Pro Slavery Ideology in the 19th Century

Mark Jones

PowerPoint Introduction

WebQuest for 11th and 12th Grade

Slavery in the South During the mid 1800’s

many in the North were beginning to demand an end to slavery in the United States.

Slave-owners in the South were forced to begin developing arguments for why slavery should continue.

What is Pro Slavery Ideology? The beliefs and ideas by Southerners that

are the basis for slavery’s legitimacy.

Most Common Arguments The most commonly used

justifications for slavery were that the slaves were racially inferior, it was justified by the Bible, science showed them to be a separate species of humans, and that great civilizations such as the Greeks and Romans had slaves. Some even claimed that blacks were happier as slaves.

Northern Response Many abolitionist in the North did not

accept these arguments and wanted to know more about the basis for these arguments.

Report on the Pro Slavery Ideologies You and your classmates

will become Northern newspaper reports.

Report on the evidence being used to present each argument for slavery.

You will use the internet to find these arguments and the basis behind them.