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Mock Trial-Pro Slavery

For this assignment we jumped into the shoes of a historically pro-slavery historical figure to understand their point of view. My historical figure of choice was John C Calhoun.




My name is John C Calhoun, I was born to a wealthy Scottish-Irish family in Charleston South Carolina in 1782. My political career first began after being elected to the state legislature. Soon after that I was elected to the House of Representatives, serving 4 terms before becoming President James Monroe’s secretary of war then ultimately becoming vice president to President John Quincy Adams and then to President Andrew Jackson and lastly serving a seat in senate. I like to think of myself as the voice of the old south and I will continue to fight for the south against these horrid abolitionists. I have always been one to defend the rights of the states as I believe that the federal government overreaches its power sometimes, like with all those pesky tariffs thrown toward my dear state of South Carolina. It is for this reason that I wrote and published “Exposition and Protest” otherwise known as the doctrine of nullification stating that states should have the right to reject federal laws that can be seen as unconstitutional and to even go as far as to secede from the Union. I believe in the right to own slaves; I own many myself as did my ancestors on our large plantations and we needed to protect both our states’ rights and slavery. Slavery made the South the South and without it we would crumble. Some might call me one of the most influential leaders of the South during the antebellum era, this is because I defended the institution, the continuation and expansion of slavery with every fiber of my being. As I have said before the institution of slavery is for the greater good, we cannot and should not have to survive without it, it is the backbone of our great southern society. As I said during my Speech on Abolition Petitions, 1837, “Abolition and the Union cannot coexist. . . We of the South will not, cannot, surrender our institutions. To maintain the existing relations between the two races, inhabiting that section of the Union, is indispensable to the peace and happiness of both. It cannot be subverted without drenching the country in blood, and extirpating [removing or exiling] one or the other of the races. Be it good or bad, [slavery] has grown up with our society and institutions, and is so interwoven with them that to destroy it would be to destroy us as a people. But let me not be understood as admitting, even by implication, that the existing relations between the two races in the slaveholding states is an evil: far otherwise; I hold it to be a good, as it has thus far proved itself to be to both…I appeal to facts. Never before has the black race of central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually . . .” In my opinion it is perfectly normal is a civilized society to have a labor class, if Europe can have its servants, we can have our slaves. It is for the greater good of us and them and without the abolitionist allowing the institution of slavery we might as well not be one nation.


Sources:

History.com Editors. “John C. Calhoun.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Nov. 2009, https://www.history.com/topics/us-politics/john-c-calhoun.

“John C. Calhoun, Speech on Abolition Petitions, 1837.” Bill of Rights Institute, https://billofrightsinstitute.org/activities/john-c-calhoun-speech-on-abolition-petitions-1837.

“John C. Calhoun: A Featured Biography.” U.S. Senate: John C. Calhoun: A Featured Biography, 15 Sept. 2022, https://www.senate.gov/senators/FeaturedBios/Featured_Bio_Calhoun.htm.



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