Slavery position with writers

The issue of slavery in the nineteenth century produced an overwhelming issue in society. There were some writers that favored slavery and then there were some that did not favor slavery. In favor of slavery were William Gillmore Simms, and Caroline Hentz. Those opposed to slavery were Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry David Thoreau, and Herman Melville. All of these writers presented their views of slavery in the their literary works.

William Simms was a supporter of slavery and this evident in his novel, “Woodcraft.” This novel takes place in the south during the closing of the Revolutionary War. Simms was born in Charleston, South Carolina, so he was raised on the souths’ position of pro-slavery. In Simms novel Woodcraft, he states, “ Exhaustion not wisdom, or a better state of feeling, was the secret of the peace which was finally concluded between the two nations (America and Great Britain), and of which, South Carolina, and Charleston in particular, was eagerly expecting the benefits. (Simms 35) Great Britain had spent most of the Revolutionary War occupying Charleston and the soldiers would stay at the peoples’ home with out the homeowners consent. This angered many townspeople in Charleston and many other townspeople throughout the south. Since the war was coming to an end the people of Charleston could have their city and homes again. Also meaning plantation owners and slaver owners could resume back to their work of the land, which was the major source of economy in the south. During the Revolutionary War, Great Britain was re-stealing the slaves of slave owners in the south. In “Woodcraft,” it is stated, “ South Carolina had already lost twenty-five thousand slaves, which British philanthropy had transferred from the rice-fields of Carolina to the sugar estates of the West India Islands; and there were yet other thousands waiting to be similarly transported.” (Simms 35,36) Great Britain was taking slaves from America to use for their sugar estates. Many slave owners were very angry with the British for this, but in hindsight the slave owners had done the same thing when they would take slaves from their families or would split slaves families up. Carolina Hentz was also a supporter of slavery. She believed that the slaves were treated well and that they were best suited as slaves. Hentz uses examples in her novel, “The Planter’s Northern Bride,” as to how well treated slaves were.