery. They fail to comprehend is the important value slavery has in our economy. We in the South survive through an agrarian economy, using slaves as the labor system for our cash crops including tobacco, sugar, rice and cotton. Thanks to Eli Whitney the creation of the cotton gin cotton has been made commercially. Southern cotton accounts for forty percent of all American exports; that is a significant percentage. We help make up the American economy, and without the utilization of slavery this would never be possible. Yet the Northern people have moved towards industrialization in an effort to move away from Southern domination of exports. The majority of Northerners and abolitionists are too focused on the negativity of slavery and neglect to look at the positive aspects. For one, we as slave-owners provide a home for our plantation slaves. Without us there would be no land for them to live on, in some cases slave-owners even procure cottages for their slaves and their families to live in. Slave-owners are not tyrants, we recognize the valuable assets of sl... ... middle of paper ... ... Carolina. Speech of Hon. D.C. De Jarnette, of Virginia, in the House of representatives (10 January 1861), 2. Dr. Erin Black, “From Colonies to Nation: The American Revolution,” HIS271Y Lecture, University of Toronto, 5 October 2011. De Jarnette, 2. Abraham Lincoln, Address at Cooper Institute (27 February 1860), in Abraham Lincoln, Slavery and the Civil War, Ed. Michael Johnson (Boston: Bedford Books: 2009), 54. Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Joshua F. Speed (24 August 1855), in Abraham Lincoln, Slavery and the Civil War, 21. Abraham Lincoln, Letter to John A. Gilmer (15 December 1860), in Abraham Lincoln, Slavery and the Civil War, 61. Dr. Erin Black, “Territorial Expansions and the Origins of the Civil War,” HIS271Y Lecture, University of Toronto, 16 November 2011. Ibid. Ibid. De Jarnette, 3. Ibid, 3. Ibid, 1. Ibid, 5. Ibid, 1.

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