Hey, I had been reading multiple books on American slavery recently (Fredrick Douglas, Solomon Northup and Booker T Washinton's autobiographies, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Uncle Tom's Cabin). While it seems clear to me that the vast majority of the white population of the south was generally fine with the institution at its height, I was wondering how 'deep' the support was.
Specifically, imagine the following types of beliefs about slavery:
1) "Slavery is good and desirable for our country to have. I will die to protect it."
2) "Slavery is bad but it's a neccessary evil."
3) "I don't care about slavery, but it's no business of some Yankee telling us not to do it."
4) "Slavery is wrong and must be stopped."
Of the white southern population at the time, what would the division of support have been like with the above beliefs? Ie 20%-40%-30%-10%? Or something like that?
Specifically, imagine the following types of beliefs about slavery:
1) "Slavery is good and desirable for our country to have. I will die to protect it."
2) "Slavery is bad but it's a neccessary evil."
3) "I don't care about slavery, but it's no business of some Yankee telling us not to do it."
4) "Slavery is wrong and must be stopped."
Of the white southern population at the time, what would the division of support have been like with the above beliefs? Ie 20%-40%-30%-10%? Or something like that?