Pro-slavery Southern whites used religious texts like The Bible to argue that God condoned slavery, as well as pseudoscientific works like "Types of Mankind" to promote the idea of racial superiority. They also referenced historical and legal justifications for slavery, such as the concept of states' rights and property rights.
mountain people
You have to understand the war had VERY LITTLE to do with slavery.
slavery
Southern pro-slavery whites argued that slavery was a necessary economic institution that was vital to the Southern way of life. They believed that slavery was justified by the Bible and that it was beneficial for both slaves and slave owners. Additionally, they argued that African Americans were inferior and better off under the care of white slave owners.
Poor southern whites fought to defend many things. These people fought to keep their land, their rights, and often their workers.
The Southern whites were FOR slavery and the Northern whites were AGAINST slavery. So using the word patriots isn't correct because Americans are all considered patriots.
Some whites in the South justified slavery on the basis of religion (using biblical passages such as the so-called "curse of Ham" or the passage in Philemon where Paul seemingly supports slavery) to say "God has put whites in power over blacks; therefore, slavery is OK." Others justified slavery for economic reasons: "It's cheap to use slaves' free labor; the economy will collapse if we have to pay them." Others used fallacious scientific reasons (such as "whites have bigger skulls than blacks, so slavery is OK because whites must be smarter"). Others used cultural reasons ("slavery is part of the Southern way of life"). Others were just racist ("blacks are degraded animals and inferior to us; we can do whatever we want to them"). Many used a combination of several of these reasons.
Slavery began in Virginia and Maryland on tobacco farms. Slavery became more and more important as farms became bigger. That divided the Southern whites into two classes.
This is a prompt you need to answer. We don't do homework and your teacher doesn't want our answer, but yours.
There was great variation in the reasons for fighting. As generalisations though, some of the prime reasons that poor whites fought were to defned their homeland and to maintain the Southern society that they were familiar with.
Yes, slavery had a profound impact on Southern whites, shaping their beliefs about race, power, and privilege. The system of slavery normalized exploitation and dehumanization, leading to deeply ingrained attitudes of superiority and entitlement among many white Southerners. This legacy continues to influence social dynamics and racial disparities in the region today.
Whites