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AP U.S. History: A Positive Good 1 Views


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Description:

John Calhoun's argument that slavery was "a positive good" meant that he thought that


Transcript

00:02

Oh Okay Pushers Third of three on John Calhoun the

00:10

humanist John Calhoun's argument that slavery was a positive good

00:13

meant that he thought that what Well let's see As

00:20

the abolitionist movement grew in the North the pro slavery

00:23

movement kept a strong grip in the South As the

00:25

debate Gruen intensified the controversy turned into a deeper issue

00:28

related to the distinct Southern identity against that of the

00:31

North The Southern pro slavery movement began arguing that slavery

00:34

was good for society based on economic moral and theological

00:38

grounds Slavery economically benefited the South because it kept its

00:41

economy balanced and strong It was considered morally acceptable because

00:45

well as slave owners like Calhoun liked argue slaves benefited

00:49

from slavery as the system improved them not only physically

00:53

but morally and intellectually important Biblical figures such as Abraham

00:56

were slaveholders which the South used as a religious argument

00:59

for slavery Because while clearly all that New Testament stuff

01:03

and old was about loving your neighbor as you love

01:05

yourself it didn't count when it came to slaves Okay

01:08

so that's See anyway is the right answer Slavery was

01:11

good for society based on economic moral and ideological grounds

01:14

Right Loser role Well before the controversy about slavery between

01:16

South and North intensified during the first half of the

01:19

nineteenth century some Southern politicians thought that slavery was a

01:22

necessary evil solely based on economic grounds so get rid

01:25

of be However the argument expanded to morality and religion

01:28

as tensions grew like they just kind of made up

01:31

arguments to prove a point Conversely it was northern abolitionist

01:34

who thought that slavery was wrong for society based on

01:37

economic moral and theological crowns They argued that slavery weakened

01:40

the South's economy by making it overly dependent on cotton

01:44

Finally the fact that Calhoun referred to slavery as a

01:46

positive good is enough to tell us that well he

01:48

didn't think there was anything wrong with it at all

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